A detailed and moving tale about a heroic bishop in atheist China.
A historical novel focuses on the last Anglican bishop in China.
In his book, Yuan tells the story of his grandfather Robin Chen, the last presiding bishop of the Anglican Church in China. The author charts Chen’s intricate journey, ranging from his early childhood years and his conversion to Christianity as a schoolboy at an Anglican missionary school to his death under house arrest decades later. Using a vast amount of primary documentation, Yuan seeks to provide a more accurate and nuanced picture of the Cultural Revolution than the version found in propaganda periodicals of the time disseminating “idyllic pictures of a communal utopia with caring barefoot doctors, smiling farmers, and singing factory workers.” The author lightly dramatizes the lives and struggles of his ancestors, predominantly Chen, whose peaceful and optimistic personality Yuan depicts perfectly throughout the poignant book. Equally well captured is the broader, changing world of 20th-century China, where Chen becomes a Christian leader in an avowedly atheist country. When he’s wretched and oppressed, his faith never wavers, and when the government changes and he’s suddenly valued (given a car and driver, a private phone in his home, health insurance, and—most importantly—extra coal for the winter), he uses his own money to allow poor children to go to school. Chen’s travels in the service of both church and state are rendered in vivid detail. Although Yuan reminds his readers in a postscript that he’s writing fiction, the book gives the strong impression of being the best biography Chen will ever get. The novel’s blending of personalities and the seething politics of 20th-century China is seamlessly done, and its heroic portrait of its central character is always admiring but never saccharine.
A detailed and moving tale about a heroic bishop in atheist China.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73778-940-6
Page Count: 414
Publisher: Red Robin Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fascinating tale competently though awkwardly told.
A woman from meager beginnings becomes the first Black female airplane pilot in this lightly fictionalized account.
Bessie Coleman was born into a Texas sharecropping family in 1892, the 10th of 13 children of a woman born in slavery. When she learned about the Wright brothers as a child, thoughts of flying began to invade her daydreams, and she became determined to fly herself one day. An opening section describes a disastrous 1923 crash that leads Bessie to set down the story of her life. Narrating in the first person, she takes readers with her to Chicago in 1915, where she lives with her brother while trying to find a way to become a pilot. But no American flight schools will take her, so she moves to France. Her training there is perhaps the novel's best part, as we watch Coleman grow from an enthusiastic young woman to a talented pilot. Hopson is a pilot herself, and her knowledge is evident in the flying scenes—perhaps a bit too evident for the layperson. It’s a pleasure to follow Bessie on her life's journey right up to the night before her final flight in 1926, even though it's delineated with imperfect craftsmanship. Hopson stuffs her story to the brim with historical details and anecdotes, which are interesting in and of themselves but aren't well integrated into the narrative flow. Characters frequently provide background information without any setup or any credible reason for volunteering it. If the material were less compelling, the novel would be a slog, but even strained prose and weak similes can’t detract from the gripping saga of a remarkable woman.
A fascinating tale competently though awkwardly told.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781250347213
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
A marathon masterpiece that shares a holistic portrait of U.S. history that must not be dismissed or forgotten.
An unblinking view into plantation life in the Deep South.
At first glance this epic seems to be focused on the ups and downs of the Guilbert family, slaveholders living in the Louisiana parish of St. James whose legacy is protected by 80-year-old matriarch Madame Sylvie Bernardin de Maret Dacier Guilbert. However, Williams-Garcia doesn’t stop in the salons and sitting rooms; she brings readers into the cabins and cookhouses of enslaved people whose perceived invisibility gives them access to ideas and knowledge that empower them in ways that few fiction writers have examined. Sixteen-year-old Thisbe is the personal servant to Madame Guilbert—treated like a pet and beaten with a hairbrush for the smallest alleged slight. Her narrative to liberation is intricately webbed within the story of the Guilberts. Thisbe’s silence helps her acquire the language to affirm her humanity to those who would deny it. With a cast of characters whose assorted genealogies feel like an ode to the mixing of peoples and cultures in Louisiana, this story broadens and emboldens interrogations of U.S. chattel slavery. Williams-Garcia’s meticulous research processes shout volumes about the importance of taking contemporary inspiration into the archives to unearth sorely needed truths as we continue to navigate questions of equity and justice for the descendants of enslaved people.
A marathon masterpiece that shares a holistic portrait of U.S. history that must not be dismissed or forgotten. (author's note, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 15-adult)Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-236729-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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