Katherine [Import] [Paperback]

Anchee Min (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Riverhead Books (1995)
• ISBN-10: 0241136229
• ISBN-13: 978-0241136225
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A teacher brings a new way of thinking to her students., February 12, 2000

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Katherine (Paperback)

This little gem of a book kept me up awake until I finished every word. It is the story of the impact that an American teacher, Katherine, makes on a class of students in the 1980s, after the death of Mao and during a time of change. The teacher brings new ways of thinking to her students. And danger.

The language is simple, evocative and clear. The voice is fresh. Simple sentences opened worlds of understanding for me. The main character, Zebra, is in her late twenties. She is confused with the changes around her. She was brought up to worship communism and Chairman Mao, was sent to a labor camp as a teenager, now works in a factory and lives in an overcrowded apartment with her parents and brother. Life is harsh for her and those around her. And then the American teacher, with her western ways comes into their life.

Concepts such as travel, choice, moving from place to place are introduced. The students learn to talk about how they feel about things, which is something that Chinese people just don't do. There's a intertwining love story including obsession and deception. And all of this is under the watchful eyes of the government, who control every aspect of Chinese life and signs of individualism are looked at with suspicion.

We, Americans, walk around with our eyes closed too. We can't quite understand what we're dealing with in China. I've read articles about this. But through this simple novel of a sparse 254 pages, I began to understand.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, troubling view of Americans and Chinese, March 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Katherine (Paperback)

Reading "Katherine" is a painful experience, in many ways. The American reader (especially one who is teaching English in another country) might be disturbed by the recognition of himself/herself in the title character, a "freewheeling," independent, optimistic, "typical" (?) American woman who seems painfully incapable of the subtlety necessary for life in post-Cultural Revolutionary China. Katherine dresses strangely, seeming to flaunt her physical characteristics, speaks her mind without thinking about the political and cultural situation in which she finds herself, and even has an affair with one of her students--all the while claiming that she was probably Chinese in another life.

The Chinese reader might be disturbed by what could be interpreted as Zebra's (the main Chinese character's) hatred of her own people. Indeed, Zebra's statements about her fellow Chinese often reminded me of Bo Yang's _The Ugly Chinaman_ in their overwhelming negativity. China after the Cultural Revolution is portrayed as a place where no one trusts anyone else, and where selfishness has replaced politeness and concern for the welfare of others. Zebra, however, might be forgiven for overemphasizing China's problems to Katherine, who seems to wander through China with the illusion that, as an American, she is "above" any of the customs or protocols that have evolved as a result of both the 5000 years of Chinese history and everything that has happened after 1949.

Without giving away the ending, I might say that the book reminded me of _Life and Death in Shanghai_ by Nien Chung, whose author, in some ways, seems a combination of the characteristics of Katherine and Zebra, and who also shares the fates of those characters. _Katherine_ is an absorbing book (I read it in one night, something I rarely do), but also a sad experience.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing. Chinese culture and Western ideas meet head on, November 18, 2000

By 

Brian Pressman (Honolulu, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Katherine (Paperback)

As a current student of Asian Studies in College, I decided to read Katherine after enjoying Anchee Min's memoir: Red Azalea. I started reading Katherine on a Saturday afternoon and finished it Sunday night. The book was simply amazing. Having taught English in China myself, the head on collision of Western ideas and post Cultural Revolution Chinese life in Katherine not only stirred up memories from my Beijing classroom but also produced a powerful and fascinating novel. Min artfully balances the personal rebirth of a Chinese woman with the struggles of a civilization still healing from the scars of the Cultural Revolution. Anyone interested in China and its interaction with western ideas and culture will most certainly love this book as much as I did. Although I read Katherine on my own and neglected to complete my assigned coursework to do so, my only wish after finishing the book was that the story didn¡¯t have to end.