Synopses & Reviews
Brilliant and original,
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia,
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose.
"Immortality," winner of the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for new writers, tells the story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator and so finds a calling to immortality. In "The Princess of Nebraska," a man and a woman who were both in love with a young actor in China meet again in America and try to reconcile the lost love with their new lives.
"After a Life" illuminates the vagaries of marriage, parenthood, and gender, unfolding the story of a couple who keep a daughter hidden from the world. And in "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," in which a man visits America for the first time to see his recently divorced daughter, only to discover that all is not as it seems, Li boldly explores the effects of communism on language, faith, and an entire people, underlining transformation in its many meanings and incarnations.
These and other daring stories form a mesmerizing tapestry of revelatory fiction by an unforgettable writer.
Review
"Each of these stories takes you to a different place, and each feels fresh, wise and alive, creating a fascinating, horrifying and heartbreaking picture of life in a country where the past never goes away." Rodney Welch, The Washington Post
Review
"[A] superb debut....Self-effacing maternal love, extreme societal pressures, betrayal, and peculiar convictions all make for provocative and memorable fiction that is simultaneously culturally specific and universal." Booklist
Review
"A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is not only an outstanding first book of fiction by a young writer, it is a literary event that transcends language. Li's stories express an inexpressible joy." Providence Journal
Review
"Li writes as though English were her native tongue....Her sentences not only move some fine stories along, they aso dramatize a serious understanding of contemporary life and a deeply felt response to the rigors and vagaries of drinking from modernity's sometimes bitter cup." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"With great economy, Li achieves a delicate balance between the comic and the tragic. She's a writer who knows the value of words and doesn't waste them....This book may be one of the year's most auspicious debuts." San Jose Mercury News
Review
"With great tenderness, tact, and humor, these stories open a world that is culturally remote from us, and at the same time as humanly intimate as if its people were our own family and their thoughts the thoughts that lie nearest our own hearts." Marilynne Robinson, author of Gilead and Housekeeping
Review
"This extraordinary collection reminds you just how big a short story can be. With wit, ruthlessness, and an understanding of human nature its grand follies, private sorrows, and petty dreams A Thousand Years of Good Prayers may remind you of Flannery O'Connor, though Li is an original. Read this book and marvel at a writer both at the height of her powers and at the start of a brilliant career." Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Giant's House
Review
"Yiyun Li is a true storyteller. Great stories offer us the details of life on the riverbanks: birth, family, dinner, and love, all framing the powerful flow of terror, death, political change, the river itself. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is as grand an epic and as tenderly private as a reader could wish." Amy Bloom, author of Come to Me
Review
"Some ungainly plotting, but the author is one to watch." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Li's writing and storytelling present the reader with the information necessary to understand each character, but leave stories open-ended enough that readers find much left to ponder." Christian Science Monitor
Synopsis
In this collection of stories, the author illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate.
About the Author
Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing and attended Peking University. She came to the United States in 1996 to study medicine and started writing two years later. After receiving a master's degree in immunology from the University of Iowa, she attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received an MFA. Li is a recipient of the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for new writers. Her stories have been published in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Glimmer Train, and Prospect. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and their two sons.
Reading Group Guide
1.
For “Extra”Consider Granny Lin and Kang. How is each an “extra”?
What explains their bond?
2. For “Extra”
Granny Lin cherishes her time with Kang as her “brief
love story” (p. 22). What does she mean by this? Granny Lin
also believes that “to love someone is to want to please him,
even when one is not able to” (p. 19). How does this hold
true in her friendship with Kang? How would you describe
what it means to truly love someone?
3. For “Extra”
Why does Granny Lin think the truth is futile? Discuss
her reaction to Old Tangs death, and to Kangs disappearance.
Why doesnt Granny defend herself? How do other
characters in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers view the possibility
for achieving truth and justice?
4. For “After A Life”
Why did Jians birth turn the Suss relationship cold, although
the challenge of Beibeis condition did not? Why
were Mr. and Mrs. Su able to share misfortune, but not happiness?
( 215 )
5. For “After A Life”
Imagine the questions that Mr. Su never gathered the
courage to ask Mrs. Su. What might he want to ask her, in
his deepest heart? Why does he decide, instead, that “things
unsaid had better remain so” (p. 40)?
6. For “After A Life”
Discuss the theme of shame in “After a Life,” and the
many forms it takes in both the Su and Fong families. Does
anyone overcome the weight of shame? Who deals with it
best? Who hides it and remains imprisoned by it? What
roles do honor and dishonor play throughout the entire collection
of stories?
7. For “Immortality”
Describe the identity of the narrator of “Immortality.”
What atmosphere does this collective voice create?
8. For “Immortality”
Assess the complex attitudes of the people toward the
Great Papas, the dictator, and the impersonator. How are
these cultural figures—heroes and villains both—“larger
than the universe” (p. 53) yet vulnerable to time? Do they
achieve immortality in the hearts and minds of the people?
9. For “Immortality”
Yiyun Li presents the history of China through aphorism,
mythology and storytelling. What does one gain from such a
literary portrayal that one does not through history books?
10. For “The Princess of Nebraska”
“The Princess of Nebraska” is set in the heartland of
America, during a small street parade. Discuss the juxtaposition
of each characters life in China with his or her
new experiences in America. How do they each react in this
new environment?
11. For “The Princess of Nebraska”
Sasha believes that “moving on” (p. 69) is an American
concept that suits her well. Do you agree that Americans
have a unique ability to start fresh and forget the past? Do
you see this optimism reflected in other cultures, or would
you agree that it is an American outlook? Later, Sasha says
Americans are “born to be themselves, naïve and contented
with their naivety” (p. 78). Describe the insights behind this
appraisal. Do you agree or disagree? What does this story
reveal about Chinese and American psyches, and how do
these revelations resonate throughout the entire book?
12. For “The Princess of Nebraska”
At the end of “The Princess of Nebraska,” what do you
think Sasha decides to do about the baby?
13. For “Love in the Marketplace”
Why does Sansan love the movie Casablanca so dearly?
In what ways does it encompass “all she wants to teach the
students about life?” (p. 95)
14. For “Love in the Marketplace”
Discuss Sansans sacrifice. Did she act virtuously or
foolishly? What lies beneath her fierce attachment to the
notion of her own “nobleness” (p. 102)? Later, why is Sansan
so tenderly affected by the beggar in the marketplace, and
his “promise”?
15. For “Son”
Think about Sansan in “Love in the Marketplace,” Han
in “Son,” and Mr. Shis daughter in “A Thousand Years of
Good Prayers.” How are the children of this generation in
China, now adults, breaking away from the traditions of,
and duties to, their parents?
16. For “Son”
What moves Han to reveal the long-kept secret of his
sexuality to his mother? Were you surprised by her reaction?
Is Hans mother as “traditional” as he believes?
17. For “The Arrangement”
Why does Ruolans mother refuse a divorce? What is the
“arrangement” that she has worked out with Uncle Bing and
Ruolans father?
Uncle Bing says hes “one of those fools who puts a
magic leaf in front of his eyes and then stops seeing mountains
and seas” (p. 143). What does this mean? Have you
ever fallen victim to a similar preoccupation?
18. For “The Arrangement”
Uncle Bing says hes “one of those fools who puts a
magic leaf in front of his eyes and then stops seeing mountains
and seas” (p. 143). What does this mean? Have you
ever fallen victim to a similar preoccupation?
19. For “Death Is Not A Bad Joke If Told The Right Way”
What does Mrs. Pang mean when she says “Nobody
knows who he will become tomorrow?” (p. 152) What does
this sentiment reveal about life in China?
20. For “Death Is Not A Bad Joke If Told The Right Way”
Discuss the importance of Mr. Dus orchids. Why is Mr.
Du happy when they go out of fashion? What do the orchids
mean to him?
21. For “Death Is Not A Bad Joke If Told The Right Way”
Do you think Mrs. Pang have been proud of Mr. Pang at
the end of his life, as the girl believes?
22. For “Persimmons”
Describe the view of life and death that the villagers
hold. Is existence controlled by fate? God? Man? Consider,
also, their attitude toward the possibility for justice.
23. For “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers”
Describe the emotional barriers to communication in “A
Thousand Years of Good Prayers.” Are Mr. Bing and his
daughter able to express their feelings? Why? Does language
hinder or promote their abilities? How does the power to
communicate in a new language make one “a new person”
24. For “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers”
Yiyun Li sets many of her stories in her homeland of
China. What is the spirit of the people like there? What
mood pervades the workers lives? How would you describe
the way characters such as Granny Kang, Mr. and Mrs. Su,
Sansan, and Mr. Du, respond to adversity?
25. For “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers”
Discuss your impressions of the world and the characters
that Yiyun Li has created. Draw comparisons and contrasts
between the stories in the collection as a whole.
Which story is the most memorable or the most powerful for
you and why? What themes are woven throughout the entire
collection? What images or feelings emerge when you think
of the collection as a whole?