A review by alreads13
Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

“The Workers’ Cinema, it let us feel what other men felt in the daylight. Our love wasn’t flowers but the sprouting of old vegetables. ‘Dark love’—that’s what Old Second called it.”

 

This story is told from a perspective I haven’t often seen-that of the women married to gay men. We begin with Bao Mei and Old Second in present day New York before being launched into the past to China, where they first meet at The Workers’ Cinema, a safe haven where gay men could exist and love. There, Bao Mei sells tickets and Old Second finds love. When the cinema is destroyed, they must grapple with how to move on. 

Tang writes his characters with such tender humanity. Their anger, sorrow, fear and joy is on full display. We see how hard it can be to live in the present when the past is constantly trying to pull you back. He makes you feel the loneliness and isolation of regret and homesickness, then he lets you feel the hope and warmth of companionship and understanding. 

This is such a beautiful and necessary story. It does what all great novels do-it makes you feel.   

Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.