Yiyun Li
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
For Dapeng
Praise for A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS
A subtle and original perspective on the latest chapter in Chinas turbulent history. . Li is a valuable firsthand guide to this decade of mind-bending change. . [She] shows a light touch that, combined with her gift for characterization, saves her stories from turning into consciousness-raising exercises. . Poignant. The New York Times Book Review
Thoughtful, deceptively quiet, and always surprising, these seamless stories remind us that regardless of the society we inhabit, the most basic human emotions. . transcend history and geography, and are universal, timeless, and endlessly mysterious. O: The Oprah Magazine
The stories in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers are both contemporary and universal, telling of love, death, and the joys and burdens of family against the backdrop of Chinas sudden modernity. . Whats clear from this volume is that the delineations of [Lis] talent have only begun to come into view. Elle
Yiyun Li is a true storyteller. Great stories offer us the details of life on the riverbanks: birth, family, dinner and love, all framing the powerful flow of terror, death, political change, the river itself. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is as grand an epic and as tenderly private as a reader could wish. AMY BLOOM, author of Come to Me
An extraordinary feat of intelligence and style. Li writes as though English were her native tongue. Her prose is wonderfully complex, emotive and smart. . Her sentences not only move some fine stories along, they also dramatize a serious understanding of contemporary life and a deeply felt response to the rigors and vagaries of drinking from modernitys sometimes bitter cup. San Francisco Chronicle
A remarkable debut. . Its one of those rare short story collections where you find yourself reading one perfectly realized gem after the next. . Each of these stories takes you to a different place, and each feels fresh, wise and alive, creating a fascinating, horrifying and heartbreaking picture of life in a country where the past never goes away. The Washington Post Book World
Absorbing. . expertly plumb[s] lives silenced by disappointment, where release can come in unexpected forms and as suddenly as a long-forgotten memory. Entertainment Weekly
This extraordinary collection reminds you just how big a short story can be. With wit, ruthlessness, and an understanding of human nature its grand follies, private sorrows, and petty dreams A Thousand Years of Good Prayers may remind you of Flannery OConnor, though Li is an original. Read this book and marvel at a writer both at the height of her powers and at the start of a brilliant career. ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN, author of The Giants House
One of the years most auspicious debuts. San Jose Mercury News
A beautifully executed debut collection. . Li deftly weaves a political message into her human portraits. . Powerful. Publishers Weekly
Complex, moving, and surprising. Library Journal (starred review)
With great tenderness, tact and humor, these stories open a world that is culturally remote from us, and at the same time as humanly intimate as if its people were our own family and their thoughts the thoughts that lie nearest our own hearts. MARILYNNE ROBINSON, author of Gilead and Housekeeping
[A] superb debut. . [Lis] settings are vital and her characters richly complicated. . Provocative and memorable fiction that is at once culturally specific and universal. Booklist
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is not only an outstanding first book of fiction by a young writer, it is a literary event that transcends language. Lis stories express an inexpressible joy. One can only wish Yiyun Li many happy returns to her writing desk. Providence Journal
Extra
GRANNY LIN WALKS IN THE STREET ON A November afternoon with a stainless steel lunch pail in her hand. Inside the lunch pail is an official certificate from her working unit. Hereby we confirm Comrade Lin Mei is honorably retired from Beijing Red Star Garment Factory, says the certificate in bright golden characters.
It does not say that Red Star Garment Factory has gone bankrupt or that, being honorably retired, Granny Lin will not receive her pension. Of course it will not provide such information, for these facts are simply not true. Bankrupt is the wrong word for a state-owned industry. Internal reorganization is what has been kindly omitted in the certificate. And, mind this, Granny Lins pension is being withheld only temporarily. For how long, the factory has no further information to offer.
There is always a road when you get into the mountain, Auntie Wang, Granny Lins neighbor, says to her upon being informed of Granny Lins situation.
And there is a Toyota wherever there is a road. The second line of Toyotas commercial slips out before Granny realizes it.
There you go, Granny Lin. I know you are an optimistic person. Stay positive and you will find your Toyota.
But where on earth can she find a way to replenish her dwindling savings? For a few days Granny Lin adds, subtracts, and divides, and she decides that her savings will run out in a year in two years if she can skip a meal here and there, go to bed right after sunset, and stay bundled up so that she does not have to feed the insatiable stove extra coal balls through the long winter of northern China.
Dont worry, Auntie Wang says the next time they meet each other at the market, looking down at the single radish Granny Lin has bought for her dinner, as plump as a Buddha, dwelling between her two palms. You can always find someone and get married.
Get married? Granny Lin says, and blushes.
Dont be so conservative, Granny Lin, Auntie Wang says. How old are you?
Fifty-one.
You are even younger than I am! I am fifty-eight, but I am not as old-fashioned as you. You know what? Young people no longer have a monopoly on marriage.
Dont make me a clown, Granny Lin says.
I am serious, Granny Lin. There are so many old widowers in the city. I am sure there are rich and sick ones who need someone to take care of them.
You mean, I can find a caretakers position for old people? Granny Lin asks.
Auntie Wang sighs and pokes Granny Lins forehead with a finger. Use your brain. Not a caretaker but a wife. That way, you can at least inherit some cash when your husband dies.
Granny Lin gasps. She has never had a husband in her life, and the prospect of a dead husband frightens her. Yet Auntie Wang makes the decision for her right there and then, between two fish stands, and in a short time she finds Granny Lin a match.
Seventy-six. High blood pressure and diabetes. Wife just died. Living alone in a three-bedroom flat. Pension two thousand yuan a month. Both sons married and earning good money in the government, Auntie Wang says, surprised that Granny Lin remains unimpressed. Come on, Granny Lin, where else can you find such a good husband? The old man will die in no time, and the sons are so rich they wont mind sparing some of the old mans savings for you. Let me tell you, this is the most eligible family, as far as I know. Their doorsill has been worn away by the feet of the matchmakers. But of all the possible wives, they are interested only in you. Why? Because you are never married and you have no children. By the way, Granny Lin, how come you arent married? You never told us the reason.
Granny Lin opens and then closes her mouth. It just happens, she says.
You dont have to tell me if you dont want to. Anyway, they dont want someone who has a litter of children and grandchildren. I wouldnt trust such a stepmother, either. Who can guarantee that she wont steal from the old man for her children? But you are the best. I have told them that, were there one honest person left on earth, it would be you, Granny Lin. What are you hesitating for?
Why dont they hire someone to take care of him? Granny Lin asks, thinking of the two sons who might soon become her stepchildren. Wont it be cheaper in the long run?
Do you not know what those young girls from the nanny market are like? They are lazy, and they steal money husbands, too, if they are hired by young couples. They leave the old people sitting in their own shit all day long. To hire such a girl? Ugh. It would only push him to death quicker.
Granny Lin has to agree that, indeed, an older woman as a wife is a wise choice. Accompanied by Auntie Wang, Granny Lin goes to the interview with the two sons and their wives. An hour of questioning later, the two sons exchange a look, and ask if Granny Lin needs some time to consider the marriage offer. Not having much to think about, she moves into her new home in a week. Her husband, Old Tang, is sicker than she has thought. Alzheimers, a daughter-in-law tells her at their wedding dinner.
Granny Lin nods, not knowing what the disease is but guessing that it has something to do with the brain. She supports her husband with both hands and leads him to the table, sitting him down and wiping away the drool from his chin.
GRANNY LIN BECOMES a wife, a mother, and a grand-mother. She no longer remembers in what year of her life people started to call her Granny Lin instead of Auntie Lin; unmarried women, people believe, age faster. It does not matter anymore, because she feels quite qualified for her name.
Every week, one of the sons stops by and checks on Old Tang, leaving enough money for the next week. Old Tang is a quiet man, sitting in his chair by the window, immersed in his bottomless silence. Once in a while, he asks Granny Lin about his wife, and, as instructed by the two sons, Granny Lin replies that the wife is improving in the hospital and will be home in no time. But before she replies Old Tang seems to have forgotten his question, and goes back to his meditation without any sign of having heard Granny Lin. She waits for more questions that never come, and eventually gives up. She turns up the volume of the television and shuffles around the house, sweeping and dusting and wiping and washing, but the time arrives earlier each day when she finishes the housework. Then she sits down on the couch and watches the daytime soap operas. Unlike the twelve-inch television Granny Lin used to own, which required her to make a trip across the room every time she needed to change channels (and all together she got six channels through the antenna made of two steel chopsticks), Old Tangs set is a monster with scores of channels, which all obey a small remote control. Dazed by all the choices she has, and by the ease of moving from one selection to another, Granny Lin soon finds that the machine does her no good. No matter what program she is watching, there is always the nagging worry that she is missing a more interesting one. Several days into her new life, Granny Lin is stunned to discover that she is no longer addicted to television, as she has been in the past ten years. Does marriage have such revolutionary power that a long-established habit can be overthrown in such a short time?