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Loading... Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth: A Novel (2008)by Guo Xiaolu
None. A fun, easy read. Picked it up on a whim and wasn't disappointed. Found this to be very enjoyable. (  ) joyfiction | Feb 8, 2011 |  20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is an interesting and touching book that tells the story of a young Chinese girl from a poor village who moves to Beijing. As the title tells us, the story is told in twenty 'fragments', stories from her youth either in her peasant village with her family or in Beijing where she is trying to become an actress. They are not in chronological order, so the book reads like a conversation where someone is telling you things as they occur to her. The translation is excellent, and the voice of the main character Fenfang is refreshing and honest, whilst still sounding vaguely childlike. She is a real person from the first page. This story works in many different ways, both as a frank and illuminating study of modern day Beijing and an intimate and hopeful coming-of-age story. As a teenager, I find many of Fenfang's emotions and thoughts painfully familiar, but her journey towards adulthood never loses the ability to surprise me. Very, very good. (  ) archangel582 | Aug 8, 2010 | A lovely novella which illustrates a "fragment" of a 17 year old peasant girl's (Fenfang Wang) coming of age in modern day Beijing. The book has the feel of an Eastern film - dreamlike. Interestingly, Xiaolu Guo has won awards for a handful of films she authored. Guo does not offer any details of Fenfang Wang's life, other then what is needed to portray an impressionistic view of her internal life. That is, the confusion that is felt cross-culturally, in a young adults' psyche, at that critical juncture when we are trying to identify who we are while working towards what we will become. The difference for us (typical Americans) being, Fenfang grew up on a rural sweet potato farm and traveled 1800 (or so) miles (to Beijing) to find out who she was. No less, in a country that was and is changing and growing rapidly. I found this to be a touching, beautiful piece, that leaves me wanting to read more work by this developing writer. Unedited ( )1  BALE | Feb 1, 2010 | This book reminds me a little of Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby, but less sexual. It's quite depressing, but entertaining. The description of the culture and daily life is familiar as Xiaolu Guo used a lot of direct translation from Mandarin in the story. I'm still surprised at how sexually casual the modern chinese girls are (Fenfang moved in with the boyfriend who is still living with his family in the beginning of the story, they even slept in the same bed the family's knowledge). I guess I'm still stuck with ancient China in my mind. The story is basically about a young girl's struggle to find her place in the modern society in Beijing so she can shed off her old "village-girl" self. She is very strong and determined and fearless, yet she has an innocent and naive side of her. There is a lot of loneliness in the story. deadgirl | Dec 5, 2009 | Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com What is modern China like? What is it like to come of age there? Fenfang Wang grew up living on a sweet potato farm. Her family is uncommunicative and seems to be depressed. There doesn't seem to be much opportunity there in that village. So Fenfang gathers up her belongings at the age of seventeen and heads eighteen-hundred miles to Beijing. There she takes many jobs. She is a cleaner at a hostel, a factory worker, usherette at a movie theater, and finally she becomes a movie extra. She gets many roles, such as woman-walking-over-bridge and waitress-wiping-a-table. She also writes a movie script. She has two relationships with men but they don't seem to be going anywhere and she is constantly hungry. The feel of this story is depressing. The main character is very brave and yet scary. At the beginning of the story, she witnesses a fight between a mother and daughter. They are hit by a car and taken away. Fenfang then just takes over their apartment. No one seems to care. That is the main theme of TWENTY FRAGMENTS OF A RAVENOUS YOUTH, that people just don't seem to care. I would have liked some more explanation of the cultural differences between China and the U.S., because I don't feel that I quite understood all of the nuances of the culture. My daughter lived in Ghana for a year and when she tells a story she needs to explain many ideas and things that she encountered there. This is a short book and would be very enjoyable for those interested in the Chinese culture. ( ) GeniusJen | Oct 13, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
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