Reviews

Red Azalea by Anchee Min

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book_concierge's review

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3.0

Autobiography of her youth in China as a member of the Red Guard. Choppy writing style works well here. 3.5 stars.

heliaroghani's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

This started out as a heartbreaking look into a woman's life under Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Parts 1 and 2 were poignant, touching, and often very sad. Part 3 didn't quite have the same effect. In fact, I skimmed quite a bit in Part 3. I had a problem with the writing as well. Some of her passages were romantic and tearjerking, especially those dealing with her love for Yan. However, she doesn't use quotation marks, which made reading dialogue often confusing and awkward. I cried a couple times reading this book, and I think it will sit on my heart for a while. It could have been better written, though.

wintermute9's review

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

bebeloved's review

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

derochan's review against another edition

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5.0

De ce am cumpărat cartea asta redusă la un tonomat din gară de la 10 lei de la un 30 și ceva,normal de Politom? De ce nu stă în rândul bestseller urilor, în locul “fenomenelor” tip Pacienta Tăcută, Coleen Hoover, X de la Auschwitz, etc…?

Sunt cărți care m-au făcut să râd, să simt nori și soare în mine. Sunt cărți care m-au rupt, m-au dezintegrat, au scos lacrimile din mine ca un fagure plin zdrobit între palme.

Cartea asta m-a făcut să văd roșu. Roșul comunismului, roșul sângelui, roșul pasiunii și roșul furiei. Cartea asta mi- întors mațele de furie. A pus mâinele pe frâiele mele, a tras și mi-a schimonosit organele de durere. Stomacul meu a ars, gândurile mi s-au topit tulbure cu cartea asta.

Sunt o diletantă. Scriu poezie. Scriu o poezie foarte rece și impersonală, deși am încercat să caut opusul. Anchee Min e opusul. E cea mai crudă și fierbine poezie. Toată cartea, viața ei e o poezie scoasă din fier încins.

karebear0099's review

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3.0

I read this in college or maybe shortly after and remembered liking it. I recently read another book about the cultural revolution, “swimming towards freedom”, and wanted to revisit this one. In comparison to “swimming towards freedom” I was definitely disappointed with this book. Specifically, the writing style annoyed me and the crassness of the book was gross (others also talked about this, she describes someone’s mouth as being like a chicken’s anus- yuck). It was an interesting enough book due to the subject matter but I didn’t like the writing style.