A Modern Chinese Woman

Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo is a strange little book about the experiences of a Chinese woman finding herself despite being lost in a sea of people in a country where she does not fit in. The book is divided into twenty chapters, hence the title, and follows FenFang as she travels from her peasant village to the city. In her quest for simple survival, FenFang also seeks love, friendship, and some vaguely indefinably sense of her artistic self. Weaving in and out of boyfriends, jobs, apartments, and loneliness, FenFang is an outcast, from her family, her culture, and herself. Though there is no clean conclusion to this poetic story, it is a lovely read and quite different from what you might expect from a Chinese writer.

Guo wrote the original novel in Chinese and only recently translated it into English, “reworking” it rather than going for a word-for-word translation. I found the character and the novel fascinating!

To find this book in the Library, go to our website at www.newberglibrary.org

Reviewed by Lori M.