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Gold Mountain Blues
by
Ling Zhang
In the epic storytelling tradition of Amy Tan and Jiang Rong comes Gold Mountain Blues, a rich saga chronicling the lives of five generations of a Chinese family from Guandong Province transformed by the promise of a better life in Gold Mountain, the Chinese name for Canada’s majestic West Coast.
In 1879, 16-year-old Fong Tak-Fat boards a ship to Canada determined to make...more
In 1879, 16-year-old Fong Tak-Fat boards a ship to Canada determined to make...more
544 pages
Published
October 4th 2011
by Viking Canada
(first published 2009)
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At more then 400 pages, this was an epic. I enjoy epics, but I began to lose patience for this convoluted story which attempted to set a record for the greatest number of tragedies and indignities for one family. Any character you might slightly care for gets beaten, starved, raped, or dies, usually a senseless and or gruesome death. Highly unbelievable and melodramatic, as if the author wanted every single historical calamity in China or Canada to apply to this one very unfortunate family. I st...more
Gold Mountain Blues is a hefty 522 pages long fictional novel based on the experiences of Chinese immigrants who came to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway project. It is a multi-generational saga which spans 125 years from 1879 to 2004 and the story oscillates between southern China and western Canada as it follows the lives of the many characters. It also jumps from one time period to another and despite the back and forth episodes, I truly enjoyed the book.
Some of its critics poin...more
Some of its critics poin...more
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Wat een dikke pil, maar wat een leesgenot ook! Ondanks het feit dat ik geen haast had, vloog ik razendsnel door dit boek heen. Droom van Gouden Bergen van schrijfster Ling Zhang vertelt een epische familiesage en een ontroerend liefdesverhaal over een Chinese (immigranten-)familie die generaties lang door de oceaan tussen Canada en China gescheiden zijn en telkens weer hun weg terug proberen te vinden naar hun thuisland.
Deze roman behandelt het klasseverschil tussen Chinezen onderling, het rass...more
Deze roman behandelt het klasseverschil tussen Chinezen onderling, het rass...more
Lengthy books don't typically bother me, but this 500+ page tome lacked a believable plot. The writing style could be blamed on the fact that it was translated from Chinese, but this hardly makes up for the long drawn-out narrative (spanning four generations). The book started off promising, but fell flat about halfway through. Basically it showed its true colours--as a laundry-list of absolutely everything that happened to the early Chinese immigrants.... all of which happened to ONE family in...more
More of a 3.5 star read.
I really enjoyed the story of the Fong family through the four generations depicted in this book. The strength of this book lies in the history of the Chinese experience of emigrating to North America (in this book, the Vancouver area of British Columbia). It tells of the trials, pains, loneliness and adaptations that the entire family (on both sides of the ocean) encounter. I must say that I'm both at awe and confused at some of the brave decisions made by the original...more
I really enjoyed the story of the Fong family through the four generations depicted in this book. The strength of this book lies in the history of the Chinese experience of emigrating to North America (in this book, the Vancouver area of British Columbia). It tells of the trials, pains, loneliness and adaptations that the entire family (on both sides of the ocean) encounter. I must say that I'm both at awe and confused at some of the brave decisions made by the original...more
Gold Mountain Blues by Ling Zhang is an extraordinary read and page turner. The novel is a fictional family saga set in China and Canada, spanning 125 years from 1879 to 2004, with vivid stories about life and death, love and hate of the Fong Family.
The multi-generational epic starts with Amy Smith, the fourth generation of a Chinese immigrant, who visits her family mansion in China. Among the different artefacts found in the house, an opium pipe helps trace back to the early years of the Fong f...more
The multi-generational epic starts with Amy Smith, the fourth generation of a Chinese immigrant, who visits her family mansion in China. Among the different artefacts found in the house, an opium pipe helps trace back to the early years of the Fong f...more
There were times I did enjoy the book - the story was interesting, and the author did do a good job at showing the struggles of immigration and the effects on those who go and those who are left behind. Unfortunately, I found that because of all the different storylines, the generational aspects of the book never came together properly. In the end, it was a book that just missed the mark and it didn't exactly work out for me.
The characters were a bit of an issue throughout the book. There were...more
The characters were a bit of an issue throughout the book. There were...more
Very compelling, non-linear telling of the story of five generation of a Chinese family who comes to Canada to work on the trans-Canada railway. Zhang's writing is much stronger and believable when she writes her characters from older generations. Sections of the story set in the present day are much weaker than the family history and lack the depth to make those characters compelling and likeable. However, her love of her older characters really shines through and makes the book a worthwhile re...more
This is a very interesting book. It is well written about the Chinese in Canada and their families that remained in China when the men came to Gold Mountain Canada. Although I knew some of our horrible history regarding our treatment of them this book was very revealing. It is especially good as it is written by a Chinese woman and told from a Chinese perspective. I highly recommend reading this book
I didn't enjoy this and so didn't finish. I couldn't connect with the characters as written. Too bad, this is a subject that ordinarily would appeal to me.
Ik vond dit een ontzettend goed boek tot ongeveer 70 blz voor het einde. Zo van pats boem einde, zonde.
May 30, 2013
Michelle
marked it as to-read
May 18, 2013
Kelly
marked it as to-read
May 12, 2013
Eva García
marked it as to-read
May 11, 2013
Jackie Mines
marked it as to-read
Apr 06, 2013
Ebru
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