As the Earth Turns
Silver
Alison Wong
Penguin Books
2009
(R:22 Jan--3 Mar,2012)
This is the first English novel I read in New
Zealand.The book was written by a New Zealand Chinese woman who was
born in New Zealand and spent several years in China and whose
parents are Chinese.
I don't think the book is well written in
language, I don't think the foreigners can understand it well. Some
expressions are in Chinese style. At university the author studied
mathematics, then shifted to writing.
The novel
tells a love story between a man,Wong Chung-yung, a Cantonese who
helped his brother at a fruit shop and a New Zealand
widow,Catherine, who went to his shop to buy some cheap fruits
after her husband died.Yung always gave her some extra fruits or
some fresh fruits without extra pay or free.
Several
years later they began to date secretly, but at the first date
Catherine's son, Robbie knew it because he followed his mother.
When Robbie was 18 years
old,he joined the army. Before he left, he went to the Wong's shop
and warned him to stay away from his mother.Before Robbie opened
his mouth, Yung didn't recognized him. He cut the apples with a
knife and gave Robbie to taste. Yung just put the apple slice and
knife in front of Robbie. Robbie killed Yung on impulse and ran
away.
Later he was
nearly dead during the march.After that, he didn't open his mouth
to speak,he became numb.After some treatment, he came home to live
his mother, but he never ate any fruits.One day Catherine bought a
pineapple from Wong's shop, and cut it in front of Robbie. Robbie
was crazy. When his mother found him, he already hanged himself on
a branch.
The two men
Catherine loved best died.
I was surprised at the end.I
didn't imagine Robbie would kill Yung,but thought how Catherine
balanced the relationship between his son and his lover, the
Chinese.
A sad story,
a sad ending.
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