by Wei Yang Chao ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2017
A deeply satisfying book that recalls the horrors of Mao’s rule.
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A debut memoir centers on a teenager grappling with the dictates of the Cultural Revolution.
Wei Yang Chao was age 13 in 1966 Beijing when Mao incited China’s youth to enforce the ideals of the Cultural Revolution. Self-appointed bands of children and young adults publicly humiliated and beat teachers and other citizens during public “struggle sessions.” Chao was drawn in by his middle school classmates’ fervor but repelled by their violence against others. Even so, he doubted himself, as when he saw a female teacher whose head was shaved as punishment: “I questioned whether I should even allow myself to dwell on such questions.” Then Chao’s parents came under suspicion. His father was a U.S.–educated journalist and his mother belonged to a family of landowners, which in the view of Mao’s Communist regime made them both counterrevolutionaries and the boy’s father a spy. The radicals subjected the family to a public “struggle session,” beating and demoralizing the narrator’s parents. His parents, along with his young sister, were transported to the countryside to be “re-educated,” while Chao was sent to live in a cave in a different village. The very qualities that had become forbidden and a threat to Mao—individual thought and emotion—ultimately saved the narrator. The extensive use of secondary sources in a section at the book’s beginning blurs the line between memoir and reporting. But for the most part, the author vividly focuses on his mind and heart during a time in China when such personal cultivation could get one killed. The facts of the Cultural Revolution are not new, but Chao’s articulation of his inner and outer responses to the movement remains striking. As he mentally struggles to rid himself of sentimentality and commit to Mao’s cause, he remembers how the revolutionaries destroyed his gentle mother’s shoes and wonders: “What…was so wrong about Mother’s small, simple wish to wear high-heeled shoes?” The arc of this engrossing journey should transport readers to China, turning them into eyewitnesses to these turbulent events.
A deeply satisfying book that recalls the horrors of Mao’s rule.Pub Date: March 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9981960-1-5
Page Count: 333
Publisher: Avant Press
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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