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Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo: book review

 



Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth (2008) is set in Beijing, China.


Twenty-one-year-old Fenfang Wang leaves rural China to follow her dreams in the big city, Beijing. At home, she was known but dependent, living in backwater conventionality and family traditions on a sweet potato farm. But in bustling, noisy Beijing she is unknown and independent, aiming to break free and release her passion for life.  

 

Her idealisms are challenged – she has no idea what to expect and nothing seems to be as she had hoped. Beijing is not as progressive as she is. Its political regime and the constant sexism she endures dismay her – not to mention the maze and haze of street and air pollution, high unemployment and low wages, and her poverty-stricken living condtions. Despite the challenges, she desperately wants to succeed. 

 

She gets a job as a film extra – a face in crowd, a woman walking over a bridge wheeling a bicycle, a bored waitress – she is always a silent body in the background. 

 

Ben, an American doctorate student, becomes her obsessive pursuit for freedom. A young man, Xiaolin, becomes her obsessive and neurotic boyfriend. Neither of them are good for her. Everyone thinks Fenfang is too individualistic, and she thinks everything – the city, the job, the apartment room, the men – are all disappointing. She wonders whether the feeling of sadness is better than emptiness? 

 

She finds her way in another neighbourhood of the city – it stirs her heart, her passions, and her dreams. 

 

The twenty fragments are the twenty chapters that show glimpses of Fenfang’s life in Beijing. With chapter headings, such as “Fenfang’s village won’t be found on any map of China” and “Fenfang sits on the edge of a swimming pool but doesn’t get in” – with accompanying photos on each chapter heading page – this is a delightful read.

 

The chapters are the words of a young, ambitious, slangy, raw, modern Chinese girl living on the fragile edge of potentiality. The writing is sublime. It’s one of the best novels I’ve read in many years. 








 

 

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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