From the cry of a tiny insect; one can hear the sound of a vast world. . . .So begins Zhang Daye’s preface to The World of a Tiny Insect; his haunting memoir of war and its aftermath. In 1861; when China’s devastating Taiping rebellion began; Zhang was seven years old. The Taiping rebel army occupied Shaoxing; his hometown; and for the next two years; he hid from Taiping soldiers; local bandits; and imperial troops and witnessed gruesome scenes of violence and death. He lost friends and family and nearly died himself from starvation; illness; and encounters with soldiers on a rampage.Written thirty years later; The World of a Tiny Insect gives voice to this history. A rare premodern Chinese literary work depicting a child’s perspective; Zhang’s sophisticated text captures the macabre images; paranoia; and emotional excess that defined his wartime experience and echoed through his adult life. The structure; content; and imagery of The World of a Tiny Insect offer a carefully constructed; fragmented narrative that skips in time and probes the relationships between trauma and memory; revealing both history and its psychic impact. Xiaofei Tian’s annotated translation includes an introduction that situates The World of a Tiny Insect in Chinese history and literature and explores the relevance of the book to the workings of traumatic memory.
#957995 in Books 2003-12-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .72 x 5.98l; 1.11 #File Name: 0295983558320 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Very interesting story of the author's mother; and her ...By Larry KlaasenVery interesting story of the author's mother; and her stories and remembrances of Ireland; and the Co. Kerry farm she came from. But the author is also a historian; and researches the facts in the stories; even visiting Ireland and the old farm with his mother; and he elaborates on the stories with new information for the reader. Presents a unique view of the tribulations of family members; including her father; going to America for work. And especially now at the 100th anniversary of the Rising; to see some of the effects in a small rural area.8 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Workmanlike look at Irish immigration in the 1930sBy John L MurphyThis is the same book published in hardcover with a different cover and the subtitle "storytelling in a family's past."I did not find White's actual content all that engrossing. His historian's determination to separate fact from his mother's "storytelling" embellishments or lacunae follow the usual patterns of such explorations into the clash of contrasts. The Irish mom-meets-Jewish American dad that gave birth to White appealed to me; but reading the pages of life in Chicago in the 30s vs. his father's military stint made this book little different than a self-penned history of one's family by the designated genealogist in the clan. White does write considerably better than such amateurs; but what he writes about does not rise above the mundane or the all-too-familiar tales of peasant agitation; the old IRA; and the leaving of the village for the big city.His eye occasionally gleans the telling detail; regardless. A petition for citizenship reveals that the husband does not know his wife's birthday; and his guess is off three years. His mother is asked as a 16-year-old at entrance to the country if she was a polygamist. The legend of St Rita; patron of the Chicago parish his family lived in tells in its own moral that God shapes you up only then to kill you off. Jack Benny and Father Coughlan were the radio shows one never missed on Sunday.One detail shows an error on White's part: on pg. 23 he claims that his relatives had their baptismal names "Gaelicized" by the priest as Helen-Hellena and William-Guilielmo; but surely this is the customary Latinization found on many Catholic documents rather than a return to the Irish which would make Eileen and Liam?This book reminds me of a few others that have recently delved into the Irish-meets-American immigrant encounter. Thomas Lynch's "Booking Passage;" looking at White's North Kerry from across in West Clare; would complement White's book. His style in its spareness yet its eloquence reminds me of Henry Glassie; the folklorist who compiled "Irish Folktales" and chronicled a Fermanagh community in "Passing the Time at Ballymenone." Finally; books like David Monagan's "Jaywalking with the Irish" and Steve Fallon's "Home with Alice" similarly compare Irish American memories with extended Irish residences.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A son rediscovers his mother father all the familyBy annethis was recently read on our WPRadio Chapter - A story that a son rediscovers the journey of his mother; a most naive Irish girl who lands in Chicago; about all those she lives with and then later of his father - who she only met 2 times before he proposed and she accepted - he tells it so tenderly. the father's family is Jewish and hers; Irish Catholic- and in that era; a forbidden match. but his mother Sarah finds her way in life overcoming many losses of relations with their disapproval- on both sides - he discovers who they were and writes it with a way of seeing then and now and all the weaving of the many characters that we all find in our family history. I loved it and want to buy a copy to keep and reread.
