Ripple on Stagnant Water
Jieren, Li / Sparling, Bret / Chi, Yin
In the small market town of Heaven's Turn on the Chengdu Plain, a simple-minded shopkeeper has married a beautiful village girl who is determined to rise above her station. Li Jieren's novel is populated with gangsters, prostitutes, farmers, dilettantes, bureaucrats and Christian converts, all drawn from the author's familiar acquaintance. While giving an incomparably vivid account of the lives of commoners, it illuminates a complex balance of...
