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Description for Retribution
hardcover. Centered around the prostitution industry in a rural Chinese community, Retribution presents a compelling exploration of the intersections of sexual desire, sadism, folk belief, and the inexorable cycles of karmic retribution. Translator(s): Goldblatt, Howard; Lin, Sylvia Li-Chun. Num Pages: 240 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 216 x 163 x 21. Weight in Grams: 430.
Retribution opens with the raucous festivities surrounding the annual procession to honor the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Changsheng, the young wife of the local coffin maker Liu Laoshi, is raped while making an offering to Guanyin in the hope of increasing her chances of bearing a son. Changsheng hangs herself following the encounter, and Liu Laoshi exacts bloody vengeance on the rapist's own wife and favorite prostitute. This act of sexual violence and its retribution provide the narrative pivot around which is woven a web of interconnecting stories, whose characters and events provide divergent perspectives on the rape and its aftermath. The ... Read more
Retribution opens with the raucous festivities surrounding the annual procession to honor the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Changsheng, the young wife of the local coffin maker Liu Laoshi, is raped while making an offering to Guanyin in the hope of increasing her chances of bearing a son. Changsheng hangs herself following the encounter, and Liu Laoshi exacts bloody vengeance on the rapist's own wife and favorite prostitute. This act of sexual violence and its retribution provide the narrative pivot around which is woven a web of interconnecting stories, whose characters and events provide divergent perspectives on the rape and its aftermath. The ... Read more
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2003
Publisher
Columbia University Press United States
Number of pages
240
Condition
New
Number of Pages
240
Place of Publication
New York, United States
ISBN
9780231128742
SKU
V9780231128742
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15
About Yung-P'Ing Li
Li Yung-p'ing is a Chinese Malaysian writer and one of Taiwan's best-known and most controversial novelists. His other works include Haidong Qing and Zhu Ling's Wanderings in the Wonderland.Howard Goldblatt is professor of Chinese literature at the University of Notre Dame. He is translator of The Taste of Apples (Columbia, 2001) and co-editor of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese ... Read more
Reviews for Retribution
Li carves out a dark novel set in the red light district of the small Jiling township... What unfolds is a melange of stories told from the perspective of various townspeople concerning the individuals, events, and aftermath of [a] single, fateful evening... Like works by Hong Ying, the narratives are brutally real and even sinister at times. Library Journal The ... Read more