Entrancing and disturbing ... Demick’s characters are richly drawn, and her stories, often reported over a span of years, deliver a rare emotional wallop. ... If there is a flaw in this excellent book it is only that the story of a single family...is not a great vehicle for understanding Chinese family-planning policies as a whole ... Fortunately, Demick resists the impulse to tie things up in a neat bow.
Important records of how governments frequently turn to family separation as a punishment tactic ... Could be fodder for a pat happily-ever-after, but Demick largely sidesteps this temptation, focusing instead on the delicate and awkward process of forging a sustained relationship.
Demick...has written with impeccable empathy for everyone involved, Chinese and western ... She captures the essence of rural Chinese society in a way few western observers have done, while her portrait of Americans very different to herself...is sensitive and sympathetic.
