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Apologies Forthcoming by Xujun Eberlein
Winner of the third Tartt Fiction Award! A totally illuminating collection of stories centered around China’s cultural revolution and its aftermath, which, as we learn, continues even today – with both sides still holding out, with “apologies forthcoming.” Xujun Eberlein lived in China during that tumultuous period and now makes her home in America. This, her first story collection, is both disturbing and enthralling.
Mass Market Paperback
First published May 30, 2008
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About the author
Xujun Eberlein
6 books30 followersXujun Eberlein is the author of the award-winning story collection
Apologies Forthcoming
. An immigrant living in the Boston area, she is also a widely published essayist. One of her latest essays, "Ms. Daylily," has been selected for The Best American Essays 2023 by Vivian Gornick and Robert Atwan.
Xujun's writing has appeared in many magazines in the United States, as well as in Canada, England, Kenya, and Hong Kong. Her literary awards include The Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction, artist fellowship in fiction/creative nonfiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the VCCA’s Goldfarb Non-fiction Fellowship, first prize of the Ledge Fiction Award, second prize of Literal Latte's Essay Awards, honorable mention from Dana Award in the Essay, winner of Tartt Fiction Award and runner-up for Drake Emerging Writer's Award.
Xujun's book reviews have appeared at Los Angeles Review of Books, the Atlantic Web, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere.
More information about her writing and literary awards can be found on her website https://xujuneberlein.com/.
Xujun's writing has appeared in many magazines in the United States, as well as in Canada, England, Kenya, and Hong Kong. Her literary awards include The Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction, artist fellowship in fiction/creative nonfiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the VCCA’s Goldfarb Non-fiction Fellowship, first prize of the Ledge Fiction Award, second prize of Literal Latte's Essay Awards, honorable mention from Dana Award in the Essay, winner of Tartt Fiction Award and runner-up for Drake Emerging Writer's Award.
Xujun's book reviews have appeared at Los Angeles Review of Books, the Atlantic Web, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere.
More information about her writing and literary awards can be found on her website https://xujuneberlein.com/.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 17, 2008
I thought I'd reviewed this already. Oh well.
This is an impressive debut. It's not just the writing, which is careful and concise, but the package in its entirety, a (partial) explanation through stories of people and places which I recognize from history books, but knew little about before I read this book. I look forward to Xujun's memoir when it's published.
This is an impressive debut. It's not just the writing, which is careful and concise, but the package in its entirety, a (partial) explanation through stories of people and places which I recognize from history books, but knew little about before I read this book. I look forward to Xujun's memoir when it's published.
August 2, 2008
This impressive collection of short stories gives the reader a glimpse into the world of China’s Cultural Revolution and its legacy. Reformed Red Guards, city kids “inserted” in impoverished farming villages, educated women looking for love with men who find them “too high to reach,” all grapple with the harsh realities of the times that are guaranteed to reveal any character to its depths. Xujun Eberlein’s witty, economical and often breathtaking prose makes for many memorable moments: a girl’s attempts to transform her grief into art by writing letters to her grandmother in her dead sister’s name, the desperate efforts of lovers seeking intimacy in a society hostile to erotic expression, the hollow eyes of a mother who has lost everything she loves, a showdown between a respected scholar and the man who once humiliated him, which brings no apologies, but illuminates for the reader the tragedy of good men at the mercy of history. Apologies Forthcoming offers more than a window into a foreign place and a distant time, however. The protagonists’ dreams and desires and the compromises they make are ultimately profoundly familiar. This book stretched my mind, charmed my sensibilities, and touched my heart. These are the reasons why I read fiction, and I give it my highest recommendation!
December 4, 2008
A powerful collection of stories taking place during and after the Cultural Revolution in China. Intimate, melancholy, comic, sensuous, the stories cover a broad range: the mysterious, short-lived career of a promising poet ("Snow Line"); the fate of an urban teenager sent to work in a peasant collective in the countryside ("Disciple of the Masses"); the accidental meeting, years later in the U.S., of two members of rival revolutionary factions ("Second Encounter"). Social history informs every page of this collection but never overwhelms the artistry. Eberlein (who herself experienced the Cultural Revolution as a teenager in China) is a subtle psychologist with a beautiful eye for detail.
September 6, 2008
Loved this collection. Deceptively simply-written tales that carried me into the eras of and after China's disastrous Cultural Revolution. There's an authenticity to each setting, character and situation that attests to Xujun's experiences, but each story is truly a story, compelling and complicated at heart.
May 24, 2008
When I was 21, in 1968, I thought I had to reject adults in order to make the world a better place. I didn't know that on the other side of the world, a billion Chinese were in a frenzy to do the same thing. Mao's Cultural Revolution was in full swing, and educated families became the enemies of the state. This book of short stories brings those times to life, through the eyes of a young intellectual girl in a world that had turned against education.
December 15, 2011
I loved this collection of short stories about people who grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Rather than focusing on the devastating policies back then, Xujun Eberlein instead centers in on the emotions of the people who suffered through those years--and how they would never be the same afterward. If you know all about the Cultural Revolution, or even if you've never heard of Jiang Qing, you'll enjoy these stories for the powerful story-telling.
March 2, 2017
Great set of intelligently written fiction stories about life during and after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Some awkwardness in sentence structure, but sad and thought-provoking, the stories show how the average person was greatly affected by this huge feat of brainwashing. No holds barred, this is how it was and what it was like after. Wow.
July 2, 2008
Review forthcoming.
For now I will say that this work is delicately written, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
For now I will say that this work is delicately written, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
July 23, 2008
Xujun's sublime short stories explode the western-centric worldview. Here is 'other'.
September 21, 2008
A very human look at the impact of the cultural revolution! Eberlein has a gift for storytelling and a skill with prose.
October 18, 2008
Xujun's characters are living their lives as best they can in turbulent times. Her Chinese-inflected English often made me stop and savor words or expressions
February 18, 2011
Moving and masterfully told stories of ordinary people caught up in the side-effects of the Cultural Revolution. Highly recommended.
September 26, 2018
A "fresh voice" indeed. These stories unfold like much longer narratives and often feature the kind of person who might be most out of place in the new China: the strong, independent Chinese woman who wants both a career and a family, who wants, most of all to live an authentic life. The world of these stories is richly drawn. A wonderful read.
September 20, 2017
This is a beautiful collection of stories. It's slow, careful, human. It is frightening and lovely in all of the right ways.
April 19, 2016
This book, written by a Chinese ex-patriot, revolves around the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As such, for a person who has not studied greatly into the subject, the work was immensely interesting. When I was younger, I preferred fiction because I felt that it provided me better insight into a given time and place than history books could. Perhaps, if I were back in school and more focused in my reading, fiction would become my favorite genre again--and books like Eberlein's would be key to making that happen.
My one previous reading into the Cultural Revolution was a paper/memoir written by a classmate in an autobiography class I once took. A Chinese immigrant himself, my classmate decided to focus on his experiences then rather than on the fiction early American narrative we were asked. I wish I'd spent more time reading the work for what it was now, rather than being focused on giving feedback and wondering how the memoir fit into the class assignment.
Eberlein's book contains eight stories of essentially even quality. In the opening story, "Snow Line," a man writes a poem that take the nation by storm--a poem that is not explicitly Maoist. The story is a commentary on art amid all-encompassing political idealism. Unlike most of the stories in the collection, the focus seems more on art than on politics. Many of the stories, including "Pivot Point" and "The Randomness of Love," involve innocent and/or adulterous love
"Feathers" is about a girl who tries to hide from her little sister and grandmother the knowledge that her older sister has died while doing Maoist work in the country, going even so far as to hire someone to pose as her older sister coming back for a visit.
In "Men Don't Apologize," a girl goes to work for a bus manufacturer and discovers why bus accidents often occur. She also finds the man who accused her father of being a capitalist during the revolution, but when she tries to bring the two together to bury the hatchet, she discovers that forgiveness does not come easily.
"Watch the Thrill" discusses harrowing events from the point of view of boys who have no understanding of them--who in fact find joy in watching people beat up, chased, and killed, so much so that they actually prevent one man from running to safety after committing a potentially revolutionary act, if not an act of revenge.
"Disiple of the Masses" focuses on a city girl who goes to live in the country to help out farmers. There, she discovers that rather than being an aid, she is a spy.
The collection ends with a tale told in the United States, many years after the events. This look back seems a particularly good way to draw the work to a close.
My one previous reading into the Cultural Revolution was a paper/memoir written by a classmate in an autobiography class I once took. A Chinese immigrant himself, my classmate decided to focus on his experiences then rather than on the fiction early American narrative we were asked. I wish I'd spent more time reading the work for what it was now, rather than being focused on giving feedback and wondering how the memoir fit into the class assignment.
Eberlein's book contains eight stories of essentially even quality. In the opening story, "Snow Line," a man writes a poem that take the nation by storm--a poem that is not explicitly Maoist. The story is a commentary on art amid all-encompassing political idealism. Unlike most of the stories in the collection, the focus seems more on art than on politics. Many of the stories, including "Pivot Point" and "The Randomness of Love," involve innocent and/or adulterous love
"Feathers" is about a girl who tries to hide from her little sister and grandmother the knowledge that her older sister has died while doing Maoist work in the country, going even so far as to hire someone to pose as her older sister coming back for a visit.
In "Men Don't Apologize," a girl goes to work for a bus manufacturer and discovers why bus accidents often occur. She also finds the man who accused her father of being a capitalist during the revolution, but when she tries to bring the two together to bury the hatchet, she discovers that forgiveness does not come easily.
"Watch the Thrill" discusses harrowing events from the point of view of boys who have no understanding of them--who in fact find joy in watching people beat up, chased, and killed, so much so that they actually prevent one man from running to safety after committing a potentially revolutionary act, if not an act of revenge.
"Disiple of the Masses" focuses on a city girl who goes to live in the country to help out farmers. There, she discovers that rather than being an aid, she is a spy.
The collection ends with a tale told in the United States, many years after the events. This look back seems a particularly good way to draw the work to a close.
January 23, 2009
Wonderful storytelling. At the end of each story I felt like I'd read a novel. (You know that feeling when you finish a good novel, close the covers, breathe out and blink, like you're returning to the real world again?) I think that's due to the depth of the characters, and the breadth invoked even in the 'simplest' and shortest pieces. I also learned a lot about the Cultural Revolution - good to expand knowledge while richly entertained, no?
The story 'Second Encounter' was especially moving - a relatively straightforward premise, people with a shared past meeting in the present, as the title implies. It could have veered schlocky or sentimental in less skilled hands, but the power was all in the way Eberlein unwound their encounter, and the humanity of the characters. Quite extraordinary.
But to be honest I was absorbed by every story, and sorry to finish the collection. I read the stories out of order so kept hunting back just in case (fingers crossed) I'd missed one.
The story 'Second Encounter' was especially moving - a relatively straightforward premise, people with a shared past meeting in the present, as the title implies. It could have veered schlocky or sentimental in less skilled hands, but the power was all in the way Eberlein unwound their encounter, and the humanity of the characters. Quite extraordinary.
But to be honest I was absorbed by every story, and sorry to finish the collection. I read the stories out of order so kept hunting back just in case (fingers crossed) I'd missed one.
February 20, 2016
At first I was thrown off by the seemingly off-kilter language of these stories, but I slowly became not only acclimated but appreciative of how well steeped they are in the tone and perspective of China in the throws of the Cultural Revolution. The stories are subtle, avoiding lazy didacticism, while conveying forcefully the toll on an immense number of people the turbulence of this period in Chinese history. Moreover, I admire how deftly Xujun interweaves themes and characters across "different" stories, repeating, reassessing and refashioning; it gives the book, as a whole, the effect of a large verbal tapestry.
August 5, 2009
Each story in Xujun Eberlein’s Apologies Forthcoming is set within or haunted by the Chinese Cultural revolution, invoking the specters of Chairman Mao and political oppression. Many of the stories share two additional similarities: young women whose high intelligence becomes a liability for marriage prospects, and the forced relocation of urbanities to villages (referred to as “inserting”). ..."
Read the rest of John Fox's review on The Short Review.
Read the rest of John Fox's review on The Short Review.
May 13, 2015
This book was filled with raw stories that could have come straight out of a history book. The time and events in the book were presented well but it was harder for me to connect because these people exist in a world so different from my own that it was a challenge to get myself into their shoes. Overall worth the challenge and the read.
May 17, 2012
These stories put love, desire, and the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution in a pressure cooker and then leave the room.
Rich beautiful language that feels completely natural when a lesser writer would have sounded precious. She's really funny too.
Rich beautiful language that feels completely natural when a lesser writer would have sounded precious. She's really funny too.
January 14, 2009
Excellent, powerful collections of story that educate and entertain. An interesting, fast read.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews