Tewksbury Public Library

The hanging on Union Square, an American epic, H.T. Tsiang ; edited with an afterword and notes by Floyd Cheung ; introduction by Hua Hsu

eng

Includes bibliographical references

illustrations

index present

novels

The hanging on Union Square

bibliography

1089881850

H.T. Tsiang ; edited with an afterword and notes by Floyd Cheung ; introduction by Hua Hsu

Penguin classics

an American epic

"It's Depression-era New York, and Mr. Nut, an oblivious American everyman, wants to strike it rich, even if at the moment he's unemployed, with no job prospects in sight. Over the course of a single night, in a narrative that unfolds hour by hour, he meets a cast of strange characters--disgruntled workers at a Communist cafeteria, lecherous old men, sexually exploited women, pesky authors--who eventually convince him to cast off his bourgeois aspirations for upward mobility and become a radical activist. Absurdist, inventive, and suffused with revolutionary fervor, and culminating in a dramatic face-off against capitalist power in the figure of the greedy businessman Mr. System, The Hanging on Union Square is a work of blazing wit and originality. More than eighty years after it was self-published, having been rejected by dozens of baffled publishers, it has become a classic of Asian American literature--a satirical send-up of class politics and capitalism and a shout of populist rage that still resonates today"--, Provided by publisher

He was grouching -- Once in a communist cafeteria -- With a temperament of this sort -- "No Russian! No Jew!" -- Thinking of Mr. wiseguy -- If Miss Digger came -- "Worse than a capitalist!" -- With one glass of water -- A feeling of not enough -- Out in a no-way-out way -- He was poetizing -- Before the arrival of an ambulance -- A willow in a windy spring -- Artist and uniform -- Sadistic or capitalistic -- "I wouldn't get mad at you" -- Miss Digger became miss Picker -- A saint takes a commission -- He suddenly lost his bureaucratic air -- "You! You! You!" -- He was satirizing -- Roaring and roaring as it went by -- He felt that -- It was only because -- What now? And how! -- Which tastes better? -- "Time is money" -- He looked like a man -- Lucky, however -- A monkey ran away from the zoo -- He was philosophizing -- A man walked on his hands -- Untie the tie -- It and she -- "Masses are asses!" -- "What an inspiration!" -- Size and direction -- "Strike me pink!" -- "You can call me bastard!" -- The hanging on Union Square