⋙ Read Free Under Fishbone Clouds meekingssam 9781846971686 Books

Under Fishbone Clouds meekingssam 9781846971686 Books

Download As PDF : Under Fishbone Clouds meekingssam 9781846971686 Books

Under Fishbone Clouds meekingssam 9781846971686 Books

This was a book that I wanted to love; that I should have loved. It has all the hallmarks of a great novel: a sense of place, a sweeping narrative arc, vivid writing. And yet... I never felt swept up in the story of Yuying and Jinyi; never felt that I was seeing their life together at third hand, through the eyes of the Kitchen God/narrator, who in turn is telling his version of their story to the author.

There's a reason the Kitchen God (one of the divinities in the Chinese pantheon) serves as the narrator. He has been offered a wager by the Jade Emperor, the Zeus of the Chinese Olympus -- to win, the Kitchen God must decipher the workings of the human heart. He chooses to follow two ordinary mortals from their wedding day in 1946 onward, as the victory of the Communist regime brings dramatic change, famine, upheaval, separation, death and pain to the couple. Meekings has a massive canvas on which to sketch out his plot -- not only that of China in the second half of the 20th century, but the whole realm of Chinese folklore, stories from which are used by the Kitchen God to illustrate one point or another.

But the constant stepping back and forth between the Kitchen God and the tribulations of Jinyi and Yuying meant that I never really was caught up and immersed in the latter's story: the narrator kept getting in the way. The way the Kitchen God tells the story also was very distracting; side characters simply vanish from the story -- poof -- with only a sentence telling us what happened to them. When those characters played a role in the lives of Yuying or Jinyi, and we don't see how they react to those events, it's strangely distancing; making them more symbolic characters than real people. Add to that the fact that there's some rather implausible existential angst being presented to the reader in the form of dialog, such as Jinyi's comment early on that "people bend their memories into stories to make themselves feel content, or to disguise the horror of everything around them." Well, I wouldn't rule out that an uneducated and illiterate peasant who doesn't know where his next meal is coming from and who has never been in a big city might well have fleeting thoughts of this kind. Would he bring them up for debate with an acquaintance, in such high-flown language? I rather doubt it.

The various parts of this novel were fascinating, and it certainly helps shed light on ordinary life during Mao's regime; I also loved the folk tales. But they never "clicked" into a single, seamless, captivating narrative, the way that a novel has to do in order for me to not only relish it but believe in it. I didn't need the Kitchen God or the author or some other omniscient figure jumping in during one moving scene to inform me that "it is difficult to estimate how many people disappeared during the Cultural Revolution, how many never made it back home" or to hear the Kitchen God muse to himself, "That's the funny thing about humans." However beautiful the writing, that approach became very wearing, very rapidly.

That made this novel a 3.5 star book for me, and one I doubt I'll re-read. Still, it's one I imagine that many readers will probably enjoy, particularly given the writing. Meekings has an eye for taking something ordinary and adding significance to it. When Yuying finally teaches her husband to write, for instance, Meekings writes of how, "with dipping brushes clashing like chopsticks ... Jinyi and Yuying set about rewriting their history ... They blotted out the talk of demons or spirits, and started to scribble in the present tense. Each word they wrote was a promise, a vow." So I've rounded this up to 4 stars rather than down to 3. My reaction is disappointment that emotionally I couldn't connect to the characters, because the imaginative power and the writing talent on display is remarkable.


Tags : Under Fishbone Clouds [meekings-sam] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Rare Book,meekings-sam,Under Fishbone Clouds,Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited,1846971683

Under Fishbone Clouds meekingssam 9781846971686 Books Reviews

If this book doesn't attain the high readership it deserves, there is no justice. It's quite simply one of the most lavishly imagined, masterfully researched, exquisitely written contemporary novels I've read. And if that sounds as if I'm gushing...well, it's probably because I am.

Under Fishbone Clouds is written by debut author Sam Meekings, who grew up near the south coast of England and currently resides in China. It is absolutely remarkable that the author is under 30; the book is full of gravitas and maturity that is normally the result of decades of living and writing. Interwoven seamlessly within this mesmerizing narrative is Chinese folklore and myths - absorbingly told - in addition to insights into Chinese distant and recent past history.

This novel is narrated by the Kitchen God, a common household deity who is challenged by the more powerful Jade Emperor to fathom the inner workings of the human heart. He chooses to follow a couple who, like him and his own mythical wife, were caught in the whirlwind of history Jinyi and his wife Yuying. The tale begins in 1942 when the two fall in love, in spite of their different backgrounds and their arranged marriage, and continues to their doddering old age as the new millennium takes hold.

At the onset, Yuying follows her husband across war-torn China to her husband's rustic and impoverished home. Bad times ensue, and when they eventually make their way back to the city, the Cultural Revolution has begun; everything now belongs to the state and all social strata are forced to undergo hard labor in the factories and the fields.

Although the Mao Cultural Revolution years have been well documented, Under Fishbone Clouds takes you up close and personal to these dehumanizing times; it is a rare reader who will not wince at the no-holds-barred look at a country whose rigid ideology trumps personal relationships and freedoms. Business owners, entrepreneurs, artists, teachers, intellectuals - all are labeled "bourgeois" and re-educated in the harshest possible ways. In a particularly harrowing scene, a man has a heart attack and is ordered to "crawl" to comfort and stop being a slacker. The depths to which Jinyi and Yuying are forced to descend to - separately, without each other's comfort - is heartbreaking.

Yuying reflects, "Life isn't meant for perfect things. I knew it when we were told to put making steel above common sense; I knew it when we were told to starve patriotically because the noble peasants had been huddling around homemade furnaces instead of growing food in the fields; I knew it when the whole country began to rise up to cut down the past. I felt in the pit of my stomach all the time; I just never knew what it was until now."

Yet despite the intensity of the Cultural Revolution years, Under Fishbone Clouds is not a book about tragedy; at its heart (and a big heart it is), it's a family saga about the universal and enduring power of love. There is sheer magic and lyricism in the love that Jinyi and Yuying share as they navigate answers that are often impenetrable.

And, Meekings suggests, by love we are transfigured. Jinyi realizes toward the end of his life "Love also changes shape. It is no longer slim, lithe, nervous and sweaty palmed. It was no longer sleepless, heavy, a stone weighing deep within the chest. It was now warm, slow, soft, a tarry old blanket huddled under in the dark. It was the last embers of a promise made decades before, still glowing red though the flames had petered down."

Using Jinyi as a catalyst, the Kitchen God comes to the realization that people don't just carry on with their lives because they must; the secret of life is love, atonement, and retribution. He puzzles out the human heart as he follows this couple through all kinds of trials deep anguish, death of children, famine and forced labor, class warfare, drastic social and culture changes, isolation and homelessness, the loss of dignity and health.

Under Fishbone Clouds is one of those rare books that I would confidently recommend to anybody those with an interest in the history of the East, those who are enthralled with mythology and folklore, those who hold out for the best of prose, and those who are simply seeking an old-fashioned story where love prevails. I predict an amazing future for this very talented author.
Although the action takes place in one of the most cruel historical periods of China, the writing has a gentle, dream-like, lyrical quality that stayed with me long after I finished reading. I was annoyed, though, by the too many typos I encountered on the version. Some editor was reading too fast... I did not highlight all the errors, but here are just a few "...and their faces drewer closer," or "They poor couple stared at each other.." or "...it would peck our eyes out us if we stared ..." This book deserves much better.
A totally captivating, and incredibly different (and difficult) tale. The historical context is provided in a totally natural manner, and provides information and insight that are central to the storytelling. One would not expect the emotions, passions, and feminine point of view to come from a male author. An incredible endeavor, wonderfully innovative, and beautifully achieved.
I bought Under Fishbone Clouds on a whim after reading an enthusiastic review in the New York Times. The book, which traces the lives of an outwardly mismatched couple through the vicissitudes of the first sixty years (or so) of the Chinese Communist regime, is narrated by a minor deity, the Kitchen God. Interwoven in the story of Jinyi and Yuying and their children are various tales from Chinese mythology which illustrate the situations experienced by the protagonists. From the standpoint of writing a review, one can't do better than Jill Shtulman's sensitive write-up, but I wanted to be able to give this book the five stars it so richly deserves. It is one of the best books I've read in years - luminous, haunting, inspiring, poignant - the "War and Peace" of Mao's China (but not so long, and much easier to read).
This was a book that I wanted to love; that I should have loved. It has all the hallmarks of a great novel a sense of place, a sweeping narrative arc, vivid writing. And yet... I never felt swept up in the story of Yuying and Jinyi; never felt that I was seeing their life together at third hand, through the eyes of the Kitchen God/narrator, who in turn is telling his version of their story to the author.

There's a reason the Kitchen God (one of the divinities in the Chinese pantheon) serves as the narrator. He has been offered a wager by the Jade Emperor, the Zeus of the Chinese Olympus -- to win, the Kitchen God must decipher the workings of the human heart. He chooses to follow two ordinary mortals from their wedding day in 1946 onward, as the victory of the Communist regime brings dramatic change, famine, upheaval, separation, death and pain to the couple. Meekings has a massive canvas on which to sketch out his plot -- not only that of China in the second half of the 20th century, but the whole realm of Chinese folklore, stories from which are used by the Kitchen God to illustrate one point or another.

But the constant stepping back and forth between the Kitchen God and the tribulations of Jinyi and Yuying meant that I never really was caught up and immersed in the latter's story the narrator kept getting in the way. The way the Kitchen God tells the story also was very distracting; side characters simply vanish from the story -- poof -- with only a sentence telling us what happened to them. When those characters played a role in the lives of Yuying or Jinyi, and we don't see how they react to those events, it's strangely distancing; making them more symbolic characters than real people. Add to that the fact that there's some rather implausible existential angst being presented to the reader in the form of dialog, such as Jinyi's comment early on that "people bend their memories into stories to make themselves feel content, or to disguise the horror of everything around them." Well, I wouldn't rule out that an uneducated and illiterate peasant who doesn't know where his next meal is coming from and who has never been in a big city might well have fleeting thoughts of this kind. Would he bring them up for debate with an acquaintance, in such high-flown language? I rather doubt it.

The various parts of this novel were fascinating, and it certainly helps shed light on ordinary life during Mao's regime; I also loved the folk tales. But they never "clicked" into a single, seamless, captivating narrative, the way that a novel has to do in order for me to not only relish it but believe in it. I didn't need the Kitchen God or the author or some other omniscient figure jumping in during one moving scene to inform me that "it is difficult to estimate how many people disappeared during the Cultural Revolution, how many never made it back home" or to hear the Kitchen God muse to himself, "That's the funny thing about humans." However beautiful the writing, that approach became very wearing, very rapidly.

That made this novel a 3.5 star book for me, and one I doubt I'll re-read. Still, it's one I imagine that many readers will probably enjoy, particularly given the writing. Meekings has an eye for taking something ordinary and adding significance to it. When Yuying finally teaches her husband to write, for instance, Meekings writes of how, "with dipping brushes clashing like chopsticks ... Jinyi and Yuying set about rewriting their history ... They blotted out the talk of demons or spirits, and started to scribble in the present tense. Each word they wrote was a promise, a vow." So I've rounded this up to 4 stars rather than down to 3. My reaction is disappointment that emotionally I couldn't connect to the characters, because the imaginative power and the writing talent on display is remarkable.