Wild Ginger: A Novel

At once a coming-of-age tale and a heart-rending love story, Wild Ginger explores the devastating experience of the Cultural Revolution, which defined Anchee Min"s youth. The beautiful, iron-willed Wild Ginger is only in elementary school when she is singled out by the Red Guards for her "foreign-colored eyes." Her classmate Maple is also a target of persecution. The novel chronicles the two girls" maturing in Shanghai in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Chairman Mao ruled absolutely and his followers took up arms in his name. Wild Ginger grows up to become a model Maoist, but her love for a man soon places her in an untenable position — and ultimately in mortal danger. This slim and powerful novel "examines the fragile sensibilities and emotions of an entire generation of Chinese youth" (Washington Post) and brilliantly delineates the psychological and sexual perversion of those times.

I received the book timely and in excellent condition. I would recommended this seller. Thank you.

I had read all of Anchee Min's bigger-name novels before Wild Ginger. Little did I know that this small, unassuming book held such a powerful tale. In Becoming Madame Mao, I found Min's sparse writing style to be frustrating at times; however, in Wild Ginger, this style perfectly suits the narrative.

Min really came into her own with this brave tale of devotion, fanaticism, rejection, and love. What struck me is how the author compares Wild Ginger's obsession with Mao to religious dogmatism. Wild Ginger's devotion to Maoism is compared to that of a monk's asceticism, complete with a vow of celibacy. The Cultural Revolution then seems like a cult, in which unquestioning followers live their lives motivated by fear and control.

Although the book is named after its ostensible heroine and the focus of the two main characters also revolves around her, the story is actually narrated by Wild Ginger's best friend Maple. Maple introduces Wild Ginger to a neighborhood young man named Evergreen, and their three fates become permanently entwined. While Maple is a half-hearted Maoist and Evergreen's coming of age is marked by disillusionment with the cause, Wild Ginger turns from a defiant, fighting spirit into a rigid follower of Mao's teachings. Maple and Evergreen bond over their mutual love for Wild Ginger, and cling to the hope that a bit of her soul can be rescued from the devouring flames of fanaticism. When Evergreen is accused of a crime he did not commit, each of the three characters must choose between romantic love, friendship, and self-sacrifice.

Extremely intense book and well written.

At first, it seemed a bit extreme, but after talking to my family (we're Chinese), it was pretty sad to hear that the daily events mentioned in this book are true. My parents and their brothers/sisters experienced an extremely painful life in China.

I rated this book a four because I feel like Anchee Min could have done a better job making transitions between chapters. Though it is like many Chinese movies when an underlying romantic situation occurs; a man and a woman could be enemies fighting each other one second and in the next, they are in love. You feel like you've missed something like how on earth their relationship evolved...

Still a great book; I highly recommend this for everyone, especially high schoolers, who usually don't receive a detailed historical education of Asia during the communist years.

If you've not come across Anchee Min yet in your China reading, she really is an author to add to your list. Her memoir, Red Azalea, was named one of the New York Times' Notable Books of 1994 and was an international bestseller. Her novels Becoming Madame Mao and Empress Orchid were also chart toppers that received critical acclaim. Her two other novels, Katherine and Wild Ginger, enjoyed excellent reviews and impressive foreign sales. Stay tuned for her new book The Last Empress, which concerns the life of the Qing Dynasty's Ci Xi, and is due out in March 2007.

Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. She joined the Red Guards, and at seventeen she was sent to a labor collective. While in the countryside, a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai film studio offered her a new career as a movie actress. She lept at the chance to escape the back breaking work, starvation, and brutalization of the Maoist farm, only to experience a different version of purgatory within the film studio. She has lived in the United States since 1984. Most of her literary work reflects her experiences with communism.

With regard to Wild Ginger, the book gives a reality-based view of the stress personal relationships suffered during the tumultuous years of China's Cultural Revolution. In this story, a young, working-class girl named Maple meets the brave and devoted Maoist, Wild Ginger, who makes it her mission in life to prove that she is worthy of the Communist Party despite her "bad" background. In the warped reality of those days, Wild Ginger denounces her mother for marrying a French man and thus causing her such trauma in life.

Ginger and Maple bond at school in resistance to a girl named Hot Pepper's bullying. When they require greater power to withstand her attacks, the girls call on Maple's old friend, the handsome and smart Evergreen. Ginger and Evergreen share a mutual goal of winning the upcoming Mao quotation contest. Though competitors, in true communist spirit, they decide to help each other study. Before long, the two fall in love--a serious problem in Mao-land. After Ginger performs an act of heroism she finally wins the respect of the Party, a coveted handshake with Mao himself, and a place in the Party. But the old saying "be careful of what you want--you might get it" applies here. Party membership in Ginger's case requires her to devote her life to Maoism in the same way that monks devote themselves to Buddhism--by remaining devoted to the cause without the distraction of marriage or romantic love. Ginger struggles to keep from acting on her feelings for Evergreen, and being together torments them both. Finally Maple and Evergreen betray Ginger by forming a relationship that springs from their mutual deep love of Ginger.

As a party member, taking revenge on Evergreen and Maple is easy. However, Hot Pepper gets involved in Ginger's plot to punish Evergreen and Maple because of her own ulterior motive, causing disaster for each of the book' s main characters. In the end, the Cultural Revolution has had tragic consequences even for life's most vital aspect--human relationships. The story is quite unsettling, because although it's fiction, the destruction of love, friendship, and family ties was all too real for many people during those topsy-turvy days. The book could just as easily be true.

Despite the depressing subject matter, Wild Ginger is a very well written page-turner. It reads quickly and remains hard to put down.

An intense and intimate look into the life of a woman who grew up in a troubled time.

A terrifying mix of The Good Earth and 1984.

A poor book says little with many words.

A great book says much with few words.

Wild Ginger is a great book.

There is no attempt to dazzle the reader with flowery prose or complexity. It is sparse and simple. There is just the minimum of description - yet, you grow to know the characters and know them intimately.

Very well done. Beautiful and thought provoking.