"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.

Notes

"First published in the United States of America by H.T. Tsiang 1935. Edition with an introduction by Hua Hsu and an afterword and notes by Floyed Cheung pulished by Kaya Press 2013."

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

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.

ISBN

9780143134022 ((paperback))
0143134027 ((paperback))

LCCN

2019007510

OCLC

1089881850

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...

Other views: Staff view

Princeton University Library Catalog

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

Details

Supplementary Information