Seeking a Living
Tags
Summary
How many lives there are, how many fates. What I know is that people are not born to be trampled on, not even by fate. Here are many stories—stories of an era, of a family, of fate. Here too are many perplexities, true or false, right or reversed, for you to examine one by one; but remember, these are only stories. The stories begin with the women of the family, as Nüwa split heaven from earth, and also with the men around the women, for one gives birth to two, two to three, and three to all things. The Dao gave rise to my grandmother; my grandmother and my grandfather gave rise to my father, my second aunt, my third aunt. The Dao gave rise to my mother; my mother and father gave rise to me, my sister, my brother—though one is already gone from this world!
Human fates interweave, interweaving into the fate of a family, and the family's fate in turn interweaves into individuals. They suffer hardship, suffer death, suffer life. On this land, hunger, desire, food and sex rush toward their own fates, only to realize in a flash that what drives them on is fate pursuing close behind. They are the most chivalrous and ruffianly, the boldest, most resilient, most truly alive people on this land. Their strength, endurance, humor, and open-heartedness nurtured me, and nurtured fate as well, just as the land nurtures them.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in family history and rural narrative
- Those drawn to themes of fate, survival, and changing times
- Readers who appreciate a narrator with a reflective, discursive voice
- Those willing to savor the texture of folk language within the story
Not a good fit for
- Readers who prefer tight plotting and clear endings
- Those impatient with many family characters and interwoven threads
- Readers expecting purely objective documentary rather than subjective narration
Reading tips
- Begin by mapping the family relationships; note the threads of grandmother, parents, and aunts as you read.
- Pay attention to the narrator's stance of "still observation"; distinguish the story itself from the narrator's commentary and reflection.
- Where historical background is vague, don't rush to look it up; follow the characters' fates first and understand in hindsight.
- After finishing, compare with your own family or elders' memories to feel the concrete texture of interwoven fates.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
FAQ
Is this book mainly about family or about an era?
What does "Can a fool see through the future?" mean?
Can I read this without experience in family-history reading?
Comments
Find this book
This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Chen Lingshan is a contemporary Chinese author. Publicly available information about her is limited, and a systematic record of her exact biography, educational background, and writing career has yet to appear. Two of her works are currently held in the collection, titled Reincarnation and Seeking a Living, both classified as social fiction, which suggests that her writing attends to real society and the living conditions of ordinary people. Judging from the titles and categories of these two works, Chen Lingshan's writing leans toward everyday life and may use character fates and plot development to present individual choices and spiritual predicaments amid social change. As her known representative works, Reincarnation and Seeking a Living are the main basis for understanding her writing. Because the author herself has disclosed little information, readers and researchers can currently grasp her narrative style and thematic orientation only through the works themselves, and the full picture of her writing remains to be further confirmed as more materials become public.
