As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Thoughtful yet unassuming, she spends her days with her friends beyond the attention of her parents: Her father is a reclusive figure who lingers in the background, while her mother, an aging beauty and fervent patriot, is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip. Only Lai's grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances. But Lai is quickly awakened to the harsh realities of the Chinese state. A childish prank results in a terrifying altercation with police that haunts her for years; she also learns that her father, like many others, was broken during the Cultural Revolution. As she enters adolescence, Lai meets a mysterious and wise bookseller who introduces her to great works--Hemingway, Camus, and Orwell, among others--that open her heart to the emotional power of literature and her mind to thrillingly different perspectives. Along the way, she experiences the ebbs and flows of friendship, the agony of grief, and the first steps and missteps in love.
It is hard not to be carried away by this tale of friendship and self-discovery amid a righteous cause. There’s a useful reminder here that bravery must be individual before it can become collective.
Wen...wraps an emotionally satisfying coming-of-age tale around a riveting account of the months-long student protests and the horrific, fateful night that Chinese troops cracked down with bullets and tanks ... The novel’s deliberate but surehanded pacing gives these formative moments in Lai’s adolescence an emotional resonance ... The book’s arresting and bloody climax delivers a powerful punch ... Their anguish and desire to be heard are deeply felt.
The result is intimate as well as epic, turning her book from a key testimony of a historic tragedy into a work of finely wrought fiction. Even without the protests, I would have happily read it just for the exquisite coming-of-age novel it is ... Wen keeps her canvas impressively small as she conjures up the spectre of authoritarianism overshadowing her world. Like Ferrante, she revels in the grit of her environment ... The final bravura sequence is as gripping as it is devastating.
