Wayson Choy Bücher

Chinatown, Vancouver, in den späten 1930er und 1940er Jahren bildet den Hintergrund für diesen bewegenden Debütroman, der durch die lebhaften und intensiven Erinnerungen der drei jüngeren Kinder einer Einwandererfamilie erzählt wird. Sie erleben jeweils eine sehr unterschiedliche Kindheit, abhängig von Alter und Geschlecht, während sie mit den Komplexitäten von Geburt und Tod, Liebe und Hass, Verwandtschaft und Andersartigkeit konfrontiert werden. Vermischt mit den Realitäten Kanadas und dem Grauen des Krieges sind die Magie, Geister, Papieronkels und Familiengeheimnisse von Poh-Poh, der Großmutter, die das Herz und die Säule der Familie ist. Wayson Choys Chinatown ist eine Gemeinschaft unvergesslicher Individuen, die "weder das noch dies" sind, weder ganz kanadisch noch ganz chinesisch. Doch mit der Hilfe voneinander überstehen sie Entbehrungen und Herzschmerz mit Mut und Humor.

In 1995, during the publicity tour for his much-acclaimed first novel, "The Jade Peony," Wayson Choy received a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to have just seen his mother on a streetcar. He politely informed the caller that she must be mistaken, since his mother had died long ago. "No, no, not that mother," the voice insisted. "Your real mother." Inspired by the startling realization that, like many children of Chinatown, he had been adopted, Choy constructs a vivid and moving memoir that reveals uncanny similarities between his award-winning first novel and the newly discovered secrets of his Vancouver childhood. From his early experiences with ghosts, through his youthful encounters with cowboys and bachelor uncles, to his discovery of family secrets that crossed the ocean from mainland China to Gold Mountain in the form of paper shadows, this is a beautifully wrought portrait of a child's world from one of Canada's most gifted storytellers.

Wayson Choy u ovoj knjizi donosi intimnu ispovijest čovjeka koji se dvaput suočio sa smrću, i oba puta joj se othrvao uz pomoć i podršku bliskih ljudi koji su mu pružili razlog za život. Wayson Choy preživio je 2001. godine srčani udar. Dok je ležao u bolničkoj sobi na aparatima što su ga održavali na životu, tek povremeno dolazeći k svijesti, Choy je čuo glasove predaka kako ga opominju da će, ako se ne oženi, jednoga dana umrijeti sam. Pa ipak, Choy se tijekom svoje kušnje ni u jednom času nije osjećao usamljeno: muškarci i žene, stari i mladi, iz svih kultura i etničkih zajednica, bdjeli su uz njega dok se nije oporavio. Kada ga je četiri godine kasnije srce ponovno izdalo, upravo je snaga njegove povezanosti s tim ljudima, iskovana kroz bezbrojna plemenita djela, vratila Choya u život. Ova je knjiga prikazuje važne uloge obiteljskih veza u čovjekovu životu – samo što u Choyevu slučaju to nije bila obitelj koju povezuju krvne veze nego veze uzajamnog razumijevanja i ljubavi. Knjiga slavi ljubav prema životu i poziva da se radujemo i budemo zahvalni na svakom novom danu koji proživimo.