- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Headline Review (5 July 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747270872
- ISBN-13: 978-0747270874
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 147,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'All the fears, friendships, insecurities and passions of a coming-of-age tale are here, but this is a unique story told wih a sweetness and restraint that is both beguiling and illuminating' Woman's Journal 'Fascinating and very sympathetically presented' Independent 'Written in English, STARTLING MOON is a vivid story of political turmoil and furtive romance, and is well worth reading by ayone interested in what it's like growing up in modern China' -- Highbury and Islington Express 20011102
Product Description
When six-year-old Taotao is sent by her mother to live with her grandparents, her whole world seems to have fallen apart. Only in later years does she learn of her mother's secret pain - her own father's fall from grace in the Cultural Revolution - and come to understand the sacrifice she has made for her daughter. STARTLING MOON looks back to a past of rich but suppressed tradition, and forward to a very different China. Above all, it is the story of Taotao's quest to know her own heart: of the joys and responsibilities of friendship, the pain of first love, and the blossoming of a passion which will lead her to risk all that she holds dear.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent - must read!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Startling Moon (Paperback)
I could fill lines and lines with gushing praise.. but I won't. I'll just say that this is a fabulous book. I've never read any other book of this genre, but I heard a review on the radio which rated it so highly, I thought "give it a go" and I'm glad I did. It absorbed me from the first to the last. In fact, I wish the book had been so much longer as I now crave more of this wonderfully descriptive prose, and of course to know what happens to Liu in later years.The pages really do come alive and I felt as a close confidante to the author as she describes her life from age 4 until she marries in her twenties. The life at home with her grandmother and parents, and later her aunt is so personal and well told. Her school years under the watchful eye of the classroom informant and party-member teachers give amazing insight into life in China. Her inadverent involvement with democracy activists while at University, and her feelings as she is allocated a job which she knows she will do from the day she graduates until she retires, until that is... (now read it yourself).
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it on the plane, train, beach, in bed...but read it!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Startling Moon (Paperback)
The depth and richness of the author's rendition of ordinary things in an extraordinary time gives a fabulous insight into what it must have been like as a child growing up in the cultural revolution. If you have an interest in other cultures, or if you like a novel that sucks you in and pushes you on quietly but remorselessly to the end, then you will like this book. Despite having been a child myself at about the same time as the central figure in the book, the different experience of childhood portrayed is staggering. There is one important exception which allows the reader to become fully involved with the characters, and that is that the qualities of emotion described seemed to me pretty universal. Maybe the feel of your grandmothers skirt on your face as you watch her cooking is the same, whether the kitchen is in England or China, the meal chinese dumplings or Victoria sponge. Suffice to say, parts of this book made me cry, which was a bit of a surprise to me! Before reading the book, the cultural revolution was just some political 'thing' I'd vaguely read about in history books. Liu Hong, through her simply stated, enjoyable prose manages somehow to capure the feel of the time, what it was actually like for an ordinary person to live through it -you can somehow smell the smells in this book! I also learnt a lot from the book; if you have always lived in a democracy, this is an interesting insight into what it is like to grow up in a place where to be naughty, for a child or an adult, is really inconceivable(and, of course, an insight into how you go about getting around that sad state of affairs!) This one would be an excellent holiday read - not too heavy going, but with a decent bit of substance - and a bit of love intrigue, too! Well, I enjoyed it, anyway - give it a go!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging,
By A Customer
This review is from: Startling Moon (Paperback)
A very well written book that is very engaging, especially the child's eye view of life in China. Achieves a difficult balancing act of describing, in an interesting way, the life of her family while maintaining a non-adult's perspective.You learn a lot about life in Communist China without losing sense of the humanity of the people. A lovely read.
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