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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I know that I'm in a minority in that opinion though. It's not an easy book to read. It plods along, but is fascinating and unsettling. It was interesting to me to see the changes that occurred in China in just a few short generations.
Historically it's fascinating and follows the lives of a woman and her mother and grandmother through the reign and fall of warlords, the Japanese occupation, and the rise of Communism and Chairman Mao.
But, more than anything, it's heartbreakingly sad. It's a well-written, interesting book. I just didn't like it.
Historically it's fascinating and follows the lives of a woman and her mother and grandmother through the reign and fall of warlords, the Japanese occupation, and the rise of Communism and Chairman Mao.
But, more than anything, it's heartbreakingly sad. It's a well-written, interesting book. I just didn't like it.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Immensely moving: a tale of courage and survival, but also a tale of atrocities.
Wow, I just noticed it's been 17 years since I first read this book, so I was a new mom of a baby, my second daughter was not even a concept, and audiobooks were not on my radar. I remember being struck by the book and I also remember it being very moving and that what Jung Chang and her mom and grandmother went through was terrible, but I otherwise didn't remember a lot of the details.
This time around, my girls are now 19 and almost 17, and I decided I wanted to reread the story. It follows the story of the author's family in three parts, her grandmother's story, who was born near the end of the time period when girls' feet were bound, and when the Kuomintang (KMT) were in power, her mother's story, who joined the communist party at the age of 15, and her own story, as she and her parents and grandparents lived through the bloody and brutal Cultural Revolution. For any student of Asian history, this book does an amazing job of depicting what it must have been like to have grown up in 20th century China. What I really appreciated about this book was that the author was able to help us see the distinction between the KMT/CCP governments and the Chinese people. At one point, she talks about how incredible it was that 4 people (the Gang of Four) -- or 6 if you include Mao and Madame Mao -- could have caused such suffering during the Cultural Revolution.
The narrator, Pik-sen Lim, did an amazing job conveying the horror that the author and her family (and millions of Chinese) experienced with just the right amount of emotion to authentically convey the voice of the author. Even with the many "characters" included in this account, I found I was able to follow most of the players and understand both what was happening at the time and how it fit into the bigger picture. As such, I would definitely recommend this narrator, who is a Pik-sen Lim is a Malaysian-British actress. Her Chinese sounded authentic and she spoke English with a Chinese-English accent, true to the author, who eventually ended up settling in Great Britain. When I was deciding which recording to listen to (there was another by Joy Osmanski), I made my decision after listening to both previews. The one by Joy is just fine, but she is a Korean American adopted as a baby by Americans in the state of Washington and her narration was American English, which just didn't capture the story for me as well. In any case, I can highly recommend this narrator.
This time around, my girls are now 19 and almost 17, and I decided I wanted to reread the story. It follows the story of the author's family in three parts, her grandmother's story, who was born near the end of the time period when girls' feet were bound, and when the Kuomintang (KMT) were in power, her mother's story, who joined the communist party at the age of 15, and her own story, as she and her parents and grandparents lived through the bloody and brutal Cultural Revolution. For any student of Asian history, this book does an amazing job of depicting what it must have been like to have grown up in 20th century China. What I really appreciated about this book was that the author was able to help us see the distinction between the KMT/CCP governments and the Chinese people. At one point, she talks about how incredible it was that 4 people (the Gang of Four) -- or 6 if you include Mao and Madame Mao -- could have caused such suffering during the Cultural Revolution.
The narrator, Pik-sen Lim, did an amazing job conveying the horror that the author and her family (and millions of Chinese) experienced with just the right amount of emotion to authentically convey the voice of the author. Even with the many "characters" included in this account, I found I was able to follow most of the players and understand both what was happening at the time and how it fit into the bigger picture. As such, I would definitely recommend this narrator, who is a Pik-sen Lim is a Malaysian-British actress. Her Chinese sounded authentic and she spoke English with a Chinese-English accent, true to the author, who eventually ended up settling in Great Britain. When I was deciding which recording to listen to (there was another by Joy Osmanski), I made my decision after listening to both previews. The one by Joy is just fine, but she is a Korean American adopted as a baby by Americans in the state of Washington and her narration was American English, which just didn't capture the story for me as well. In any case, I can highly recommend this narrator.
A fascinating and harrowing insight into 20th century China, a must-read and one of the best books I have ever read.
"Lies were told with ease, because words had lost their meaning"
A history of China seen through the eyes of three generations of women, starting early 1900s right through to the 80s covering the Japanese occupation, civil war, The Great Leap Forward and the truly horrific Cultural Revolution. A stunning piece of work, one of my favourite books of all time.
A history of China seen through the eyes of three generations of women, starting early 1900s right through to the 80s covering the Japanese occupation, civil war, The Great Leap Forward and the truly horrific Cultural Revolution. A stunning piece of work, one of my favourite books of all time.
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This was a reread of a book from college that fascinated me. The authors tells the story of her grandmother, mother and herself during the period before, during and after Mao. Life was tough all over. A wonderful introduction to Chinese life and politics before the current era.