Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside

Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside is the 2015 debut novel of Quincy Carroll.[1] The narrative is split between the perspectives of two Western teachers living in Ningyuan, China, a remote township in southern Hunan. The first, Thomas Guillard, is a jaded longtime expat who arrives in Ningyuan looking for a job at the local high school just as his visa is about to expire. The second, an idealistic young man named Daniel, who has been working in town since graduating from college, welcomes him initially, but then gradually comes to resent him over the course of the academic year, regarding him as the epitome of the pathetic, creepy laowai stereotype he has—until that point—tried his best to avoid. One of Daniel's former students, Bella, a young girl obsessed with learning English, befriends Guillard upon his arrival and provides numerous opportunities throughout the semester, both on- and off-campus, for the two characters to come together. In the end, however, the town and country prove to be too small for both of them.

The novel was published on November 10, 2015, by Inkshares.[2] Much of the book is based on Carroll's own experiences living abroad.[3] In 2017, a second edition was released by Camphor Press.[4]

Plot

The story opens with Thomas Guillard, a cynical, booze-soaked Midwesterner, trying to buy a ticket to the town of Ningyuan at a crowded bus station in Changsha. Unable to do so, he falls into resentment and self-pity, until he is approached by Bella, a student from Ningyuan, who speaks excellent English and helps him secure a seat on her bus. Upon arriving in Ningyuan, Guillard learns that, since the semester has already started, class rosters have already been set, and the school administration is unwilling to reschedule them. Fortunately, Daniel, one of the overworked foreigners at the school, intercedes and arranges an informal interview with the principal over dinner, which results in Guillard being hired.[5]

While Guillard views Ningyuan as a dirty, uncivilized backwater, Daniel idealizes it for its beauty and authenticity. He tries his hardest to ingratiate himself with the locals by learning Mandarin, eating in their homes and performing songs on his guitar. As he becomes more familiar with Guillard, however, he begins to condemn him as being one of those middle-aged, white males who come to Asia to teach for lack of a better alternative.[6] Guillard, for his part, sees Daniel as callow, aimless and hypocritical. These frustrations come to a boil during a Spring Festival dinner at Bella's grandparents' home and leave Daniel to question his idealistic outlook as well as his own qualifications for teaching abroad.[7]

Reception

In a review titled "The Great American (in China) Novel" posted on the Los Angeles Review of Books China Blog, the novel was said to be "probably as close to [the China equivalent to The Sun Also Rises] as we're likely to get, or want" and dubbed "a fictionalized version of Peter Hessler's Peace Corps memoir River Town."[8] The blog Lost Laowai gave the book a 5-star rating, calling it an "exceptionally well-written piece of fiction, particularly for a debut novel" as well as "a joyful read."[9]

Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside won the Silver Medal for Contemporary Fiction at the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards[10] and was selected as a Kirkus Reviews Indie Book of the Month for January 2016.[11] The website Medium also selected an excerpt from the opening chapter as the winner of its 2012 Fiction Writing Contest.[12]

gollark: Just use highly comprehensible emojis.
gollark: If you run out of those use emojis.
gollark: But surely, since something something symmetry group, they could only rotate it 8 times before it was just the same?
gollark: Also, we own the copyright on that via having one of our computers enumerate all words.
gollark: Actually, our work is mostly hyperreal or semiapioirreal these days.

References
  1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26219934-up-to-the-mountains-and-down-to-the-countryside
  2. "Inkshares' "Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside" Dubbed Foreword Reviews' 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards Finalist". Crowdfund Insider. 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  3. Chronicle/Books: Was Lizzie Borden Misunderstood?, retrieved 2017-01-19
  4. https://camphorpress.com/books/up-to-the-mountains-and-down-to-the-countryside
  5. "Book Review: Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside by Quincy Carroll". www.cityweekend.com.cn. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  6. "Exposing Pains of Life Abroad » HERE! Dongguan". HERE! Dongguan. 2016-07-14. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  7. "Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside by Quincy Carroll [Asian Review of Books]". Asian Review of Books. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  8. "The Great American (in China) Novel - BLARB". BLARB. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  9. "Review: Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside". Lost Laowai. 2016-11-11. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
  10. "2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards Results". Independent Publisher Book Awards.
  11. https://www.forewordreviews.com/trade-show-catalog/books/up-to-the-mountains-and-down-to-the-countryside
  12. Lee, Kate (2013-01-17). "And the winner is… – Medium's Fiction Writing Contest". Medium. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
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