God of Luck

by Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Book Overview

Ah Lung and his beloved wife, Bo See, are separated by a cruel fate when, like thousands of other Chinese men in the nineteenth century, he is kidnapped, enslaved, and sent to the deadly guano mines off the shore of Peru. Praying to the God of Luck and using their own ingenuity, the couple never loses hope of some day being reunited.

"Based on historical events, this novel brings to life a little-known aspect of Chinese history; between 1840...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0932538835
• ISBN13: 9780932538833
• Release Date: April 2016
• Publisher: Design Enterprises of San Francisco
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

"Are you willing to go overseas to work?"

When slavery was abolished in many of the European colonies in the middle of the 19th century there was a shortage of labor, Latin American planters, particularly in the Caribbean, turned to China for an alternative source of labor. They used ambiguities in the "extraterritoriality clause," along with deception and intimidation to induce Chinese workers to immigrate to Latin America. This practice became known as the "coolie trade," and expanded during the 1840s and 1850s. Some of the laborers signed contacts based on misleading promises, some were kidnapped, and some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie brokers, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. The terms of the contract were often not honored, so many laborers ended up working in Peruvian guano pits or on sugar plantations. Like slaves, many were sold at auction and most worked in gangs under the command of a strict overseer. It is this scenario, which forms the core of Ruthanne Lum McCunn's God of Luck, a fascinating mixture of history and realism and a terrifying and ultimately heartbreaking tale of two lovers who are irrevocably split apart by the coolie trade and flung to opposite sides of the world. Ah Lung and his wife of six years, Bo See live an idyllic life in the small village of Strongworm. Family silk farmers by trade, they spend most of their days plying their wares in the market town downriver. Ah Lung's twin sister, Moongirl cautions him to be vigilant. There are "foreign devils," who are rumored to be buying prisoners and employing pirates to kidnap unwary fishermen by raiding costal villages for men capable of heavy labor. Just as Ah is about to return home he's approached by two hard faced strongmen who seize him by the arms and legs and accuse him of owing debt. Ah tries to fight his captors, but bound and gagged, he's thrown into the bottom of his kidnapper's boat, the charge of debt a deliberate hoax. Vowing to Fook Sing Gung, "the God of Luck" to help restore him to his life with Bo See, Ah's anxious prayers to little to alleviate his situation as the captive of these "man-stealers" and the devilish captains of the foreign devil-ships are who are without pity. Eventually shackled and thrown into line with other men, Ah is herded ashore to the Macao hiring hall to face the will of the iron-faced Magistrate Bau who tries to seducing the crowd of men with generous terms and promises of wealth. But no amount of riches can tempt Ah from returning to his family and village where everything is familiar and life for the most part is good. As much as he wants silver dollars for his family, he refuses to risk his freedom for cash. Magistrate Bau, however has no intention of relinquishing Ah and the other men to their families. The hiring hall is a sham and the iron faced Magistrate is merely corrupt puppet for the autocratic captains of the devil-ships. Forced to sign his life away, Ah is finally posted to work in the guano

A Powerful, Riveting Novel

God of Luck is a remarkable book. Until I read this novel, I was completely unaware of the slave trade to Latin America in the middle to late 1800's. It was disturbing to read, and yet I couldn't put the novel down, not only because of the compelling historical depiction of the brutal events, but because of the courageous and tender love story of Ah Lung and Bo See. McCunn is a genius at recreating the smallest details of an era with accuracy and vibrancy, and she has done it again in God of Luck.

A very good read

God of Luck is a very good read. It is a fast-paced adventure/love/historical novel all rolled into one. It is a very compelling story set in a little known chapter of the Chinese diaspora -- the Chinese men recruited/kidnapped to mine the guano islands off Peru. The hero (Ah Lung) is kidnapped and transported to work in the guano islands. His family and wife (Bo See) know he was kidnapped but never give up hope that he will return. The narrative moves back and forth between Ah Lung and his wife Bo See. At first I thought the "home" chapters would bog down the action of Ah Lung's narrative but they did not. When I finished I felt I'd not only had a good read, but had also learned a chapter of history I knew nothing about. As in her other novels, McCunn successfully weaves much ethnographic data into her story without it seeming a lesson in anthropology. The book has a minimalism that appealed to me. I liked the short chapters and the short sections within the chapters. A complex story covering many miles is told in relatively few pages. The book ends at the right place and lets the reader fill in the blanks that remain. If you like your 19th Century Chinese history and anthropology as a very readable adventure/love story, you'll love this novel.