|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HELP | |
|
  $12.95 List price:
HARDCOVER, USED
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Wolf Totemby Jiang Rong
Awards2007 Man Asian Literary Prize
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:An epic Chinese tale in the vein of The Last Emperor, Wolf Totem depicts the dying culture of the Mongols — the ancestors of the Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized the world — and the parallel extinction of the animal they believe to be sacred: the fierce and otherworldly Mongolian wolf. Published under a pen name, Wolf Totem was a phenomenon in China, breaking all sales records there and earning the distinction of being the second most read book after Mao's little red book. There has been much international excitement too — to date, rights have been sold in thirteen countries. Wolf Totem is set in 1960s China — the time of the Great Leap Forward, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Searching for spirituality, Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic Mongols — a proud, brave, and ancient race of people who coexist in perfect harmony with their unspeakably beautiful but cruel natural surroundings. Their philosophy of maintaining a balance with nature is the ground stone of their religion, a kind of cult of the wolf. The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for survival — a life-and-death dance that has gone on between them for thousands of years. The Mongols believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also to worship and to learn from. Chen's own encounters with the otherworldly wolves awake a latent primitive instinct in him, and his fascination with them blossoms into obsession, then reverence. After many years, the peace is shattered with the arrival of Chen's kinfolk, Han Chinese, sent from the cities to bring modernity to the grasslands. They immediately launch a campaign to exterminate the wolves, sending the balance that has been maintained with religious dedication for thousands of years into a spiral leading to extinction — first the wolves, then the Mongol culture, finally the land. As a result of the eradication of the wolves, rats become a plague and wild sheep graze until the meadows turn to dust. Mongolian dust storms glide over Beijing, sometimes blocking out the moon. Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem is a stinging social commentary on the dangers of China's over-accelerated economic growth as well as a fascinating immersion into the heart of Chinese culture. Review:"A publishing sensation in China, this novel wraps an ecological warning and political indictment around the story of Chen Zhen, a Beijing student sent during the 1960s Cultural Revolution to live as a shepherd among the herdsmen of the Olonbulang, a grassland on the Inner Mongolia steppes. Chen Zhen is fascinated by the herdsmen, descendants of Genghis Khan, and by the grassland's wolves, with whom the herdsmen live in uneasy harmony. When Mao's government orders the mass execution of the wolves to make way for farming collectives run by Chen Zhen's own people, the Han Chinese, he makes for a somewhat passive hero. Except for Bilgee, the wise old herdsman, and Director Bao, the face of the Communist government in the Olonbulang, the novel's secondary characters make little impression. The wolf packs, however, are vividly and beautifully described. As Chen Zhen helplessly witnesses the consequences of the order, he risks the enmity of both the herdsmen and the state officials by capturing a wolf cub and lovingly raising it as his own wolf totem. Jiang Rong writes reverently about life on the steppes in a manner that recalls Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:A Chinese publishing phenomenon has hit American bookshelves in the form of Jiang Rong's "Wolf Totem." This novel has sold more copies in China than any other book ever published, with the exception of Mao's "Little Red Book" and is the inaugural winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize. Many have wondered how "Wolf Totem" — which takes place in Inner Mongolia during the height of the Cultural Revolution... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:"While Wolf Totem could be enjoyed as just a simple, beautifully told tale, you might also finish it with fresh, singular insight into the complexities and subtleties of a country and culture that most of us don't — but had better begin to — understand." Very Short List Review:"[A] naturalistic, gripping, and deeply affecting novel reminding us how badly we humans have managed our world. Highly recommended." Library Journal Review:"Jiang's story is a careful, quiet one of cultures in collision, capably brought into unadorned English by translator Goldblatt." Kirkus Reviews About the AuthorJiang Rong was born in Jiangsu in 1946. His father's job saw the family move to Beijing in 1957, and Jiang entered the Central Academy of Fine Art in 1967. His education cut short by events in China, the twenty-one-year-old Jiang volunteered to work in Inner Mongolia's East Ujimqin Banner in 1967, where he lived and labored with the native nomads for the next eleven years of his life. He took with him two cases filled with Chinese translations of Western literary classics, and spent years immersed in personal studies of Mongolian history, culture, and tradition. A growing fascination for the mythologies surrounding the wolves of the grasslands inspired him to learn all he could about them and he adopted and raised an orphaned wolf cub. In 1978 he returned to Beijing, continuing his education at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences one year later. Jiang worked as an academic until his retirement in 2006. Wolf Totem is a fictional account of life in the 1970s that draws on Jiang's personal experience of the grasslands of China's border region. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment: | ||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Don't Miss
