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Retribution – The Jiling Chronicles (Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan (Hardcover))
Author(s): Yung–p`ing Li (Author), Sylvia Lin (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: 21 Oct. 2003
- Language: English
- Print length: 240 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231128746
- ISBN-13: 9780231128742
Book Description
Retribution opens with the raucous festivities surrounding the annual procession to honor the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Changsheng, the young wife of the local coffin maker Liu Laoshi, is raped while making an offering to Guanyin in the hope of increasing her chances of bearing a son. Changsheng hangs herself following the encounter, and Liu Laoshi exacts bloody vengeance on the rapist's own wife and favorite prostitute. This act of sexual violence and its retribution provide the narrative pivot around which is woven a web of interconnecting stories, whose characters and events provide divergent perspectives on the rape and its aftermath. The result is an unforgettable exploration of the intersections of sexual desire, sadism, folk belief, and the inexorable cycles of karmic retribution.
Editorial Reviews
Review
The Jiling Chronicles...will demostrate to the English-reading world why he has been critically indentified as a premier writer of Chinese fiction in our time.--Timothy C. Wong "World Literature Today"
Li carves out a dark novel set in the red light district of the small Jiling township... What unfolds is a mélange of stories told from the perspective of various townspeople concerning the individuals, events, and aftermath of [a] single, fateful evening... Like works by Hong Ying, the narratives are brutally real and even sinister at times.-- "Library Journal"
The novel explores the intersections of sexual desire, sadism, folk belief and karmic retribution.-- "Indianapolis Star"
The English publication of Li Yong-p'ing's intriguing and complex novel is certainly timely and most welcome.--Lingchei Letty Chen "MCLC List"
About the Author
Howard Goldblatt, a Guggenheim Fellow, is an internationally renowned translator of Chinese fiction, including the novels of Mo Yan, the 2012 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.