White Tiger Pass
A rich and intriguing ensemble novel, White Tiger Pass is about how the discovery of gold impacts local villagers.
In Xuemo’s enthralling novel White Tiger Pass, gold is discovered in an economically depressed village.
News spreads that a rich man has found gold in White Tiger Pass. Laoshun is envious but elects not to search for gold himself. His ambitious son, Mengzi, is more piqued, while his daughter, Lanlan, and daughter-in-law, Ying’er, are uninterested in the gold, dreaming only of making their own life decisions. The four take differing paths toward tremendous change.
The village’s ambiance is marked by gossip and isolation. In the place of scenic descriptions come metaphors informed by rural life. Someone is said to look “like a rabbit that’s managed to elude the hunter’s rifle,” and the process of burning “the hair off a sheep’s head” is also evoked.
In contrast to the privation of their daily lives, the characters have rich inner lives. Their innermost thoughts and emotions are honored throughout, and a clear sense of Laoshun’s pride, Mengzi’s ambition, and Lanlan’s desperate determination to escape from her abusive husband come through. For instance, Lanlan, once envious of the moon, muses that
the moon was also in bondage, tethered to an invisible rope, turning around and around like her mother at the stove or a donkey at the mill.
Minor characters are also fleshed out in full, and people’s interpersonal relationships are vibrant. All of the characters bring their own perspectives to each interaction, resulting in overall dynamism, and their strengths and weaknesses are tackled in equal measure.
The book’s progression is somewhat meandering, though. Told at epic length, it flits from character to character and from scene to scene, populating the village and its inhabitants at a steady rate. It focuses on how the introduction of great wealth into their midst impacts each person.
External and internal change is the book’s constant: Where and who the characters are at the beginning of the novel is not where and who they are at the end. There’s suspense throughout regarding where people will end up, and at no point is it obvious what will happen next, though some elements are foreshadowed at the ends of scenes and chapters. Ultimately, the book concludes on an open yet sobering note, as some hit rock bottom and search for the means to keep going.
In the thoughtful, bittersweet ensemble novel White Tiger Pass, villagers try to find their way in the midst of great economic changes.
Reviewed by
Carolina Ciucci
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