Hunger Pb [Paperback]

Lan Samantha Chang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 1999

Lan Samantha Chang is the daughter of Chinese immigrants who was born and brought up in America. Her stories represent her search for the truth of her identity, the struggle between two cultures. Here the Chinese principles of fate, the spirit world and the importance of family contrast with the logic of American thought, the possibility of success and achievement for oneself. In her novella, 'Hunger', Tian accepts he will never be a great violinist, but his acceptance of his fate eats away at his soul and his family's. In the story 'Water Names', a grandmother tells elliptical folk-tales set against the mighty torrent of the Changjiang and reminds her granddaughters of their river folk ancestors as they fidget away one dry summer in the Midwest. Lan Samantha Chang's gentle unpeeling of layers of identity and culture to reveal the true self is done with a rare and delicate beauty.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Elegant. . . . A delicately calculated balance sheet of the losses and gains of immigrants whose lives are stretched between two radically different cultures.” (The New York Times Book Review )

“A work of gorgeous, enduring prose.” (Washington Post )

“Impeccable. . . . Delicately specific tales of Chinese immigrant life . . . capturing the universal struggles of the human heart. . . . So luminous is this collection, the result is something like a pearl.” (San Diego Union-Tribune ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Lan Samantha Chang was born in Wisconsin in 1966. A graduate of the Kennedy School of Public Government, she has since embarked on a writing career, attending the Iowa School of Writing and teaching at Stanford. Her stories have appeared in the best of the American Literary magazines such as The Atlantic, and in top collections such as Best American Short Stories. Inheritance is her first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Paperbacks (October 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753808145
• ISBN-13: 978-0753808146
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,653,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intimate stories with resonant themes, November 14, 2001

By 

Jayne MacManus (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunger (Mass Market Paperback)

"Hunger" is the opening novella and anchor for this collection of short stories. Chang is a graceful author with just the right touch of sensitivity and insight into the lives of Chinese immigrants in America. The special talent here is in the individual attention Chang gives to each family, each story. This is not a social history portrayal of the masses. While the family structures are seemingly uniform (husband and wife and one or two children) and the range of vocations unsurprising (restaurant workers, music prodigies, math and tech specialists), the characters are more emotionally dimensional than one would suspect.

*** The theme of hunger is the dramatic thread running through all the stories -- hunger for personal expression, parental acceptance or love, or independence. The immigrant experience is a poignant paradox of being closely tied to one's family or home and yet feeling the fierce need to pull away in order to succeed. The ultimate hunger becomes not one extreme or the other, but in wanting both polar opposites to work at once. It is an impossible hunger to satisfy and yet continually churning at the core of every character.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *~ i DeEpLy aDmiRe LaN SaMaNthA cHanG's WoRk ~*, May 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Hunger (Mass Market Paperback)

Two words...Thank you! I myself am a Chinese-American girl and strive to be a writer. I have lately become more and more interested in looking into the work of Chinese-American authors, and found her book in the bookstore while trying to think of every Chinese last name I could! The book I found was the last copy they had, but I have no regrets in buying it! It's a book full of stories that really and truly capture what it's like for Chinese immigrants to come to America and find Americanized everything. To be honest, everyone loves the famous author Amy Tan...but I think Chang outdoes her in many aspects!

Her style for one is beyond Tan's. While Amy Tan writes with primitive simpleness (basically, a way that any person can write) Chang writes intelligently and intellectually. She is someone who not only wrote this story for the surface meaning of it, but there is hidden depth and philosophy.

What i liked the most, is that she didn't use the same basic Chinese stereotypes that every Chinese-American author usually uses such as the "ah"s at the end of every name, the overdone superstition of ghosts, etc. She reveals knowledge in her writing and is the first author who I have seen reveal the Chinese culture for what it REALLY is. I hope she writes more books, because I would buy them all in a heartbeat! Thank you so much. I strive to do what she has done for me! Enjoy every page of what she has written with the utmost admiration and respect.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, February 18, 2000

By 

"rcpva" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunger (Mass Market Paperback)

These stories are wonderful--highly recommended. Chang's sentences are gorgeous, and her observations are moving. Her characters are well-rounded and complicated, and their plights are sympathetic--the kind of characters that stay with you. The stories are a fine balance of subtlety and utter stark clarity.