A unique modern memoir of growing up in rural China in the '60s and '70s, 'Colours of the Mountain' is a powerful and moving story of supreme determination and extraordinary faith against the most impossible odds.
A book about friendships, prejudice, familial love and academic striving, and of one man's escape from hunger, poverty and ignorance, this is an inspiring and eloquently recounted memoir.
(Blurb)

This book was part of the Contemporary Asian Literature VBB
and is travelling to Tsjara now.

Happy reading!

Arrived here safely yesterday (together with The Tapestries by Kien Nguyen). Sounds like a great read, can't wait to begin :)
Thank you ApoloniaX for sending it so quickly and the beautiful bookmark! Oh and for hosting the Contemporary Asian Literature VBB of course :)


Reserved for chucklesthescot (round 3 of the VBB)

I finished reading the book this afternoon. It was a very interesting story, beautifully written, and Da is a very likeable character. Sometimes I forgot that it took place in China in the 60' or 70's, which actually isn't such a long time ago, but it sometimes felt as if it was.. not sure why... What I found interesting and surprising was that when (Chairman) Mao died, Da was actually quite sad about it (wasn't he the enemy?) but later on in the book he didn't think highly of him at all. When the story was finished I felt happy for Da, but also a bit sad at the same time.. he's fulfilling his dream, spreading his wings..but leaving his family and friends behind... (I wonder how his life continues and what happened to his family and friends)


Will mail this to chucklesthescot tomorrow :)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Didn't make it to the post office yesterday, so mailed it today.

It seems that the mail company has dropped the standard shipping rate (which is cheaper) and now there is only priority mail (and they did it quite sneaky without any notice at all), so the book should arrive faster since I send it priority... I wonder...

Anyway, hope you'll enjoy it :)
(I hope it arrives safely, was sort of experimenting with the wrapping and stuff..so it might look a bit weird :p)

Very fast delivery! It was here at 10am to greet me when I dragged myself out of my bed! Thank you very much for the book and lovely postcard. xx

I liked the start of the book with the shocking way people especially children were treated during the Cultural Revolution, a period of history that fascinates me. But when it got to the section where Da Chen was hanging around with the older boys it just started to drag and there was nothing of interest there to keep my attention. I got bored and went to read another book instead. What a pity the book deviated from the things that had made it good up until that point.

This has been on my shelf way too long so I'm releasing it to find a new reader