- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; (Reissue) edition (21 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007170394
- ISBN-13: 978-0007170395
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 582,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather:
‘Lyrical and plain, descriptively compelling and as brilliantly ordinary as Chekhov’s stories of the 1890s, the six stories in this collection beautifully demonstrate Gao’s proposition that fiction is ‘the actualisation of language and not the imitation of reality.’ His writing, here as elsewhere, is simple and profound.’ Daily Telegraph
‘Xingjian is an author who can communicate depths of feeling through snatches of conversation and single, well-chosen images . . . Achieves the understated, expressive concision that defines China's singular contribution to modern literature ’ Guardian
‘Like the expansive, ink-washed abstract paintings reproduced in his recently published monograph, Return to Painting, Xingjian's stories brim with sensual clarity that has as its counterpoint an irresistible psychological confusion.’ January Magazine
Praise for Gao Xingjian:
'Brilliant and poetic, keen and original … Gao's ambition is to transcend the specifics of time and place, to write a meditation on literature itself and its ability to reveal the raging, brutal, brilliant beast that is mankind itself … [His work] burns with a powerfully individualistic fire of intelligence and depth of feeling.' New York Times
Guardian
'A showcase of Gao's literary talents.... an author who can communicate depths of feeling through snatches of conversation and images...'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
We were deliriously happy: delirious with the hope, infatuation, tenderness, and warmth that go with a honeymoon. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
We were deliriously happy: delirious with the hope, infatuation, tenderness, and warmth that go with a honeymoon. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gao Xinjian’s book is a wistful collection of writing. It is not so much a collection of short stories as a series of long prose poems. Each essay has no narrative structure, with beginning, middle and end. Instead the author describes scenes from ordinary lives, mundane but perhaps important moments for the characters involved. There are a honeymooning couple visiting a deserted temple, a day in the park, a swimmer with cramp, among other vignettes. In each case, the characters are glimpsed interacting with little apparent rhyme or reason as to why the story has chosen to access them at that particular moment of their day over any others. Their dialogue is often mundane and banal. The reader is consequently not being invited into a story, but rather simply to act as a voyeur into unremarkable moments in other people’s lives.
Although Gao is a beautiful writer, I have to admit that I just couldn’t get stuck in to this collection. The style doesn’t lend itself to involved reading, and my attention wandered easily. Though I often enjoy stories with no real narrative, they usually have some obvious theme or purpose. I struggled to see one in much Gao’s book. Nevertheless, he is obviously a skilled writer, and I would like to read more of his work, but, beyond the wistfulness of the style, I couldn’t find anything here to hold my attention. They were good as stand-alone prose poems, but it wasn’t the Nobel prize-winning stuff I had hoped for.
Although Gao is a beautiful writer, I have to admit that I just couldn’t get stuck in to this collection. The style doesn’t lend itself to involved reading, and my attention wandered easily. Though I often enjoy stories with no real narrative, they usually have some obvious theme or purpose. I struggled to see one in much Gao’s book. Nevertheless, he is obviously a skilled writer, and I would like to read more of his work, but, beyond the wistfulness of the style, I couldn’t find anything here to hold my attention. They were good as stand-alone prose poems, but it wasn’t the Nobel prize-winning stuff I had hoped for.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gao Xingjian uses small events occurring in daily life such as the visit of a decaying temple by a young couple, a road accident involving a father and a his young child, a swimmer suffering from a sudden pain or conversation in a park to deal with topics which he cherishes: the lost innocence of youth, the quest for an environment ruined by modern architecture or the nostalgia for a lost tenderness that only a father or grandfather could provide. Often there is no plot in those short stories, but a simple succession of images, impressions, dreams and thoughts. An author well worth discovering.
Format:Paperback
This book of short stories is not for you if you are looking for a racy plot or for that matter any real plot at all.
While very little happens I was caught up by the wonderfully precise prose where things are described in unexpected ways and all things are confusing. I was often baffled by what I was reading and puzzled as to its meaning but it was a delightful not frustrating experience. Xingjian depicts the mundane as if it was magical and mysterious and so forces you to consider everything.
The story "In an instant" still confuses me after a good deal of thought and several readings but it is captivating with its colour and sound, the title work is hauntingly sad but strangely warm and "in the park" is a suspense filled masterpiece of what is not said.
While very little happens I was caught up by the wonderfully precise prose where things are described in unexpected ways and all things are confusing. I was often baffled by what I was reading and puzzled as to its meaning but it was a delightful not frustrating experience. Xingjian depicts the mundane as if it was magical and mysterious and so forces you to consider everything.
The story "In an instant" still confuses me after a good deal of thought and several readings but it is captivating with its colour and sound, the title work is hauntingly sad but strangely warm and "in the park" is a suspense filled masterpiece of what is not said.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
