by Temujin

Wild Swans, written by Jung Chang, reviewed by Temujin.

I haven't been reading a lot lately. I have 3 books, 2 from classical Rome and another from 19th century Russia. They're very good, but sometimes difficult to get into, with copious notes in the back explaining translation errors or background.

In the last 3 days, I've read half of this 600 page or so book. I culdn't put it down. Half personal biography, half history of China from the start of the 20th century to the present day, it is written in a charming and detailed manner which leaves you given enough information to create a whole picture of the situation without bombarding you with useless items (see the Lord of the Rings).

The book tells the story of the author herself, her mother, and her grandmother. It describes the situation in China pre-Communism and post-Emperor (which had previously known exactly nothing about) with the grandmother's story, then charts the rise of the Kuomintang (nationalists) and their conflict with the Communists, as well as the propaganda of the Communist machine and the personal cult of Mao Tse Tung.

The book both horrifies and touches, because in it atrocities are reported which the West, in its ignorance, is even now largely unaware of. In the purge of the Party, half a million workers were condemned. In the Great Leap Forward, 30 million died. Jung Chang's family and forebears were responsible for saving the lives of some of the condemned, although her father, though kind at heart, was religiously zealous in worship of the Party until children mellowed him.

With persons as diverse as a concubine to a warlord's general and chief of police, to one of the most important men in Sichuan province, a woman who blew up the ammunition dump in Jinzhou and a man forced by his family to leave his home to be with the woman he loved, this book, even though I am only halfway through, may well be the most significant piece of literature I have ever read. Buy this book.