Full name: Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas

Author: Su Tong Year: 1989 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Historical fiction, Short Stories Cultures: China, Asia Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780060596330 0060596333

The brutal realities of the dark places Su Tong depicts in this collection of novellas set in 1930s provincial China -- worlds of prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction -- belie his prose of stunning and simplebeauty. The title novella, "Raise the Red Lantern," which became a critically acclaimed film, tells the story of Lotus, a young woman whose father's suicide forces her to become the concubine of a wealthy merchant. Crushed by loneliness, despair, and cruel treatment, Lotus finds her descent into insanity both a weapon and a refuge. "Nineteen Thirty-Four Escapes" is an account of a family's struggles during one momentous year; plagued by disease, death, and the shady promise of life in a larger town, the family slowly disintegrates. Finally, "Opium Family" details the last years of a landowning clan whose demise is brought about by corruption, lust, and treachery -- fruits of the insidious crop they harvest. Similar books: Beijing Coma by Ma Jian February Flowers by Fan Wu Katherine by Anchee Min Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li The Four Books by Yan Lianke The Three Daughters of Madam Liang by Pearl S. Buck In the Pond by Ha Jin Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui Decoded by Mai Jia Heaven Lake by John Dalton Village of Stone by Xiaolu Guo Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones The Crazed by Ha Jin Ocean of Words by Ha Jin Train Dreams by Denis Johnson Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick