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Hunger: A Novella and Stories
“Spare and haunting tales that ask ordinary questions about that extraordinary emotion: love.”—Chicago Tribune
The novella and five stories that make up this collection reveal the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves: a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father’s death; and in the title novella, a woman speaks from beyond the grave about her tragic marriage to an exiled musician whose own disappointments nearly destroyed their two daughters.190 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Lan Samantha Chang
20 books349 followersLan Samantha Chang was born in Appleton, Wisconsin and attended college at Yale where she earned her bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies. She worked in publishing in New York City briefly before getting her MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was a Wallace E. Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford. She is currently the Elizabeth M. Stanley Professor in the Arts at the University of Iowa and the Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the first woman, and the first Asian American, to hold that position.
Chang's first book is a novella and short stories, titled Hunger (1998). The stories are set in the US and China, and they explore home, family, and loss. The New York Times Book Review called it "Elegant.… A delicately calculated balance sheet of the losses and gains of immigrants whose lives are stretched between two radically different cultures." The Washington Post called it "A work of gorgeous, enduring prose." Her first novel, Inheritance (2004), is about a family torn apart by the Japanese invasion during World War II. The Boston Globe said: "The story…is foreign in its historical sweep and social detail but universal in its emotional truth." Chang's latest novel, All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost (2011), follows two poets and their friendship as they explore the depths and costs of making art. The book received a starred review from Booklist and praise: "Among the many threads Chang elegantly pursues—the fraught relationships between mentors and students, the value of poetry, the price of ambition—it is her indelible portrait of the loneliness of artistic endeavor that will haunt readers the most in this exquisitely written novel about the poet’s lot." Chang's fourth book and third novel, The Family Chao, is forthcoming in 2022.
Chang has received fellowships from MacDowell, the American Library in Paris, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
As the fifth director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Chang has been fundamental to the increase of racial, cultural, and aesthetic diversity within the program, and has mentored a number of emerging writers. In 2019, she received the Michael J. Brody Award and the Regents' Award for Excellence from the University of Iowa.
Website: https://lansamanthachang.com/
Chang's first book is a novella and short stories, titled Hunger (1998). The stories are set in the US and China, and they explore home, family, and loss. The New York Times Book Review called it "Elegant.… A delicately calculated balance sheet of the losses and gains of immigrants whose lives are stretched between two radically different cultures." The Washington Post called it "A work of gorgeous, enduring prose." Her first novel, Inheritance (2004), is about a family torn apart by the Japanese invasion during World War II. The Boston Globe said: "The story…is foreign in its historical sweep and social detail but universal in its emotional truth." Chang's latest novel, All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost (2011), follows two poets and their friendship as they explore the depths and costs of making art. The book received a starred review from Booklist and praise: "Among the many threads Chang elegantly pursues—the fraught relationships between mentors and students, the value of poetry, the price of ambition—it is her indelible portrait of the loneliness of artistic endeavor that will haunt readers the most in this exquisitely written novel about the poet’s lot." Chang's fourth book and third novel, The Family Chao, is forthcoming in 2022.
Chang has received fellowships from MacDowell, the American Library in Paris, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
As the fifth director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Chang has been fundamental to the increase of racial, cultural, and aesthetic diversity within the program, and has mentored a number of emerging writers. In 2019, she received the Michael J. Brody Award and the Regents' Award for Excellence from the University of Iowa.
Website: https://lansamanthachang.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 268 reviews
November 23, 2019
Hunger consists of one novella (titled “Hunger”) and five short stories. I have to say the title novella blew my mind; I felt so emotional about it I literally wrote an entire blog post so I could process all my feelings. Lan Samantha Chang writes like a dream; instead of reading words on a page, I felt myself with these characters, the colors and scents and spaces of their homes, all the ways they love, lose, and lie to one another. I would give at least 10 stars to the title novella. Though “Hunger” comes out to just a little more than 100 pages, it packs a similar if not even more powerful punch than full-length novels. It follows a woman who marries a passionate, temperamental musician whose suffering seeps into and poisons the lives of their two daughters. Every word felt so necessary and meaningful yet effortlessly placed, every detail about each character felt organic to the characters’ development while keen about the human psyche. As an Asian American myself, I loved how Chang captured the raw emotional complexity that accompanies an immigrant parent’s desperate love for their child when their own self-worth has been compromised, as well as when children of immigrants push their parents away in rebellion or stay with them in solidarity for their solitude.
Of the short stories, “The Eve of the Spirit Festival” came to closest to taking my breath away in the same way that “Hunger” did, followed by “The Unknowing.” Again, Chang’s writing is simply superb, and I feel amazed by her ability to write about fraught parent and child dynamics while capturing all the love and nuance accompanying the Chinese immigration and assimilation process. I feel so grateful for Chang because in the process of processing my feelings about the novella and stories within this collection, I reflected a lot on my parents and their own experiences. While I don’t want to go too into it in this review, I’m not really in touch with my parents, and while I feel good about that, Chang brought me a deeper empathy and understanding of the narrative of my own life as the son of immigrants, even though I’m Vietnamese and not Chinese. Through reading this novella and story collection, I saw my own life and my own choices more clearly, which I consider one of the greatest gifts of reading fiction.
Recommended to fans of Celeste Ng and Min Jin Lee, though Chang’s stories center more on nuanced emotions and quiet interpersonal dynamics than a sense of adventure or exciting mystery. I skimmed some reviews and appreciated this review for noting that it does seem a bit stereotypical that so many of the children in this book go on to get PhDs from prestigious universities; thus, I’d also highly recommend Jenny Zhang’s iconic, subversive collection Sour Heart to accompany Hunger. Thank you also to Andrew for prompting me again to read Hunger, a book that consumed in the best possible way.
Of the short stories, “The Eve of the Spirit Festival” came to closest to taking my breath away in the same way that “Hunger” did, followed by “The Unknowing.” Again, Chang’s writing is simply superb, and I feel amazed by her ability to write about fraught parent and child dynamics while capturing all the love and nuance accompanying the Chinese immigration and assimilation process. I feel so grateful for Chang because in the process of processing my feelings about the novella and stories within this collection, I reflected a lot on my parents and their own experiences. While I don’t want to go too into it in this review, I’m not really in touch with my parents, and while I feel good about that, Chang brought me a deeper empathy and understanding of the narrative of my own life as the son of immigrants, even though I’m Vietnamese and not Chinese. Through reading this novella and story collection, I saw my own life and my own choices more clearly, which I consider one of the greatest gifts of reading fiction.
Recommended to fans of Celeste Ng and Min Jin Lee, though Chang’s stories center more on nuanced emotions and quiet interpersonal dynamics than a sense of adventure or exciting mystery. I skimmed some reviews and appreciated this review for noting that it does seem a bit stereotypical that so many of the children in this book go on to get PhDs from prestigious universities; thus, I’d also highly recommend Jenny Zhang’s iconic, subversive collection Sour Heart to accompany Hunger. Thank you also to Andrew for prompting me again to read Hunger, a book that consumed in the best possible way.
April 6, 2023
A haunting collection on generational trauma and the complicated relationships between parents and children. Hunger is well named, as it embodies the insatiable yearning to be different, to be ordinary, to be anything other than what is the current state. It ponders: what does it mean to become one’s parents? How do we make a new home while honoring where we are from? How do we balance two worlds, two languages, two identities? At what point should we abandon difficult relationships? What if the most difficult ones are within families? A powerfully sorrowful account of first generation immigrants and a multidimensional feeling of belonging, or lack thereof.
April 27, 2022
this book has eviscerated me. i think it’s top of my list for 2nd gen immigrant reading. many themes around the loneliness of a lost culture, language barriers, repressed emotions/feelings, and being so hungry for acceptance! a beautiful, heartbreaking, and important book with characters i'll be thinking about for a long time.
June 5, 2018
This is a Novella plus short stories about the immigrant’s hunger for acceptance, for love, for lost tradition, and how one parent’s desire for fulfillment can tear a family apart. Excellent.
The title story is told by the wife, Min, an immigrant from Taiwan. She is working as the hostess in a Chinese restaurant when she meets her husband Tian, a violin student and teacher at the local music conservatory. They marry and set up house in a small apartment in Brooklyn. But Min can never get over her sense of suspense, and she never learns English. Tian also struggles with English and is passed over time and again for a permanent professorship. Eventually he loses his post entirely and resorts to being the bus boy in the same Chinese Restaurant where Min used to work. They manage to raise two daughters, the younger of whom is a naturally gifted violinist, but lazy about perfecting her skill.
Each person in this family hungers for what s/he does not have. Tian for respect and success. Min for the love of her children and her home in Taiwan. Anna for the love of her parents, especially Tian. Ruth for freedom from expectations.
The other stories (except for the last) are similar in that they deal with Chinese immigrants in America and their struggles to fit in, to remember (or forget) their homeland; they are all hungry for acceptance, for love, for their traditions, for a new life, for success.
The last story is the only one that takes place entirely in China and tells a story of a young woman from a small village who comes to Shanghai to find her fortune just before WW II, and instead finds a way to avenge her parents.
(First read in May 2007 for one of my book clubs. Read it again in December 2009 for a different book club. )
The title story is told by the wife, Min, an immigrant from Taiwan. She is working as the hostess in a Chinese restaurant when she meets her husband Tian, a violin student and teacher at the local music conservatory. They marry and set up house in a small apartment in Brooklyn. But Min can never get over her sense of suspense, and she never learns English. Tian also struggles with English and is passed over time and again for a permanent professorship. Eventually he loses his post entirely and resorts to being the bus boy in the same Chinese Restaurant where Min used to work. They manage to raise two daughters, the younger of whom is a naturally gifted violinist, but lazy about perfecting her skill.
Each person in this family hungers for what s/he does not have. Tian for respect and success. Min for the love of her children and her home in Taiwan. Anna for the love of her parents, especially Tian. Ruth for freedom from expectations.
The other stories (except for the last) are similar in that they deal with Chinese immigrants in America and their struggles to fit in, to remember (or forget) their homeland; they are all hungry for acceptance, for love, for their traditions, for a new life, for success.
The last story is the only one that takes place entirely in China and tells a story of a young woman from a small village who comes to Shanghai to find her fortune just before WW II, and instead finds a way to avenge her parents.
(First read in May 2007 for one of my book clubs. Read it again in December 2009 for a different book club. )
September 19, 2015
I read this book a decade or so before, when I met the author at some conference or literary festival or other and we bonded over growing up immigrant's children in the outer New York City boroughs. I recently found the book again and began with the stories, liking them all over again, especially the most memorable, final one,"Pippa's Story." This time however, I also got into the title "novella." I'm using quotes around that, because by length it is a novella, but it is as deep, and full, and rich as books four times it's length: a marvelous saga, yes saga, about one family of father, mother and two girl children in the U.S. and what the father's dream becomes --sheer hunger--played out over two generations and all but destroying them all. Artists of all sorts must recognize this hunger for what it is, and the dirty little secret of every writer, painter, musician, sculptor, crafts-person, et al, is how powerfully this non-thing controls our lives, making decisions for us, moving us across the globe, and often manipulating our lives. Usually those around us have no idea what it is that makes us act so strangely. Chang "gets" it --and illustrates it's seductions and its sacrifices beautifully and sadly. Brilliantly. A month or so ago I was reading a collection of 20th Century Chinese stories from 1922 to 1948, in a Foreign Languages Press edition not listed or listable by Goodreads, by authors I'd mostly never heard of -- Wang Tongzhao, Yu Dufu, Ye Shengtao, Shen Congwen, Zu Dishan, Lao She --etc. Lan Samantha Chang's Hunger and stories fulfill that tradition as perfectly as anything I know.
January 17, 2020
A simple, quiet, yet powerful look at the lives of immigrant families, through short stories and a novella. I share the popular opinion that the novella anchors the collection as its strong point. It explores so well the ways in which immigrant families strive to figure out what/who to hold on to and what/who to let go of, all amidst the challenge of simultaneously assimilating and retaining their own culture. As a former violinist, I also found the sections on practicing, playing, and positioning so familiar. The violin is an instrument that requires a certain level of perfection, and that mirrors the standard to which immigrants and their children are held to in America.
I can't believe this collection is twenty years old! I meant to read it so many times over the years and definitely should have gotten to it sooner. These pieces are a masterful reminder that a short story doesn't have to do acrobatics to be successful, that straightforward storytelling, in the right hands, can go a long way.
I can't believe this collection is twenty years old! I meant to read it so many times over the years and definitely should have gotten to it sooner. These pieces are a masterful reminder that a short story doesn't have to do acrobatics to be successful, that straightforward storytelling, in the right hands, can go a long way.
October 5, 2013
The title novella is dynamite, one of the best I've read in a very long time. Chang's sense of character is deft and deep, and the shadows gather in "Hunger" in a powerful and unforgettable way. Each of the remaining stories is sure-footed. Chang writes very well. She's clear-eyed and unafraid of examining the painful bonds we often wrap around ourselves in the name of family. A strong collection.
September 23, 2015
i spied a great fire in the fields through the train window and felt remnants of this book within me, still, like a dull ache.
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wow. this book is everything. and that title. wish I could talk to sandhu about this one. someone, make a class about mourning, melancholia and AsAm lit!
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wow. this book is everything. and that title. wish I could talk to sandhu about this one. someone, make a class about mourning, melancholia and AsAm lit!
October 14, 2017
Short stories by a Chinese American, each exploring displacement and distance from Chinese culture. Poignant.
April 5, 2020
This novel was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend whose literary tastes I appreciate and reviews I admire. I would not have found this book on my own, so I’m very thankful. Hunger is a collection of short stories by Lan Samantha Chang, a Chinese American born in the US to immigrant parents. I enjoyed this work on so many levels. First, Chang’s writing is simple yet immersive; I feel completely aware of the characters’ desires and obstacles. It’s like you can know all about a person just through the look in his/her eyes; I can see into the characters’ eyes. Next, because of my cultural background (immigrant at age 9, bi-culturally Chinese-American), the cultural themes wound so tightly around each story are incredibly palpable and relatable to me: deeply emotional and complex characters who are bound by an inability to communicate; an unfulfillable hunger for an ultimate dream in a foreign land; immigrant parents—unable to assimilate—who wish their children to succeed at all costs; the burden of children to live out their immigrant parents’ dreams; the cultural gap between generations that widens due to differences in philosophy and unfulfilled expectations; and the weaving of ghosts and spirits as an integral part of Chinese storytelling. Finally, a myriad of details truly connected with me, such as the violin-playing and the many foods/events and Chinese phrases in the stories.
My favorite short stories were “Hunger” and “The Unforgetting.” The husband-wife, parent-children, and sibling dynamics were realistically portrayed and brought about much sadness, frustration, and revelation on my part. They made me reflect on my upbringing by my immigrant parents, and the way I parent my own children now. Though vastly different, I know one thing is true: we all do the best we know at that given time in life. Highly recommend this to people who are immigrants or brought up by immigrants, anyone interested in Asian-American culture, and readers who appreciate short stories and want a short but meaningful read.
My favorite short stories were “Hunger” and “The Unforgetting.” The husband-wife, parent-children, and sibling dynamics were realistically portrayed and brought about much sadness, frustration, and revelation on my part. They made me reflect on my upbringing by my immigrant parents, and the way I parent my own children now. Though vastly different, I know one thing is true: we all do the best we know at that given time in life. Highly recommend this to people who are immigrants or brought up by immigrants, anyone interested in Asian-American culture, and readers who appreciate short stories and want a short but meaningful read.
August 31, 2023
A cohesive and contemplative collection, that creatively explores the (Chinese) immigrant experience from a broad spectrum of perspectives (age, gender, time and place).
Each story is fed by the complexities that life serves us. With Hunger (the titular story) expertly encapsulating the insatiable yearning for what we so crave in life -especially as immigrants/second generation immigrants. A hunger for acceptance, love, success and finally, a place to call home.
Chang masterfully portrays the balancing act of trying (or needing) to assimilate and forget the past in order to move “forward”, whilst also desperately trying to retain some form of cultural connection and sense of belonging to where we came from.
Devastatingly divine!
4.5 stars (5 stars for “Hunger”)
PS - thanks to Tom from Pushkin for sending me a copy !
Each story is fed by the complexities that life serves us. With Hunger (the titular story) expertly encapsulating the insatiable yearning for what we so crave in life -especially as immigrants/second generation immigrants. A hunger for acceptance, love, success and finally, a place to call home.
Chang masterfully portrays the balancing act of trying (or needing) to assimilate and forget the past in order to move “forward”, whilst also desperately trying to retain some form of cultural connection and sense of belonging to where we came from.
Devastatingly divine!
4.5 stars (5 stars for “Hunger”)
PS - thanks to Tom from Pushkin for sending me a copy !
January 22, 2025
Really enjoyed the last story if it was not for that I would have rated it lower. It was a bit repetitive in some aspects however a very easy read.
January 14, 2023
Read Hunger for English. "At one point, he slowed and floated in the waves, fitted the familiar shape against his chin, as if he were considering a melody." Haunting, reminded me of too many things.
Wrote in class about the texture of six sharps in the air, purple warmth, sunset orange sound. I miss Haydn so much.
Wrote in class about the texture of six sharps in the air, purple warmth, sunset orange sound. I miss Haydn so much.
January 4, 2024
I only read the title novella of this book, Hunger. I could not read on, and other reviews said that Hunger was by far the best thing within the collection. It was exquisitely written. The prose is beautiful, but oh my goodness, how depressing. Not a single moment’s happiness depicted in the entire story. Just misery, sorrow, loss, separation, depression, regret, and bitterness. If you can cope with that, you’ll probably love this.
February 28, 2021
really more of a 4.5 but really quite an excellent book, filled with fixation and hurt.
February 22, 2022
Much appreciation to NPR for introducing me to a Wisconsin raised writer I've found I absolutely adore! Cannot wait to read the rest of her catalog!
January 28, 2025
except for Pipa's Story at the very end which I actually did really like, i'm not sure why this is so critically acclaimed. every story was a stereotypical model minority story that underwhelmed me in its lack of nuance and plot, including the alleged showstopper novella Hunger.
Stereotypical Model Minority Immigrant Story:
- father moves to america for his dream but bc of racism he cant fulfill it and instead forces it onto the child
- child prodigy resents their family and culture, works hard at school to get a scholarship into a prestigious college and leaves home
- mother is a passive narrator of the two's relationship, then finally breaks out of passiveness by yelling at the father for forcing them to assimilate in america
- sometimes the narrator is instead a passive sibling that is jealous of the prodigy child
- and then for some reason the parents have to always die for the children to return home and reflect on their childhoods
while Chang's prose with imagery was beautiful at times, the dialogue was just corny and stereotypical sitcom.
In 'Hunger', Tian the father yells at his daughter Ruth:
In ''The Unforgetting,'' SanSan yells at her husband:
literally every story is the exact same, they just changed the character names and american city. the writing also would explicitly spell out to the reader everything, it would be in a very mature, monotone voice. but then the character would have a sudden burst of visible emotion which would come off as immature and out of place. this would make zero sense without any fleshed out character development for the narrator.
the story is too short for the anger to really bubble up inside, so it just feels completely out of left field and a checked off plot point within the archetype. the resentment towards the father would just be told to us. so it felt like a cause and effect relationship, instead of it being a gradual power change within the relationship. this is also due to lack of dialogue and dependence on the passive character narration. this would also lack the relationship nuance of resenting your father, yet still constantly holding onto the hope he would change and the family being the last tie to your culture and history. instead the child just moves away and we never hear from them again??? like what is the point!!! GRRR
additionally, so much could be said about the intersectional identities within these families: being lower class, being a woman, comparing loss of culture between first gen and second gen immigrants, sexuality. these were never really explored past the archetype i stated above and it was so infuriating. the characters would also just be from China but not much differentiation between the regions or dialects within China were made. there would also be random mandarin pinyin thrown into the dialogue which would also come out of left field because we wouldn't know if the characters are actually speaking to each other in english or mandarin.
i also thought food would be a bigger focal point within Hunger, given the name. but food imagery was only really described when it was a celebratory meal. the mother didn't cook much which confused me as she was a housewife at first, and her main working job in america was in a chinese restuarant so ???? the actual physical feeling of hunger was also never mentioned in any story, which would have been a very easy way to bring up the theme and actually make the reader empathize with the passive characters. i think the author used assimilation as a scapegoat as to not write more about chinese history or culture.
this is why Pipa's Story stood out to me.
Pipa was raised by a single mother that specialized in holistic medicine/ "potions" from rural china. Pipa felt stuck in the village (and for some reason also resented her mother and her potions even tho the beginning described her mother's work as awe-inducing and wise??) and moved to Shanghai to work for a wealthy man. pipa's mother gave permission for her to go if she promised to place a special stone in the heart of the man's home. meanwhile the communist party is soon coming for extra suspense. so this story was actually pretty good in actually having a plot and the narrator being an active character making decisions and interacting with characters. since it took place in china too, it was more interesting to read imagery of the rural village and shanghai as a cultural center and mentions of chinese/japanese imperialism, class.
Stereotypical Model Minority Immigrant Story:
- father moves to america for his dream but bc of racism he cant fulfill it and instead forces it onto the child
- child prodigy resents their family and culture, works hard at school to get a scholarship into a prestigious college and leaves home
- mother is a passive narrator of the two's relationship, then finally breaks out of passiveness by yelling at the father for forcing them to assimilate in america
- sometimes the narrator is instead a passive sibling that is jealous of the prodigy child
- and then for some reason the parents have to always die for the children to return home and reflect on their childhoods
while Chang's prose with imagery was beautiful at times, the dialogue was just corny and stereotypical sitcom.
In 'Hunger', Tian the father yells at his daughter Ruth:
'You will stay in this house!'' ''I am not staying!'' she replies. ''You can't keep me from leaving!''
In ''The Unforgetting,'' SanSan yells at her husband:
''You have ruined me! You have trapped me into this life!''
literally every story is the exact same, they just changed the character names and american city. the writing also would explicitly spell out to the reader everything, it would be in a very mature, monotone voice. but then the character would have a sudden burst of visible emotion which would come off as immature and out of place. this would make zero sense without any fleshed out character development for the narrator.
the story is too short for the anger to really bubble up inside, so it just feels completely out of left field and a checked off plot point within the archetype. the resentment towards the father would just be told to us. so it felt like a cause and effect relationship, instead of it being a gradual power change within the relationship. this is also due to lack of dialogue and dependence on the passive character narration. this would also lack the relationship nuance of resenting your father, yet still constantly holding onto the hope he would change and the family being the last tie to your culture and history. instead the child just moves away and we never hear from them again??? like what is the point!!! GRRR
additionally, so much could be said about the intersectional identities within these families: being lower class, being a woman, comparing loss of culture between first gen and second gen immigrants, sexuality. these were never really explored past the archetype i stated above and it was so infuriating. the characters would also just be from China but not much differentiation between the regions or dialects within China were made. there would also be random mandarin pinyin thrown into the dialogue which would also come out of left field because we wouldn't know if the characters are actually speaking to each other in english or mandarin.
i also thought food would be a bigger focal point within Hunger, given the name. but food imagery was only really described when it was a celebratory meal. the mother didn't cook much which confused me as she was a housewife at first, and her main working job in america was in a chinese restuarant so ???? the actual physical feeling of hunger was also never mentioned in any story, which would have been a very easy way to bring up the theme and actually make the reader empathize with the passive characters. i think the author used assimilation as a scapegoat as to not write more about chinese history or culture.
this is why Pipa's Story stood out to me.
Pipa was raised by a single mother that specialized in holistic medicine/ "potions" from rural china. Pipa felt stuck in the village (and for some reason also resented her mother and her potions even tho the beginning described her mother's work as awe-inducing and wise??) and moved to Shanghai to work for a wealthy man. pipa's mother gave permission for her to go if she promised to place a special stone in the heart of the man's home. meanwhile the communist party is soon coming for extra suspense. so this story was actually pretty good in actually having a plot and the narrator being an active character making decisions and interacting with characters. since it took place in china too, it was more interesting to read imagery of the rural village and shanghai as a cultural center and mentions of chinese/japanese imperialism, class.
August 22, 2023
As I looked at my daughter's face, I began to understand that to love another was to be a custodian of that person's decline--to know this fate, hold onto it, and live.
Hunger is a short story collection with the through line of Chinese immigrant families. It begins with the titular story, which is actually a novella, spanning more than half of the slender book's length. That one follows a woman from her arrival to the United States and portrays the tumultuous life that she builds. I was very pleased with this first story. It's simple domesticity was satisfying. It fits in a lot of personalization, despite spanning many years and only a little more than a hundred pages. I enjoyed that it never strayed from the perspective of Min, the mother, giving an outlet to her inner thoughts that, in the story, she rarely expresses.
The novella left me already satisfied. When I finished it, I thought it had legs to stand on its own, so I was perplexed by the inclusion of the other, much shorter stories.
Now, having read the rest of the stories as well. I still feel like they should not have been included. They're not bad. There are nuggets of great writing there. But they still felt like ideas, fragments that could've shined much more as scenes from a novel. They all had very similar themes and characters, they almost blended into one another already.
The one exception is the last story, Pipa's Story. That is the only story that takes place before our protagonist emigrates, as opposed to every other story in the collection. It was nice to read something a little different, but I cannot say that this story was particularly great otherwise.
I still recommend picking this up just for the novella. But once you read that one, you don't have much to gain from reading the rest.
January 19, 2025
i originally read the novella, "HUNGER," for one of my college classes, but after the course ended, i got caught up in other schoolwork, and i never finished the collection.
since graduating, i held off on returning to the book because over the past few years, i got tired of a lot of themes that kept coming up in contemporary asian american fiction which are mostly narrated by the children of immigrants who pontificate about being neither "here" nor "there," and the way that they struggle to fit into the white mainstream. in a lot of these narratives, immigrant parents are flattened into either villains, objects of pity, or they remain background characters in a story that they brought about themselves.
HUNGER is not that, and i regret not coming back to it sooner! most of the stories are narrated by or focus on the immigrant parents themselves who are rich with interior monologues and motivations, trapped in an ultimately futile struggle to cast aside the past. these characters have their own ambitions, often squashed by the cultural norms and racial hierarchies of the united states. they butt heads with their children, both encouraging their americanization while resenting the rift this causes between them. ultimately, both parents and children are left adrift, having to fend for themselves in a strange land.
i saw a lot of myself and my parents in these stories.
since graduating, i held off on returning to the book because over the past few years, i got tired of a lot of themes that kept coming up in contemporary asian american fiction which are mostly narrated by the children of immigrants who pontificate about being neither "here" nor "there," and the way that they struggle to fit into the white mainstream. in a lot of these narratives, immigrant parents are flattened into either villains, objects of pity, or they remain background characters in a story that they brought about themselves.
HUNGER is not that, and i regret not coming back to it sooner! most of the stories are narrated by or focus on the immigrant parents themselves who are rich with interior monologues and motivations, trapped in an ultimately futile struggle to cast aside the past. these characters have their own ambitions, often squashed by the cultural norms and racial hierarchies of the united states. they butt heads with their children, both encouraging their americanization while resenting the rift this causes between them. ultimately, both parents and children are left adrift, having to fend for themselves in a strange land.
i saw a lot of myself and my parents in these stories.
January 13, 2023
Just read the first novella, but I’m totally going to continue!
May 20, 2022
nearly every page is underlined, highlighted, and tabbed. Chang is a masterful writer, this collection is easy to devour.
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August 8, 2023in my clown era (a week of learning with sam chang has thrown me into existential crisis)
April 13, 2018
4.5/5 stars.
Wow. See, I usually stay away from books like this because without a doubt, stories like these cause me so much heartache. It hits especially hard because I am a second generation Chinese-American, and I have so much respect for my parents who left their home to take their chances living in a foreign land, to learn a foreign tongue and a foreign culture.
In reading "Hunger" I felt such nagging anxiety, thanks to Chang's exquisite detailing the slow breaking of this family. Her writing is exceptionally poignant and honest, and her characters have depth that belies their complexity as real human beings. There were times when I might have despised a character's actions, but never could I ever hate them because I could see their hurting so sharply. At one point, I started crying. Chang has played my emotions like a seasoned musician.
While I would say that "Hunger," the main story in this collection, has the most fleshed-out story and characters, "The Unforgetting" really struck a chord with me. It is a simpler story, but the way it details the slow loss of one's roots and the sacrifices that a parent is willing to make for his/her child are delineated with such heartbreak. I found myself feeling for Ming and Sansan, while also having great empathy for Charles, their son, who is caught in the storm of his parents' own internal struggles.
A book that deserves to be savored, I highly encourage that everyone pick up Hunger, especially if you are Chinese-American.
Wow. See, I usually stay away from books like this because without a doubt, stories like these cause me so much heartache. It hits especially hard because I am a second generation Chinese-American, and I have so much respect for my parents who left their home to take their chances living in a foreign land, to learn a foreign tongue and a foreign culture.
In reading "Hunger" I felt such nagging anxiety, thanks to Chang's exquisite detailing the slow breaking of this family. Her writing is exceptionally poignant and honest, and her characters have depth that belies their complexity as real human beings. There were times when I might have despised a character's actions, but never could I ever hate them because I could see their hurting so sharply. At one point, I started crying. Chang has played my emotions like a seasoned musician.
While I would say that "Hunger," the main story in this collection, has the most fleshed-out story and characters, "The Unforgetting" really struck a chord with me. It is a simpler story, but the way it details the slow loss of one's roots and the sacrifices that a parent is willing to make for his/her child are delineated with such heartbreak. I found myself feeling for Ming and Sansan, while also having great empathy for Charles, their son, who is caught in the storm of his parents' own internal struggles.
A book that deserves to be savored, I highly encourage that everyone pick up Hunger, especially if you are Chinese-American.
March 16, 2014
When I first read this book for grad school, I didn't give it much of a chance and, unsurprisingly, I didn't like it. What a difference a few years can make, because I found it a far richer collection of stories this time. A novella and several short stories focus on Chinese families and the lives they lead--or mostly try to escape. There's a lot about family and the chains that bind, and how just because you might be able to physically escape your history, it doesn't mean the history goes away. Mostly, it won't be ignored, and it continues to shape you for better or worse long after you've done everything you can to erase it.
The stories are interesting for their tragic characters, the depth of feeling in all of them, and the bits of Chinese history and culture that are inevitably woven into them. There's not much happiness to be found in the pages, and peace and resignation mostly go hand in hand, but they're definitely worth giving some time and thought to. I'm glad I gave the book a second chance.
The stories are interesting for their tragic characters, the depth of feeling in all of them, and the bits of Chinese history and culture that are inevitably woven into them. There's not much happiness to be found in the pages, and peace and resignation mostly go hand in hand, but they're definitely worth giving some time and thought to. I'm glad I gave the book a second chance.
July 7, 2025
Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang — what a quietly devastating collection. Meeting it in 2006? That's a time-capsule-worthy moment.
This is the kind of book that doesn’t scream, but rather lingers in you—like a memory half-forgotten but never erased.
Every story in Hunger is layered with silence, sacrifice, and the ache of immigration, especially how generational longing and cultural displacement play out within families. Mothers and daughters, fathers and expectations—told with such restraint it feels like you’re eavesdropping on someone's soul.
If I were to sum up what 2006-you might have felt:
Maybe a quiet gut-punch? That strange warmth of reading something that understands you before you can articulate it?
A standout line from the titular story:
“Sometimes, the silence between words can be more powerful than any confession.”
Do you remember where you were when you read it? Or did any particular story hit home more than the others?
This is the kind of book that doesn’t scream, but rather lingers in you—like a memory half-forgotten but never erased.
Every story in Hunger is layered with silence, sacrifice, and the ache of immigration, especially how generational longing and cultural displacement play out within families. Mothers and daughters, fathers and expectations—told with such restraint it feels like you’re eavesdropping on someone's soul.
If I were to sum up what 2006-you might have felt:
Maybe a quiet gut-punch? That strange warmth of reading something that understands you before you can articulate it?
A standout line from the titular story:
“Sometimes, the silence between words can be more powerful than any confession.”
Do you remember where you were when you read it? Or did any particular story hit home more than the others?
March 26, 2024
prose and stories chillingly similar to my own in so many ways
- girl in the red dress
- violin
- the abusatory morose silences
- hours upon hours of torturous practicing
- the sheer anger of a father: things have been so good for so long now, i’ve almost forgotten how oppressive it can feel
- is there a difference between being my father’s daughter or my mother’s daughter
- “after seventeen years”: i have tried to write/recreate/reimagine my mother’s story so many times now
- “the immensity of such hunger”: the punishment for those who dare to harbor extravagant dreams…but is that so wrong?
- the past, which cannot be erased
- the desire to fly (or flee?)
- girl in the red dress
- violin
- the abusatory morose silences
- hours upon hours of torturous practicing
- the sheer anger of a father: things have been so good for so long now, i’ve almost forgotten how oppressive it can feel
- is there a difference between being my father’s daughter or my mother’s daughter
- “after seventeen years”: i have tried to write/recreate/reimagine my mother’s story so many times now
- “the immensity of such hunger”: the punishment for those who dare to harbor extravagant dreams…but is that so wrong?
- the past, which cannot be erased
- the desire to fly (or flee?)
December 13, 2016
As a Chinese-American girl, I recognized many of the themes in Hunger as relevant and very real. Many of them made me cry - the fading love found in old marriages, the the disappearance of culture in the second generation, language barriers between parents and children, a loss of contact with relatives overseas, shattered hopes, and the notion of failing the American Dream, etc. I loved the colors and temperatures used throughout the first and main story, and how they are used to depict anything from passion to the bitterness and loneliness of having nowhere to belong.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2017
halfway through this book I was like: Have I read this before? I feel like I've read this before. Is she gonna poke a hole in the diaphragm? She's gonna poke ... I've definitely read this before.
but it wasn't bad to read again, and I got to re-read and re-gasp at this gem:
"As I looked at my daughter’s face, I began to understand that to love another was to be a custodian of that person’s decline—to know this fate, hold onto it, and live."
( 0 h s n a P )
but it wasn't bad to read again, and I got to re-read and re-gasp at this gem:
"As I looked at my daughter’s face, I began to understand that to love another was to be a custodian of that person’s decline—to know this fate, hold onto it, and live."
( 0 h s n a P )
November 17, 2024
The way each story unfolded was amazing, even the littlest details were important. Not much was said in terms of dialogue, but each action counted. I felt it rather than read it.
June 2, 2023
**4.5 stars**
This is the first of many more anthropological Asian immigrant works I hope to read. I loved reading these short stories. Each was undeniably unique but unifying all of them were Asian (Chinese specifically) immigrants that held onto hopes of a better future in a foreign place while simultaneously either actively forgetting or yearning for their home, invariably straddling two different worlds. And then there were children brought into this world whose lives were contextualized amidst their parents' own career ambitions, cognitive dissonance, struggles with language, and deep love. Mundane scenes transformed into settings of great intensity and drama but with real authenticity that moved me. Individual passions were twisted into both a symbol of opportunity and a prison. The opening short story "Hunger" was probably my favorite, likely because it had the luxury of developing its figures and story with more pages, but I appreciated each of them.
Chang writes so beautifully; she's an inspiration. Her style has an underlying somberness to it that isn't depressing but very weighted. And yet it's so fluid that you don't actually feel weighed down to stop reading, but excited to keep going while feeling the impact of every sentence. Frankly, this book borders between 5 and 4.5 stars but with some stories she ends almost prematurely, and yet sometimes I think that that is also the point. I also wish some were longer like "Hunger" so I could feel as sucked in as the others.
I think this piece will really resonate with other Asian Americans and so highly encourage them to read it. Though we do not live the direct experiences of immigrants, second-generation Asian Americans like myself still carry the history of immigration, placelessness, and complicated family dynamics that many American-raised Asians will understand. I've just never come across something that captured all of those feelings and dynamics so well in written pages.
This is the first of many more anthropological Asian immigrant works I hope to read. I loved reading these short stories. Each was undeniably unique but unifying all of them were Asian (Chinese specifically) immigrants that held onto hopes of a better future in a foreign place while simultaneously either actively forgetting or yearning for their home, invariably straddling two different worlds. And then there were children brought into this world whose lives were contextualized amidst their parents' own career ambitions, cognitive dissonance, struggles with language, and deep love. Mundane scenes transformed into settings of great intensity and drama but with real authenticity that moved me. Individual passions were twisted into both a symbol of opportunity and a prison. The opening short story "Hunger" was probably my favorite, likely because it had the luxury of developing its figures and story with more pages, but I appreciated each of them.
Chang writes so beautifully; she's an inspiration. Her style has an underlying somberness to it that isn't depressing but very weighted. And yet it's so fluid that you don't actually feel weighed down to stop reading, but excited to keep going while feeling the impact of every sentence. Frankly, this book borders between 5 and 4.5 stars but with some stories she ends almost prematurely, and yet sometimes I think that that is also the point. I also wish some were longer like "Hunger" so I could feel as sucked in as the others.
I think this piece will really resonate with other Asian Americans and so highly encourage them to read it. Though we do not live the direct experiences of immigrants, second-generation Asian Americans like myself still carry the history of immigration, placelessness, and complicated family dynamics that many American-raised Asians will understand. I've just never come across something that captured all of those feelings and dynamics so well in written pages.
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