The Early Arrival of Dreams: A Year in China - Softcover

ROSEMARY MAHONEY is the author of Whoredom in Kimmage, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the New York Times Notable Book The Early Arrival of Dreams. The recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, she lives in Rhode Island.

Mahoney's book has the form of books such as Mark Saltzman's Iron and Silk ( LJ 2/1/87, and one of LJ 's "Best Books of 1987"): the teacher or student abroad discovers Chinese society as seen through a year in one of its darkest corners, a provincial foreign languages department. To Mahoney, China is at times baffling, infuriating, and repellent. Her Chinese characters have the intensity of a medieval miniature, incised with short taut strokes of saturated color, while the deployment of incident, rhythm of character revelation, and development of the narrator are those of a crafty novelist. Since Mahoney discovers that to love China is to weep, her book is not the heartwarming one Saltzman's was; it is a deeper, more difficult, and perhaps a more lasting evocation of the country. Highly recommended for public library collections.
- Charles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.