{"product_id":"fortress-besieged-9780811215527","title":"Fortress Besieged","description":"Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, our hapless hero Fang Hung-chien (á la Emma Bovary), with no particular goal in life and with a bogus degree from a fake American university in hand, returns home to Shanghai. On the French liner home, he meets two Chinese beauties, Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, \"With Miss Pao it wasn't a matter of heart or soul. She hadn't any change of heart, since she didn't have a heart.\" In a sort of painful comedy, Fang obtains a teaching post at a newly established university where the effete pseudo-intellectuals he encounters in academia become the butt of Qian's merciless satire. Soon Fang is trapped into a marriage of Nabokovian proportions of distress and absurdity. Recalling Fielding's \u003cem\u003eTom Jones\u003c\/em\u003e in its farcical litany of misadventures and Flaubert's \"style indirect libre,\" \u003cem\u003eFortress Besieged\u003c\/em\u003e is its own unique feast of delights.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/17\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780811215527\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2004 pg. 113\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMulticultural Review\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2004 pg. 13\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/12\/2008 pg. 57\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Qian Zhongshu","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43544058003637,"sku":"9780811215527","price":19.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_b525c633-5aab-41ab-95ca-6c71754d4679.jpg?v=1706118206","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/fortress-besieged-9780811215527","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}