... captivating ... a new classic ... If you know nothing about 20th century Chinese history going into Forbidden City, worry not ... so much more than an historically minded #MeToo narrative ... Historical fiction, at its best, is a visceral, not academic, enterprise. It provides dual pleasures to the reader: the pleasure of time travel and the pleasure of time’s echo. It’s one thing to know intellectually that history repeats itself and another to see history enacted through a well-crafted, defamiliarizing narrative. The echoes I heard in Forbidden City — narcissistic leadership, a revenge-thirsty body politic, women and girls treated as things — both unsettled and compelled me to consider the present anew. I can think of no higher praise for this ambitious and impressive novel.
... masterful ... These thoughts bring the reader to question what Mei might be misremembering throughout the novel, and what she might not remember at all — a metaphor for the selection of events that official history deems fit to either embrace or discard...But that’s the thing about hidden history, political, national and personal: Once a long-buried truth is revealed, it sparks connections, understanding and empowerment ... Mei’s description of the Cultural Revolution does not sound so removed from our daily American reality. Hua concludes her Author’s Note by warning that '[t]he past is never as distant as it seems.' That’s just another reason that her novel is eye-opening, vital and timely now more than ever.
This fictionalized, inside view from a Mao devotee is compelling. Outside this world, Mei could be seen as foolish and star-struck, but she is a victim of the insidious propaganda campaigns and the culture around her. Her growth and gradual realization of the truth of the real Mao turns her into a fierce woman of strength.
Hua brilliantly conveys the emotional and physical reverberations of the rivalries among the girls, who are more vulnerable and less worldly than they understand. Similarly, Hua keenly portrays the discord among Mao’s underlings ... By its end, Forbidden City has brought the reader into the beating heart of human history. It is literary historical fiction at its finest.
Hua draws on 20-plus years of experience as a journalist covering Asia and the diaspora to reclaim a few of the 'millions of impoverished women who have shaped China in their own ways yet remain absent from the country’s official narrative' ... Hua’s 14-year journey of research and writing deftly proves that 'fiction flourishes where the official record ends.'
Hua’s provocative latest follows a bold and shrewd woman as she navigates China’s political scene amid the Cultural Revolution ... Masterly ... This finds a brilliant new perspective on familiar material via its story of a young woman’s brush with power. It’s magnificent.
Ambitious ... Hua vividly captures the cult of personality that enabled the manipulation of girls like Mei. But her narrative pace is surprisingly slow ... Mei’s narrow viewpoint also limits the novel’s emotional impact, as she remains detached from the traumatic events of the Cultural Revolution until the contrived climax ... Though disappointing in its execution, this well-researched book addresses a momentous period rarely covered in fiction.
