Synopses & Reviews
The thirteen stories of
Dialogues in Paradise are eloquent in a way the West associates with both the modern and the ancient: the dark oracles of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the paranoid mystery of Kafka, the moving stream of Woolf. The work of Can Xue (a pseudonym of Changsa writer Deng Xiao-hua) renews our consciousness of the long tradition of the irrational in our literature, where dreams and reality constitute one territory, its borders open, the passage back and forth barely discernible. She fuses lyrical purity with the darkest visions of the grotesque and the result is a unique literary experience.
Review
"A work of considerable talent, which answers the current interest in China's artists and the spirit of her people." --
BooklistReview
"No other contemporary Chinese writer I know has explored the nightmarish landscapes of the tormented mind as consistently and persistently as Can Xue. . . ."
—Kam-ming Wong, Cornell University
Synopsis
The thirteen stories of Dialogues in Paradise are eloquent in a way the West associates with both the modern and the ancient: the dark oracles of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the paranoid mystery of Kafka, the moving stream of Woolf.
About the Author
Can Xue (the pseudonym of Deng Xiao-hua) lives in Changsha, Hunan Province, People's Republic of China.
Dialogues in Paradise is the first collection of her work in English.
Ronald R. Janssen teaches contemporary literature and criticism at Hofstra University.
Jian Zhang is a faculty member in the English Department at East China Normal University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword: A Summer Day in the Beautiful South
The Gloomy Mood of Ah Mei on a Sunny Day
Raindrops in the Crevice between the Tiles
Soap Bubbles in the Dirty Water
The Fog
Hut on the Mountain
Dream of the Yellow Chrysanthemum
The Ox
In the Wilderness
The Things That Happened to Me in That World
The Date
Skylight
The Instant When the Cuckoo Sings
Dialogues in Paradise
Afterword: Can Xue's "Attacks of Madness"