Wild Swans

This lengthy memoir by Jung Chang tells the story of 3 generations of women in China covering the period from the early 1900's to the late 1970's. It is long and, to my mind, would have benefitted from some judicious editing. That petty grip aside, it is a heartbreaking and compelling story of a nation struggling to emerge from feudality only to be plunged into wars, subjected to the mold of Communism, and then taken over by a despot who thought the only path to progress was through conflict.  Jung Chang's grandmother was born just a few years too soon and so was still subjected to having her feet bound--a lifetime of physical torture in the service of a very bizarre notion of beauty. She was married off to a warlord and then, when he died, escaped and married a very kind older man who was a doctor. Her mother grew up with much more freedom and embraced Communism as a teenager and fell in love with a guerrilla fighter who rose to a position of considerable authority in the Party, as did she. Her mother, and Jung Chang herself, were to be repeatedly victimized by this man's rigid adherence to principle, and even though the government betrayed him brutally, he never gave up his ideals. The amount of self-sacrifice, both voluntary and enforced, are beyond what most of us can ever conceive of. The cult of Mao who made himself a god in the sense of absolute control over peoples lives and their very minds is starkly revealed through Chang's tales about the persecution of her parents and acquaintances. Mao was a master of manipulation and loosed a massive "Lord of the Flies" reign of terror that affected hundreds of millions of people. Mao's ideas about expertise in a subject or practice as a bad thing, worthy of imprisonment, is so foreign as to strain understanding. The ground constantly shifts and no one knows where they stand. It is a culture that praises ignorance and illiteracy and persecution based on petty grievances. And yet there are also accounts of outstanding loyalty and love. It is an eye-opening look into one of the largest nations in the world, that should give us all pause. Other reviews are here: Kirkus,