A MANY SPLENDORED THING

by Han Suyin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 11, 1952

Frankly a disappointment to those who will remember the author's powerful Destination Chungking. There is, again, the ability to translate the reader to the scene of action- Hong Kong in 1949-50; to interpret the mood, the surface brilliance of the life, where the upper crust spends lavishly, the refugees swarm, penniless and hungry- and talk is bandied about in superficial effort to keep two divergent philosophies in balance. But against this background there is little that really cuts deep, despite long passages of rather pretentious reasoning. The story is a romantic one, over sentimentalized, the love between Han Suyin, Eurasian, more closely linked with her Chinese family than her French, and an English correspondent, whose wife refuses him freedom. And the ending a drastic and violent one. The best part of the story is the brief interlude of a return to The Family in Chungking.

Pub Date: Jan. 11, 1952

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown- A.M.P.

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1952

Categories: FICTION