MS. MING’S GUIDE TO CIVILIZATION

Jan Alexander is the author of the novel Getting to Lamma and co-author of the nonfiction book Bad Girls of the Silver Screen. Her short fiction has appeared in 34th Parallel, Everyday Fiction, Neworld Review, and Silver Birch Press. She has written about business and travel for many publications and taught Chinese history at Brooklyn College. She lives in New York.

“The first line of the book, ‘Ming Cheng was born in the cruelest place on earth,’ is like a starter pistol, setting this zany, beautiful book into motion.  Jan Alexander is a deft story-teller who manages to create a world that is both wild and breathtaking. She takes us across this alternate world, and we willingly go. I warn you though. If you pick up ‘Ms. Ming,’ you won’t be able to put her down.” —N. West Moss, author of The Subway Stops at Bryant Park.

“Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilizationis a witty and sobering account of contemporary China, with a touch of the absurd. For anyone who has had enough of the white expat male China novel, this book comes as a welcome relief as Jan Alexander seamlessly weaves in modern social issues. An excellent choice for China novices and aficionados alike.” —Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife.

“Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilization is as much a searing indictment of top-down, socially engineered living as it is of bottom-up, laissez-faire living, with a healthy dose of human realism. It challenges our notions of linear time, monogamy, and balance. But throughout, even to the twisting end, our heroine holds out hope. Hope that there is a path to a better life, for herself, for her friends and family, and for the broader society–a dream she can never abandon.” —Andrew Singer, www.andrewsingerchina.com 

“Real estate in heaven? An ancient god returning to earth for another chance? A wholly contemporary setting with folkloric elements? This is a world we haven’t seen before, and Jan Alexander is an excellent guide, with a confident, charismatic writing style and complex characters.” —Beth Neff, author of Getting Somewhere.

“To me, great books are those that leave no perspective unquestioned. Definitely not the protagonists’. And not the author’s own either. In Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilization, Jan Alexander dares to imagine what would happen if two precocious young women—one from a Chinese village, the other from New York City—envisioned an enlightened, post-capitalist world as well as the technology to make it a reality. But Alexander doesn’t stop there. Ms. Ming never stops questioning. How might a utopia inspired by an artsy Brooklynish neighborhood go horribly wrong? When capitalism, communism, and authoritarianism start blurring together, what’s a young woman who just wants to write all day to do? With an operatic and often hilarious cast of characters—including the far from flawless Ming, her green-card husband, a rapper from a rice paddy, and the legendary Monkey King himself—Alexander crafts a farsighted novel on a grand international scale with a discerning eye for vivid details and unintended consequences. —Mandy-Suzanne Wong, author of Drafts of a Suicide Note

“The story has a lot to say about human nature, politics, and post-capitalist idealism, but it was the father-longing journey of Zoe that hooked me emotionally. Also the prose. This book is gorgeously written, and somehow manages to make you smell, taste and touch everything in it. Definitely worth checking out this magical novel.” —Heather Siegel, author of The Indigoand The King and the Quirky.

1. Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilization is very much a novel about place, starting with the first line: “Ming Cheng was born in the worst place on earth.” What were your reactions to the places, especially Sunshine Village and New York? Do you think the places had a role in shaping the characters?
2. The two main characters, Ming and Zoe, are not without human flaws. How did you react to their ideas about the world as they want it to be? Did you see potential there or were they doomed to fail?
3. There are also two imperfect love affairs: Ming and Jeff’s marriage of convenience, and Zoe’s relationship with the immortal Monkey King. Mythical elements aside, did these relationships seem realistic to you? What did you think of the way both relationships were still full of uncertainties at the end? Did you have some thoughts on what might happen after the last page?
4. The novel uses magical realism, which combines both magical elements and realistic ones.  How effectively do you think the two different elements worked together?
5. The novel  has been described as “zany,” “witty” and even “hilarious,” yet much of what happens in the story is sad. The utopian experiment fails, Ming doesn’t find true love, Zoe’s career hopes are dashed, and people suffer. What emotional reactions did you have as you were reading?
6. Did the novel present a challenge to any of your views about the current state of the world? About how a country might make changes for the better?
7. Considering that the novel was published shortly before the Covid pandemic began, how did you react to the twist at the end?

Excerpt in Guernica Magazine:

https://www.guernicamag.com/ms-mings-guide-to-civilization/

Podcast interview on The Author Corner with Stephanie Larkin:

https://theauthorcorner.com/?s=jan+alexander

Podcast interview on Words Carry Us with Betty MacDonald:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHV4G12sXU8

“I’ve Got Questions for… “ by Clifford Garstang:

https://cliffordgarstang.com/ive-got-questions-for-jan-alexander/