A well-researched and capably written depiction of the Rape of Nanjing and its effects on victims and survivors.
American and Chinese academics face the horrors of invasion in the early days of World War II.
In this debut historical novel, Zheng draws on his experiences as a researcher at MIT to create Chinese-born Calvin Ren and Massachusetts native John Winthrop, who meet as engineering students in Cambridge. They reunite in Calvin’s hometown of Nanjing to work on China’s nascent military aircraft program. Although John leaves behind a fiancee when he travels to China, he becomes close to Chen May, a teenage acquaintance of Calvin’s. She practices her English with John while he shops for antiques in the market. Their relationship never moves beyond friendship and a few kisses, but John is the one May turns to when nearly all her relatives are killed during the Rape of Nanjing by Japanese forces. They lose touch when he returns to the United States, but May survives the war and pursues justice for her city in the aftermath, while John’s legacy provides education for future generations of Chinese girls. An author’s note explains that Zheng wrote the novel in response to a lack of awareness of the Rape of Nanjing, and an appendix provides resources for further reading on the subject. The novel is solidly grounded in historical research, and notable figures, including Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife, Soong Mayling, make frequent appearances. The book also creates a vivid portrait of 1930s urban China, with its blend of traditional practices and Western influences, and Zheng leaves the reader with clear images of the wine houses, steamed rolls, and everyday objects that make up his characters’ lives. The book excels in dramatic and panoramic moments, like the chaotic evacuation of Nanjing after the attack. The storyline is at times too sprawling, filled with the back stories of characters who do little to drive the plot but serve as victims of Japanese cruelty, but on the whole the book effectively puts a human face on one of World War II’s noteworthy tragedies.
A well-researched and capably written depiction of the Rape of Nanjing and its effects on victims and survivors.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-944347-00-0
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Killian Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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