A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama, narrated by Simon Vance
Published in audio by Macmillan Audio, published in print by St. Martin’s Press, both imprints of Macmillan
Synopsis:
“Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” - Chairman Mao
In 1956, Chairman Mao encouraged the Chinese people to share their real thoughts and feelings about his regime, in order to continue to improve the country. For about a year, no one did so, but then the floodgates opened and Mao clamped down. One man caught up in the crack down is Sheng, a teacher who lives with his wife, son, and father. Sheng is accused of writing a critical letter and is dragged off in front of his young son, Tao. Before long, Sheng’s letters stop coming and his family must live with the uncertainty -and in some cases guilt - of his absence.
Thoughts on the story:
Despite the fact that A Hundred Flowers is set at the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, it is really more character-driven than plot-driven. For quite some time I was wondering when things would really get going, but by the halfway point, I relaxed and just reveled in the lives of this family who had lost their son, husband, father to Mao’s Hundred Flowers campaign. As such, this is not a flashy, exciting novel; instead it is contemplative and sadly lovely, giving readers a peek into mid-20th century China.
Thoughts on the audio production:
This was classic great Simon Vance narration: good pacing, maintaining interest in the story. I do think I might have done a bit better with A Hundred Flowers in print, however. This is not the fault of the narration or the overall audio production, both of which are strong. It is more an issue of my own issues with character names, which I tend to not may much attention to. With Western names I don’t need to pay as much attention and in print I can more easily go back and forth to make sure I know who is talking or being talked about with non-Western names. Luckily there weren’t too many characters, but since I tend to zone out on their names that even the six or so primary names occasionally threw me. Still, Vance’s narration kept bringing me back into the story when I got a bit lost.
Overall:
I might have appreciated this a bit more in print due to my own reading idiosyncrasies, but the book is interesting and Vance’s narration is great. Recommended.
Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
Indiebound: Audio/Print*
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I’m kind of surprised they chose a British narrator for that book. I can see where the names would be a struggle in an audio book.
I find that British narrators often are chosen when realistically the characters wouldn’t be speaking English. Maybe because Americans tend to lump all “others” together?
I think I would prefer this in print too for the same reason. I`ve seen great reviews of this book, but I need to be in a certain mood to read about this subject.
Interesting about the names. I find that I do better with non-western names in audio than print. I get caught up in trying to figure out how to pronounce them when I read print. Listening keeps that from taking me out of the story.
This one sounds like it would be interesting but one of those that I’d really have to be in the right kind of mood to read or listen.
Yeah, that works well for me if I only really have to keep track of one or two people. This was just a few too many people for me; I always had to wait for the context, since I hadn’t also seen the names in print.
I love this weekly feature and link up!!
Oops, forot the book title in my first link-up. I have read a couple of books by this author in print and they were really good. I would have expected a female narrator to go with a female author here, but I guess I would have been wrong!
I happened to link up my review of A Hundred Flowers for this week, too. I enjoyed the audio of this story and think Simon Vance is slowly becoming one of my favorite male narrators!
Books about the Cultural Revolution interest me. I think I will put it on my TBR … thanks
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