Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories

One has to get used to the style. The short stories go back and forth between dream, real dialogue, description of the surroundings, without advising the reader. I only enjoyed the stories after my Asian Studies professor explained them to us. Then it was a pleasure to reread them. Like a short puzzle.The titular story talks about environment degradation, but it makes you feel it, without preaching. We all have experienced, like this middle-class Chinese man, the disappearance of the villages we used to play in. We have all seen inexplicable tears in the eyes of our grandparents, who cannot fish on a lake of cement. The mix of surrealism with plain talk makes this story haunting.Hint: look up the city of LouLan, and what happened to Mexico City, when you read the story.

I chose a stories book. And it was worth it. The experience is similar to taking six trips in one-go. The author is an excellent guide. He will take you to "The Temple", which is a projection of a shield to protect the happiness of newlyweds against persistent anxiety. "The Cramp" is pointing at the fragility of life illustrated by a swimmer's fight for life and the awakening awareness of he's unnoticed absence and struggle. The "Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather" is an attempt to relieve homesickness. More on http://lovevonbeautyvonlove.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/my-chinese-lessons-by-gao-xingjian/

These are intriguing stories written by a Chinese writer who eventually claimed French citizenship. The stories take place in China. I loved the first story, "Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather." A story about respect and nostalgia. Worth re-reading. Gao's style is simple, bare-boned, meditative evocative. I recommend this little volume to anyone interested in this talented writer of "Soul Mountain" who won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2000. Elizabeth

Didn't like the first pages of this author's 'Soul Mountain', his most famous novel, but these stories, all but one written before Gao left China, are well-defined, strong evocations of mood and situations. They are strangely engaging even when there is no plot.

This is a great book of short stories from one of China's expatriates. The stories range in topic, and perhaps are a reflection of the author's own writing evolution.

great book and fast service

A short book, with stylized Chinese fish on its cover, Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather was an intriguing foray into foreign short stories for me. The author is a Nobel prize winner, so I knew at the outset that this wouldn't be light reading. But the stories are truly fascinating. In the first tale I feel like a fly on the wall, listening to someone speak; is he remembering the past? Is he talking to his family, or to his wife, or to the pictures in his mind? The stories each left me slightly off-balance, not quite sure what I was reading. But the title story, Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather, suddenly centered me as the narrator looks into memories of his past and finds himself lost in change.The final story, In an Instant, fills most of the second half of the book. It is a beautiful piece, reminding me of a Chinese plate my grandmother had. I don't remember much about the plate, except that there were blue pictures, a temple and a bridge, trees, and a feeling that the closer I looked at one image the more likely I was to find myself in another. The writing flows in the same way between scenes, adding imagination to each and drawing the reader on with the movement of the prose. There's no story as such, but there's reflection and change; it's oddly mesmerizing, like that moment of falling asleep or of waking up, when objects take on meanings that really belong to something else. It takes much more than an instant to read, and stays longer than an instant in the mind, but it's beautiful in the same way as that plate.So now I'll go back and reread them all, in light of the mysteries of memory and time, and in appreciation of something truly different and impressive.

it is hard to comment on Gao Xingjian's works because while he is a master artist, he works from a perspective in his medium that can be beyond the grasp of a reader. He, as a master, creates art for arts sake. However, as a reader, i can only evaluate based on my own aesthetic inclinations. thus, if you find yourself similarly inclined as a reader, you may find the following helpful.Gao Xingjian's works are known for their lyrical intensity and lack of plot. they are, in a definite sense, post-modern. Aside from the final story "In an Instant" most of the stories in this collection are some of Gao's more accessible works. certainly more so than his tome _Soul Mountain_. Gao wrestles with the use and abuse of memory througout the work, as well as highlighting the anxieties inherent in the generation that survived the Cultural Revolution. One can also catch glimpses of the turmoil brought about by his personal struggles, as feelings of loss and hopelessness weave in and out of the works.now, if you like this more artistic foray into the possibilities of literature, do enjoy. i think stories should actually be stories. at least some of the time.