| Arts & Photography
 Audio CDs
 Audiocassettes
 Biographies & Memoirs
 Business & Investing
 Children's Books
 Christianity
 Comics & Graphic Novels
 Computers & Internet
 Cooking, Food & Wine
 Entertainment
 Gay & Lesbian
 Health, Mind & Body
 History
 Home & Garden
 Horror
 Literature & Fiction
 Mystery & Thrillers
 Nonfiction
 Outdoors & Nature
 Parenting & Families
 Professional & Technical
 Reference
 Religion & Spirituality
 Romance
 Science
 Science Fiction & Fantasy
 Sports
 Teens
 Travel
 Women's Fiction
 
 | 
    | | |  | Colors of the Mountain |  | List Price: $25.00 Your Price:
 |  | 
 |  |  |  | 
| Product Info | Reviews |  | Features:
 
 
 Description:
 
 Now a writer living in New York, Da Chen describes his youth in mainland China with engaging humor and affecting warmth. It's often a harrowing tale: born in 1962, Chen was the grandson of a landlord, which rendered his entire family pariahs during the Cultural Revolution. And though initially an excellent student, he was ostracized in school and told he could never attend college. He responded by making friends with a group of young thugs who drank, smoked, and gambled but were kind to him. After Mao died in 1976, the budding juvenile delinquent discovered that higher education might be available to him after all. Chen worked hard to make up for years of neglected studies, and his memoir closes with a jubilant scene as he and his brother Jin are both accepted into college; for his suffering family, "thirty years of humiliation had suddenly come to an end." Chen's lucid yet emotional prose unsparingly portrays a topsy-turvy society where unfairness reigns and the rules are arbitrarily changed without warning, but his zest for life and sharp eye for character make even the most awful moments grimly funny. This is no saga of victimization, but a thrilling account of an ordeal that fosters spiritual growth. Readers will cheer Chen's triumph over daunting odds. --Wendy Smith
 | 
 | 
 | 
 |