February 02, 2006

February's Book: Sky Burial

I'd like to suggest Sky Burial by Xue Xinran for the read for this month. (This is all Amy's fault, by the way, because Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress made me want more stuff with Chinese culture in it. Though of course this book isn't anything Chinese--it's about Tibet. But it's still Amy's fault.)

This is the story of a Chinese woman who spends thirty years in Tibet trying to find her husband--or, at least, to find the truth about what happened to him. It's beautiful, stark, and as far as I can tell, it's true.

3 comments:

sharonsfriendjen said...

I just finished this book. It now my favorite book. To walk a day in Wen's shoes would have been amazing. To spend the amount of time she had devoted to her husband and friend was amazing. The Tibetan way of life is not for the weak. Wen proved that the human spirit goes far beyond what we give credit for.

sharonsfriendjen said...

I just finished this book. It now my favorite book. To walk a day in Wen's shoes would have been amazing. To spend the amount of time she had devoted to her husband and friend was amazing. The Tibetan way of life is not for the weak. Wen proved that the human spirit goes far beyond what we give credit for.

wynne said...

My favorite thing about the book was how Tibetans treat religion: the idea that Tibet itself was a monastary. I would love to be able to get that sort of simplicity and devotion into my own life (but I wouldn't want to give up hot showers, thanks).