Customer Reviews

The Ginseng Hunter [With Headphones]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This novel explores, at first, the psyche and existence of a middle aged Ginseng Hunter is western China, at the North Korean border. He wanders through silent and fragrant mountain forest in pursuit of his elusive and rare quarry, with no company other than the memories of a solitary and painful life.

Gradually, like the nearby river, the tale flows into the land of political oppression, as dead bodies float down the river, and a child steals corn from his garden. He visits a whorehouse and a new woman there speaks of the "Dear Leader" across the border, the terrible punishments for disloyalty, the death for stealing a grain of rice.

In the tradition of Steinbeck, Talarigo speaks of the good and evil of everyday life- of the choices we make, of the personal as politics and of politics as personal. In choosing a distant and obscure cataclysm of human madness, he seems to say to us- look in a mirror. The secrets of your heart, silent as a forest and as eternal as the changing seasons, are no mystery. In the final scene, a garden is planted without the farmer knowing who will eat of it. Nothing ends here and there is no closure, but that is true of life as well.
This book is about what makes us human and how we survive our own darkness.

This book was a quick read for me. I couldn't put it down. We don't know anyone's name, but you don't even realize it because the images are written so well you feel like you are with him. We have a Chinese man who lives on his family farm and hunts for ginseng for his living. He meets several different escapees from North Korea and tries to help them.

Very interesting to read about and you will not want to put this book down! I didn't.

In this small-sized book, Talarigo paints pictures with his words. It is a sad, beautiful, haunting tale that touches political, environmental and humanistic implications. It is a tale of how the life of any person can be affected in ways beyond his or her control, yet how small acts of human kindness are what make us human. He has helped to educate readers about life in North Korea and thus has given a voice to the voiceless. An excellent read.

In solitude, a man hunts ginseng. Following the tradition of his father, he hunts according to ancient customs. Like his father, communism changes his life as the effects of politics enter into a world seemingly isolated from the changes in the country. During a trip to Yanji, the man hears the tales of a North Korean prostitute. An almost fairy-tale like story reveals unimaginable poverty and inhumanity, a story that gives way to other stories of the concrete deprivation and struggles of individuals on the border of the Tumen river. As the story unfolds, the politics of the times reach into the isolated territory of his home, affecting several individuals whose lives suddenly become intertwined with his, challenging him in his thoughts and challenging him to act.

In THE GINSENG HUNTER, Jeff Talarigo presents a stark contrast between the ancient almost mystical traditions of ginseng hunting and the politics of communism in the lives of his characters. Unspeakable poverty influences the actions of his characters, along the border and extending even to the most remote areas of the land and the human heart. Through vivid imagery, THE GINSENG HUNTER details the desperation of those on the edge of survival and the political, ideological ideas which exasperate the situation. As in his earlier book, THE PEARL DIVER, Jeff Talarigo brings out the humanity of his characters in a time of extreme cruelty. THE GINSENG HUNTER is not a political treatise but rather a fictional exploration of the topic and therein lies its beauty. Through well-chosen images, Jeff Talarigo's vision centers on those moments in his characters' lives that reveal the crux of the situation in the interrelationship between characters and as one generation passes to another, from father to son. As time and politics unfold, father and son and are different yet interconnected, not only in details of the ginseng on the mountain but the political effects on their lives.

In style, THE GINSENG HUNTER is reminiscent of THE PEARL DIVER. Jeff Talarigo's prose has an elegance in its beautiful, emotional simplicity and precisely connected images. The life and journey of the ginseng hunter is not only an individual and a place but also an inner journey. In its simplicity and directness, Jeff Talarigo's prose is at once stark and poetic. In his newest work, Jeff Talarigo creates a more subtle effect as he narrows his focus and chooses fewer images to highlight the story. THE PEARL DIVER hits a reader with a direct force whereas THE GINSENG HUNTER's fictional beauty evolves more gently. Quite simply, both works are magnificent but those readers who loved THE PEARL DIVER will find a special pleasure in the discovery of the evolution of this author's style. Without sacrificing those elements so special in THE PEARL DIVER, Jeff Talarigo incorporates them while refining his writing, reducing the life story of the ginseng hunter to its most essential transformative and poetic moments in response to the politics of his world. Rather than simply churning out a carbon copy of his previous work, the author approaches this new tale with new stylistic insights that match the subject matter. THE GINSENG HUNTER is a riveting tale of humanity seen in the face of the inhumanity of communism --- and a work of art.

COURTESY OF BOOK ILLUMINATIONS

I found this novel after reading the authors first one, The Pearl Diver. It is such a delicately written novel that leaves you thinking long after you have put it down.

This was indeed a quick read. Little more than 3-hrs, if that much. However, unlike other reviewers, I found the tale depressing and even a bit frightening. It is the story of a peasant who eeks out a bare living in the north of China, just across the river from Korea. We first meet him as a child but then the story jumps to a 56 yr old man who has lived alone for perhaps decades. He reads no books. He talks to few people. He has never been to school. All he knows is what is necessary to survive through the year. Faced with a new situation, he does not know what to do. He has no inner compass, such as might have been developed through a less isolated life. He does not behave well. This is no hero. This is a lonely, isolated man stumbling through some unexpectedly sticky situations. Desperation breeds unheeding cruelty. That is true on either side of the river, whether it be the Korean or the Chinese side. One other thing: this novel follows the show-don't-tell method. However, it takes place in such a foreign culture that I would have appreciated a little more explanation!

I enjoyed the afternoon I spent reading this short novel, but I can't say as I enjoyed the writing or the story as much as I had hoped.

The story itself, while interesting, seems devised by the author simply as a vessel for quotes, ideas, interviews, and anecdotes that he picked up during his travels in NE China. The bits and pieces he has collected are at times amusing, disturbing, and worthy of cocktail party small-talk, but they don't have the impact that they might have had as supporting parts, rather than the star player in the story. The characters lack the development and personal touch that make the reader care, and so the weight of the facts never really sinks in as intended.

Simply put, it's heartbreaking and unforgettable. The book haunts you and puts a human face on North Korea that will stay with you long after you read it...Tragic situations are hard to read about, but the author's delicate touch renders this one in a way you can put down...

In its upper reaches in Northeast Asia, the Tumen River forms the border between China and North Korea. Many refugees defecting from North Korea during the 1990's famine cross over the Tumen.

North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong II assures his starving people, in propaganda typical of a repressive regime, that other nations suffer worse conditions.

In his second novel, Jeff Talarigo (The Pearl Diver, 2004) narrates these troubled times.

The story begins with the ginseng hunter recalling the day the sparrows died. In an ill-advised scheme, Chairman Mao orders that the sparrows, which are devouring the wheat crop, be killed. Nature soon takes its revenge. Swarms of locusts, no longer held in check by the sparrows, ravage the crops, causing a famine in which millions of Chinese starve.

The protagonist, now a grown man, has a small farm near the Chinese city of Tumen and gathers ginseng roots in the nearby mountains. Once a month he travels to Yanji, the provincial capital, where he visits a brothel. There he meets a young courtesan, a refugee from North Korea, who tells him of horrific conditions in her homeland.

Describing a desperate struggle for survival, Talarigo's spare, graceful and beautiful prose juxtaposes cruelty and compassion. The author brilliantly elevates his story above the poignant to the heartbreaking.

But hardly faceless. As in The Pearl Diver, Jeff Talarigo does more with less. This short but powerful glimpse, back and forth across a river at North Korea's brutal communist regime, reveals characters stripped of everything but their will to live. Most don't. Talarigo's spare, evocative prose, however, forces us to escape with them, sit on a bed in a Chinese brothel with them, and halt as they're shot by one of their own trying to cross a river for food. We may never get a more crystallized, precise view of the plight of North Koreans.