Green River Daydreams: A Novel [Hardcover]

Liu Heng (Author), Heng Liu (Author), Howard Goldblatt (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2001

Liu Heng is one of contemporary China's most acclaimed and masterful writers, and with Green River Daydreams he has written "of the struggle between Western ideas and the old political system, all of it set against a supplely portrayed mountain and river landscape" (NPR's All Things Considered). Ears, the slave of a wealthy landowning family in the early twentieth century, bears witness to its spectacular corruption and decline. The family's prodigal son, Guanghan, returns from four years of study in Europe with a French engineer friend and a dream of starting a collectively run match factory, but has little interest in the bride his family has arranged for him. Her beauty and good heart have not gone unnoticed by Ears, however -- nor has her growing closeness to the Frenchman. Meanwhile, clashes between the Qing imperialists and the resistance are quickly becoming bloody -- and Guanghan's iconoclastic ideas do not remain free of suspicion for long. "[B]oth a coming-of-age story and a chronicle of the clash between forbidden love and duty." -- Publishers Weekly "A richly detailed realistic saga" -- Kirkus Reviews "A masterly blending of character and story in a compelling historical setting.... Highly recommended." -- Tom Cooper, Library Journal (starred review)

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The frank, unprettified voice of Heng's narrator immediately imparts vigor and urgency to this dramatic story of tragic love set in politically turbulent, early 20th-century China. A wealthy family's slave, called Ears, spins out his tale in old age, recalling his life in the Cao household in the Green River valley in 1908. The Caos' second son, Guanghan, has just returned from university studies in France along with "the foreigner" (soon nicknamed Big Road), an engineer who is to help Guanghan establish a match factory. Guanghan's modern ideas are at odds with those of his stern elder brother and his aging parents, who cannot understand Guanghan's disinterest in his upcoming arranged marriage. When beautiful bride Yunan arrives, the balance in the Cao household is further upset. Ears who, at 17, is subject to the longings of any teenager sees and learns much in his stealthy comings and goings around the Cao family compound. Guanghan devotes himself to new ideas his match factory will be a workers' "commune" and his secret experiments with explosives and long absences from the family home are stranger still. As Yunan and Big Road draw closer together, political strife looms, and Ears realizes that even in his lowly position, he may know too much to be safe or to save those he loves. Finely crafted, with a sure rendering of time and place, this novel is both a coming-of-age story and a chronicle of the clash between forbidden love and duty. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. (July)Forecast: Well known among China's young emergent authors (his first novel, Jou Dou, was made into a film in 1989, and he also wrote the novella upon which the movie Red Sorghum is based), Liu Heng will establish a literary presence with this novel.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this new work, Liu's second to be translated after the highly acclaimed Black Snow, a talkative centenarian known only as Ears relates his story to an unnamed auditor. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Ears was a domestic slave to the rich and influential Cao family, whose members are so self-involved that they scarcely know how the others spend their days. Only Ears talks regularly to them all and knows that each is heading toward a tragic fate. Though the older brother is fanatical about protecting the family's place in society, the younger brother, Guanghan, becomes involved in the nascent rebellion against the Qing dynasty. When Guanghan rejects his bride from an arranged marriage, she takes solace in the arms of her husband's business associate, a move that accelerates the impending tragedy. Ears remains faithful: he plays the hero at several key junctures, but in the end he cannot avert multiple disasters. The result is a masterly blending of character and story in a compelling historical setting. Goldblatt's rich and evocative translation strives to remain true to the nuances of the original Chinese. Highly recommended for most fiction collections. Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1ST edition (May 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802116906
• ISBN-13: 978-0802116901
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,296,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow. It will definitely pique your interest!, December 9, 2008

By 

Y. Ling (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Green River Daydreams: A Novel (Paperback)

I've read some contemporary Chinese literature before, so I thought I had a good idea of what Green River Daydreams would be (regarding ambiance, tone, atmosphere...that sort of thing). I was both pleasantly AND unpleasantly surprised to find out that I was way off base with my presumptions! This is such an engaging tale...and one that gets you engaged right off the bat with some lewd, crude and visceral thoughts! The main character (Ears) is this wonderful dichotomy of good and bad, crude and refined, worldly and naive...but it is his undying loyalty, above all, that both speaks to and confounds the reader. Even though I am Chinese and am very familiar with the culture and concepts prevalent in this novel, I was still left slightly disturbed at the level of the Ears' loyalty and devotion to the Cao family.
The plot is a bit slow and lagging in some areas, but keep reading, and I guarantee it will build into something extraordinary. Even if you think you're sure of what will happen next, something will surprised you at every turn, at every important event throughout the book. I've never read any of Liu Heng's other works, but his imagination and originality certainly are at play in this novel.
This is also not a novel for the faint-hearted. The lewdness and crudeness does not rely on strong, literal descriptions...but rather on the strong IMPLICATIONS of these descriptions. A lot of the time (especially regarding the sexual imagery/thoughts throughout the novel), most of the imagery is left up to the reader's imagination, using only the little, coy morsels that the authors throws out. And then at other times, the author describes something so perfectly that you can see, smell, hear or taste just what you have just read about.
To be perfectly honest, I was left somewhat..."shaken" would be too strong a word, as would "disturbed"...after finishing the novel. "Unsettled" would be the best I can come up with at this moment. It is a very unsettling novel, especially in the last quarter. I guarantee that when you finish the last sentence, you will sit back and contemplate what you just read and try to make sense of it, especially in regards to whether or not you liked the novel. And I guarantee you that you will change your view of the novel at least once!
If you're interested in an unorthodox and different novel-reading experience, I highly recommend Green River Daydreams. I have only read it once so far, and finished it months ago, but once I start thinking about it, I simply cannot just let it go as a passing thought. It evokes this visceral reaction in me months after I put the book down, and I'm still not quite sure if this was one of the best novels I've read in my life, or just different enough to change my expectations of all literature. I'll give it 5 stars just based on originality, expectations, emotion and engagement. It cannot be denied that this novel is unusual, unexpected, fascinating and thought-provoking. Pick it up and read for yourself! I would love to hear others' takes on it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Green River Daydreams, January 3, 2003

By 

Belle Yang "www.belleyang.com" (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green River Daydreams: A Novel (Paperback)

"Green River Daydreams" is a book one cannot feel indifferent about. I loved it--I hated it--I loved it. It made me angry. It was beautiful, down right hilarious, ugly, enthralling, disturbing. It was hard to put down. It is even harder to forget. As a Chinese-American writer, I was entirely mesmerized by the language, the smoothness of the translation by Howard Goldblatt; I felt I was reading the original Chinese. I envy Liu Heng's deftness of pen; the author depicts characters with a few concentrated strokes like the Chinese xie-i painters of old.

For the China-phile, for the lover of literature, for those who simply want a great story, Liu Heng's "Green River Day Dreams" is not to be missed.