Turbulence: A Novel (Pegasus Prize for Literature) - Softcover

Pingwa, Jia

3.56

45 ratings by Goodreads

9780802139726: Turbulence: A Novel (Pegasus Prize for Literature)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802139728 ISBN 13: 9780802139726

Publisher: Grove Press, 2003

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In this dazzling, earthy novel -- winner of the prestigious Pegasus Prize for Literature -- Jia Pingwa presents an unforgettable chronicle of rural China, a world at once utterly alien and uncannily familiar. Called "impressive and revealing" (Kirkus Reviews), Turbulence follows the lives of two peasants, Golden Dog and Water Girl, through the post-Mao years and sets their star-crossed love for each other against the political upheavals of China itself. Pitted against the bureaucracy that hamstrings modern China, Golden Dog is an idealistic reporter not afraid to lash out at the abuses and corruption of the rival Tian and Gong clans. As he winds through a fascinating cast of revolutionary cadres, bureaucrats, fortune-tellers, blacksmiths, farmers, and artisans, Golden Dog, however, suffers a series of setbacks. Despite his love for the saintly Water Girl, the two seem destined to be kept apart by the vicissitudes of politics and culture -- she twice widowed and he pressured into an engagement with the seductive Yingying and, racked by guilt, turning at times to the lovely Shi Hua for solace. Part epic story, part love story, part political parable, Turbulence places the reader in a world where the I Ching exists alongside The Thoughts of Chairman Mao. Yet the sheer humanity of the novel transcends both cultural and political differences and makes it stunningly resonant to our own culture. "A rare, richly detailed, and insightful account of life in a Chinese village ... With earthy language and bawdy humor." -- Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor

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Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

From Kirkus Reviews:

Jia's US debut novel, awarded the 1991 Pegasus Prize, is a subtle, sinuous tale set in rural China in the 1980's--an epic of plain river people coping with incessant government meddling in their daily affairs. Existence along the Zhou River alternates between the mundane and the magical in Jia's experienced hands (twenty-four books, three of them novels) as the inhabitants of the village of Stream of Wandering Spirits and nearby White Rock Stockade spring vibrantly to life. Torn between the manipulations of rival Tian and Gong clans, both infinitely corruptible, the villagers languish until a capable young man decides to grab the bullies by the horns. Golden Dog, enthusiastic and daring, returns home from the army and organizes a profitable riverboat trade, which the powers-that-be quickly adopt as their own shipping brigade. Undaunted, Golden Dog deftly takes advantage of their weaknesses until chosen to become a journalist in Zhou City, a position he uses to great effect in exposing rampant graft and ineptitude in the bureaucracy. The hazards of his profession and his own self-doubt take their toll, however, as his beloved Water Girl marries another when circumstances and political pressure force them apart. Longing brings him back to his old friends as a local correspondent, but his reformist zeal earns him imprisonment and torture. When finally released, he goes back to the river with new plans and dreams, Water Girl at his side, but their future is as uncertain and muddy as a river flood. Country habits and haunting imagery greatly enrich this moral saga of a China at the crossroads, caught between old ways and new. Long-winded, perhaps, but impressive and revealing all the same. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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