Baba Book

My main complaint is that the word "upon" could have been replaced with "on" many times throughout this book.


"After each venture into a segment of that landscape, we were able to step forth into the haven of the present, to breath and to rest."

"In their very artlessness they captured life more directly than any attempt at careful imitation could ever do."

"Down the craw and into the maw of the subterranean storage space they tumbled."

"He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, yet he could not, his thoughts drifting to his mother, a solitary woman defending a darkened house."

"On summer afternoons, the husband did little more than sit in the east end of the cottage, where a feisty little breeze pushed in through the open window."

"lucky days for raising roof beams and moving furniture."

"artists breather upon their brushes to keep the pigments from freezing upon the hairs as they painted murals."

"He removed his hat and, with the palm of his right hand, briskly brushed back his head of stiff, bristly hair. This motion allowed the yangqi, positive human energy, to flow forth, suppressing the yinqi, the negative energy possessed by demons."

"The last harvest of the year! It'll make your tongues curl and your eyeballs roll!"

"Baba glimpsed a talisman, a small fish carved from green jade, as it was being placed inside the dead man's mouth; this was to ensure prosperity in the next world."

"In the meantime, the eldest son had lost no time in climbing up to the rooftop on a ladder, and he could now he heard crowing instructions to the dead."

"The centuries of incense smoke had painted the interior as lightless as the inside of a black velvet sack."

"Now, when a man falls sick, friends and relatives feverishly pray to Heaven and Earth for his return to vigor; conversely, when a man is dead, no friend or relative would wish the corpse to step out and strut about again."

"a taste of sunlight upon his tongue."

"Big thirsty cows are for women...like when neighbor Ding's wife died and they provided her with one in the afterlife so that it would drink up all the water -- all the water she may have wasted in her lifetime of cooking and cleaning."

"Nattily attired in a Western suit and sporting a tweed cap, he frequented the restaurants that catered mouthwatering delicacies such as "lion's head," "pork potstickers with silver ears," and "mutton hot pot."

"How did she come to terms with her layers of regret for the days of fulfillment that came to others as naturally as sunlight and wind?"

"Hard-boiled eyes embedded in a green face had stared her down."

"Holding the emptied rice bowl, she would extend her bony forearm out from under the hump and croak,"Give us more grub!"

"Crack! The smell of sulfur. A man had lit a match. "Open up your mouth, you old demon!" said he. The woman obeyed like a child. The man tossed the flaming matchstick into her wide-open mouth. "There, tell me what it is!" the man demanded. Baba could hear the snap of the matchstick as the old woman bit down with her few remaining teeth. "Well, come now -- tell me what it is!" "Ha ha! What it is? What it is? I'll tell you what it is! It's the stem of a scrumptious pear."

Upon the length that extended out of the case was written the extravagant sum "One hundred yuan," followed by his own name: "Yang the Incorruptible."

"Baba tied his donkey to a fence post and walked up to the house, with its gently rounded roof -- the overall shape like a thick loaf of bread, the design typical of Manchuria."

"Baba sat on the kang, admiring the New Year prints. "How bright and friendly they are," he said to himself. "When I get a chance, I'd like to paint something in those colors."

"A slap to the noggin of the "stupid squash" would emphasize his point."

"Third Son is a bit of a cabbagehead," she said."

"At the stern of the spectral boat hovered the figure of a man, whose milky blue face was swollen as tight as a drum; from his long, disheveled hair rolled beads of brown water."

"He only laughed as if the wind had addled his brain."