Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather
by Gao Xingjian
First published 2004 · English · 141 pages
- Short stories
This collection gathers short stories by Gao Xingjian written mostly in the 1980s, around the time he was developing his distinctive style. The stories are set in China and draw on childhood memories, rural life, small encounters and moments of reflection. Many are quiet and fragmentary, using shifting viewpoints and dreamlike touches to explore memory, loss and ordinary feeling. The title story recalls a boy's relationship with an older relative. The book offers a gentle introduction to the author's shorter fiction.
Quotes
I want to write a novel so profound that it would suffocate a fly.
The sand murmurs that it wants to swallow everything.
A good man never fights with a woman.
Grandfather, when you saw the tiger were you scared? Bad people scare me, not tigers. Grandfather, have you ever run into bad people? There aren’t many tigers but lots of bad people, only you can’t shoot people.