Peach Blossom Paradise

<i>“Every person’s heart is an island, trapped by water, sequestered from the world.”</i><br /><br />Chinese village, turn of the 20th century. One day Xiumi’s mad father disappears and some time later a very strange man arrives to live with them and calls himself an uncle and her mother’s relation. Naked body of a local village prostitute is found strangled in the field and Xiumi has strange dreams. There's a mysterious six fingered man and a golden cicada in a box.<br /><br />This is a fast-paced historical fiction. I’m positive that I missed a lot of references to Chinese literature (although I was very proud of myself when he referenced a scene from the <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/139874.The_Golden_Days__The_Story_of_the_Stone___1_" title="The Golden Days (The Story of the Stone, #1) by Cáo Xuěqín" rel="noopener">The Story of the Stone</a> that I understood!) but it was always engaging and a page-turner. A lot happens, we have kidnappings, murders, revolts, revolutions, betrayals. Story is full of incredible women and beautiful and unique friendships between them.<br />Just unputdownable.<br />This is a new (and first?) english translation of a contemporary Chinese writer’s most famous work. And recommendation from me!

This gorgeous peach-colored volume from NYRB classics is a beautiful addition to my Chinese literature collection. A startling and wonderful story centering on an interesting and atypical female protagonist.<br /><br />It concocts a poignant tragedy from the personal life lessons endured by one girl who laments her fate within an unstable society. It also is the first book in a trilogy. While the themes are not as heavy-handed as in Mo Yan, they are clearly defined, and never cloud the storytelling. Women's roles, and cultural revolution are discussed in the book through satire and allegory. The reading experience is not subsumed by politics, but this is not a tame novel. It follows Xiumi, whose body and life do not belong to her. With great insight and resolve she figures out how to get by in a family who does not place any value in her. This is later proven when her circumstances change and she is dispossessed. The imagery, and the violence incited by lust, treachery, greed, hate, and revenge, combine to paint a memorable portrait of a time and place and its people. Add to this a murder mystery and a drama of desperate emotions.<br /><br />Led by dreams of paradise, with indirect suggestion of subliminal propaganda, within the search for utopia, Xiumi's and later, Little Thing's ideals are disenfranchised. Among their survival instincts is the struggle for female independence. Upon her eventual captivity, starvation, and return, she witnesses miracles and carries symbols of her life. I can only presume that these lives left dangling will be taken up in the next book.<br /><br />This quirky and unpredictable family chronicle is rich in detail, suffused with luscious atmosphere, folkloric charm, and masterful storytelling. Its scope is epic, but its tone is intimate, engrossing, and comic, combining naturalism with historical flavor. <br /><br />As Xiumi grows from 'bumpkin' roots, the subtle and overt violence leaking into her peaceful existence infringes on her innocence and freedom. The horrors lying in wait for her determine how she will respond to later rapid changes in fortune. In a worldview comprised of china alone, where other countries are as mysterious as fantasy planets, the product of modernization comes at the expense of leaving old traditions to die, trampling on 5000 years of history, while being the only option for the nation to progress. The flavors and scents and ephemeral pleasures, the nostalgic tone, within a country with growing pains, the fear and paralysis due to injustice and uncertainty, amid stunted quibblers losing hope in their backwater, who long for a better life, is tremendously moving. <br /><br />Her life changes in Huajiashe midway through the tale are fascinating as well, as is Xiumi's gradual metamorphosis into The Principle. She acquires more influence. Yet the novel never expands beyond the small settings of each narrative part. It deals in the microcosmic scale, while tackling grand topics. A triumph.

This book feels epic yet intimate in scope. The action moves along at a good clip &amp;, in a way, seems like a soap opera with each chapter having new action or some event. I enjoyed it, the mix of fiction/allegory/history. I think my only (very minor) quibble was that you had a male author writing a female main character &amp; I sometimes had an indistinct &amp; fleeting impression of noticing that.

I absolutely loved Ge Fei's "The Invisibility Cloak" and was expecting a lot from this book. Unfortunately, I can't say it fully lived up to my expectations. Yes, it was an interesting read but overall it felt disjointed and some parts seemed pointless. Also, I did not find any of the chuckle-inducing dry humour that made The Invisibility Cloak special. [Final Rating: 3.5*]

I read a review of this that made me interested in it--that, and the time period, and the fact that I liked <i>The Red Detachment of Women</i> so much. <br /><br />But I stalled out on this right away, as it starts with the main character getting her period for the first time. I don't know. I just ... think I'm not interested in stories whose entrance to the issue of being a woman starts with that. If I'm honest, it feels cliched to me. It doesn't help for me that Ge Fei is a man. I understand that writing is (or can/should be) an act of radical empathy, of putting yourself in different shoes and skin, but ... well, here I am. Not caring for it.<br /><br />I may try again another time.

This is a really tough one to rate. It took me a long time to finish, at times it felt like it was 800 pages long and that I'll never get to the end. It's in no way a reflection on the novel itself because I thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part. I was probably gonna go through this prolonged rut and it just happened that this was going to be the book that will be blamed for it. Oh well, hopefully I'm back on track for this year. <br /><br />On a side note, I really loved both of the Ge Fei books I've read so far, but this one couldn't be more different than The Invisibility Cloak. I do think I will read the rest of the Jiangnan trilogy if and when it becomes available in English.

<blockquote>"She was no revolutionary, nor was she her father's successor on his hunt for a Peach Blossom Paradise or a young woman staring out at the sea from a wooden house in Yokohama; she was a baby, dozing in a cradle that rocked its way down a rural avenue in the early morning. It was painful for her to think that by the time she realized she could begin her life anew from within the depths of her memory, that life had already concluded."</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Peach Blossom Paradise is the first book in Ge Fei's Jiangnan Trilogy, translated from Chinese by Canaan Morse. It's a modern retelling of the eponymous myth, set in rural China in the first half of the 20th Century, although most of the action is set between the failed Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 and the Republican Revolution of 1911, which Morse calls a calm before the storm. Ge Fei blurs fiction and history by using infrequent footnotes that imply factuality, building a novel of surprising depth and acuity.<br /><br />It is divided into four sections, the first three of equal length form the main arc while the last is a shorter section that deals with the aftermath. As such, there is a change in tone and this part seems unnecessary and drawn out. There are also time jumps between sections that work to move the story but also leave gaps, the one between 2nd and 3rd especially. Ge Fei's prose is serene and subtly lush, his characters deeply realized, the pacing even. He explores utopian ideals and the violent cracks in their execution.<br /><br /><br /><br /><i>(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)</i>

Thisssssssss book! *insert crying face emoji*

Ge Fei is a master.

What an incredible book. A new favorite, easy. A historical novel (part 1 of a historical trilogy) that transcends mere plot intrigue, though there's plenty (and that's coming from a reader who rarely finds plot intriguing), making itself remarkably comfortable in the deepest fogs of revolutionary fervor and, importantly, beyond that emotional moment, around the corner where the real work of changing minds and culture is done slowly over many brutal years. At one point, Ge Fei describes revolution as a “magical tower,” where its adherents, as we see in the novel, might toil thanklessly for years, within its walls, ever just outside its gaze, alienating friends, family, community members, gone “crazy,” as in the case of both Xiumi and her father, who disappears in the novel’s opening scene never to return. I'm tiptoeing around plot because I can't bear to start a synopsis, so much happens here and it's all perfectly carried out. I beg: please do not let the particularities of the moment in Chinese history put you off. There is nothing you can't approach here. The whole thing is an absolute joy to read, this vaporous, fleeting epic fountain of well-meaning and best-made plans. Mist on your skin. Canaan Morse has done an excellent job translating a book that, despite taking place in the late 19th century and early 20th century feels contemporary, bright and modern, the language and style itself looking forward and more-than-hoping for the best.