ONCE OUR LIVES

Stubis’ family biography recounts a multigenerational saga set in China during the Chinese Revolution.

The author, a columnist for the Santa Monica Star who also writes poetry and short stories reflecting her Chinese heritage, devotes her first book to the narrative of her parents and grandparents and their survival during the Chinese Communist Revolution. The book, which begins with a guide to the various family members and other characters included, has an almost folkloric quality as it recounts the stories of her father, An Chu, whose life is burdened by misfortune, and her mother, Yan, who breaks away from her upper-class adoptive family out of rebellion and idealism. Yan’s story is an especially compelling and complex narrative, beginning with her being adopted by an indulgent new father and a mother who only gradually accepts her. She rejects the milieu she is raised in to support the revolution, meeting and marrying An Chu in the process. Both experience increasing hardships and see the revolution they supported turn on them. They struggle to rebuild their lives in Shanghai only to face the Cultural Revolution. Stubis offers the reader a sweeping story, rich with detail (“Grandpa Ho De’s tales were their childhood favorites, and they told them to each other over and over. Most of all, they loved to snuggle together under Grandpa’s old black-and-white bathrobe until it became threadbare”) and mostly seamless in its integration of the historical context of the Chinese Communist Revolution. The problem is, this book, with its multiple narrative viewpoints, has such a wide scope that the reader might not be initially clear what the narrative means to convey. Stubis’ work, however, is no less of an enjoyable read for that, and the vast amount of ground covered here should not deter the reader from this fast-moving narrative.

A wide-ranging story that keeps the reader engaged throughout.