Desolate Journey

Author: He Dun
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-05-01
Features: This is a story of a bookseller, a striving bookseller from Yellow Clay Street who makes his way to Beijing. The protagonist of the novel, Zhang Xun, is a master's degree holder and an intellectual who often quotes Zhuangzi, yet his impoverished life has made him develop an obsessive desire for money. He works as an editor, though he has long possessed a city resident's status, but deep down, he remains a farmer. He once had a wild desire to conquer the men and women of the city. When he became a bookseller, the meaning of money shifted from value to digits, and he began to treat himself well and enjoy his success. He places more importance on human worth and often laments that we should enjoy every day of our lives, as each day that passes is one that will never return. Thus, over the twenty-plus years of his adulthood, he had five women, falling madly in love with four of them.