Middle Heart [Audio Cassette]

Bette Bao Lord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1996

In 1932, three young people--master of a noble clan, his servant, and a gravedigger's daughter disguised as a boy--form an alliance that is challenged and tested through the years as they become a political leader, a writer, and a great actress. Read by Bette Bao Lord. Simultaneous.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The grace, passion and fidelity to historical detail that characterized her bestselling novel, Spring Moon, and the stark evidence of the suffering of contemporary Chinese that rendered her nonfiction Legacies so compelling, are combined in Lord's new novel, which authoritatively illuminates the travails of 20th-century China. In 1932, three youngsters from different social strata vow to remain forever "blood brothers of the Middle Heart." Steel Hope, scion of the noble but impoverished House of Li; Mountain Pine, his lame "bookmate" (study companion) and servant; and Firecracker, the daughter of a gravekeeper, are to endure and share lives of turmoil and pain, loyalty and love. When the three meet again in 1940, Steel Hope plans to marry Firecracker, now an opera star named Summer Wishes, but as an innocent pawn in a web of administrative corruption, he soon must fake his own death and vanish, surfacing later as a cadre in Mao's revolution. Scholarly Mountain Pine, who also adores Summer Wishes, eventually weds her; later, Mountain Pine will make a supreme sacrifice, ensuring that their son will think of Steel Hope as his father. The vicissitudes of Mao's reign bring them prosperity, then misery: one is sentenced to a labor camp, another to a political prison and the third to forced-labor. While the love triangle ensures the reader's emotional involvement, Lord also vividly portrays the historical and social context of seven decades. She conveys the breakdown of moral order under Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt Guomindang, recalls the idealism that made the intelligentsia ardent adherents of the Communist Party; and depicts the growing disillusionment, paranoia and sheer horror of the ensuing years under Mao. Despite their tragic experiences, the three friends and lovers live out their life spans; the sacrifice is their shared son, who lacks the nurturing memories that keep his elders alive. Though it culminates with the crackdown at Tiananmen Square, the novel ends on a note of affirmation, in keeping with Lord's humane vision of courageous people who are victims of history. 100,000 first printing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

YA?Steel Hope, second son of the once-powerful House of Li; Mountain Pine, his crippled servant and '"bookmate"; and Firecrackers, a gravekeeper's daughter who disguises herself as a boy, form an unlikely friendship during the years of turmoil in China of the 1930s. Their paths diverge as China descends into chaos and war. Firecrackers becomes Summer Wishes, an opera singer who learns to hide her fears and perform with bombs falling close by; Steel Hope is an engineer and bureaucrat who joins the communist underground to fight the Japanese and puts loyalty to the revolution above all else; Mountain Pine becomes a writer and a hermit, but learns he can't run away from his feelings. War, revolution, the vagaries of Communist rule, and family loyalties test the friendship of the three, and their final reunion is bittersweet. Lord brings her knowledge of China and her gift of storytelling to this tale of friendship and love set against the backdrop of modern history. YAs will glimpse a different culture and enjoy a gripping story of the triumph of the human spirit.?Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audio Literature (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787109290
• ISBN-13: 978-0787109295
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,274,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Middle Heart, January 26, 2008

By 

Anna M. Ligtenberg "AnnaLovesBooks" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Middle Heart (Hardcover)

ISBN 0394534328 - Reading the About the Author page before I began reading the book left me wary of what I might find on the pages. Building a career on writing books about the culture you're descended from, but have never really lived in, seems unlikely to result in ethnically-accurate stories. I can't say whether or not Lord hit her mark but I did, periodically, feel like I could have been reading a book set in almost any place, so I don't feel that she really drew the reader into China.

Steel Hope is the illegitimate son of Stone Guardian and his lover, Amber Willows. The woman he will know as his mother, Jade, is an odd mixture of an unattractive woman and a vain one, and is glad to claim Steel Hope as her own. Now she has given a son to the House of Li and still managed to maintain her figure. She even "allows" Amber Willows to serve as the child's wet nurse, bringing her crippled brother, Mountain Pine, too. In time, Mountain Pine will become Steel Hope's bookmate and best friend, neither boy aware of their blood relationship. The boys meet and befriend another young man, Firecrackers, and the three become inseparable - especially after it comes to light that Firecrackers is actually a girl and the daughter of the gravekeeper. They pledge an oath to always remain "brothers" and, despite the intervention of years and events, they do so.

They are rarely together over the years; at most times two of them are together but the third is not with them. For years after the gravekeeper's death, it is Mountain Pine and Steel Hope who are together, as they further their educations. Firecrackers, in the meantime, has made a new friend of a woman named Mushroom. Mushroom has introduced Firecrackers to the theater where she, as Summer Wishes, begins a career that will bring her back to her brothers. The boys find themselves in the audience as the stunning Summer Wishes takes the stage, then in the same bomb shelter with the dazzling actress... but, although both boys are taken with her, neither recognizes her until she tells them who she is. The trio of brothers is now, and for the remainder of the book, a strange sort of love triangle, wherein "doing the right thing" tends to outweigh love and the boisterous, headstrong young girl that was Firecrackers becomes a weak woman. The books spans the remainder of the their lives and the decades of upheaval in China.

I was bothered by some things - Firecrackers was a young girl who, posing as a boy, was presented as strong and capable and made of sterner stuff than Steel Hope, son of a wealthy family, and Mountain Pine, the cripple. Yet, as an adult, she seems to let everything outside of herself determine her fate in every way, from who she will marry and when she will marry him to the roles she will play. It's disconcerting that she is, rather abruptly to me, broken so easily. There is also the fact that Lord chooses not to name World War II or the Communist revolution or any other event that would help the reader differentiate between times. This gives the impression, for those not familiar with China's history, that she is writing about one very long, drawn out, even endless war, that lasts the length of Steel Hope's life. There seems to be little time during which the three friends' lives are not all about surviving the war just to die of old age - a strange, somewhat surreal effect that makes them seem even more tragic. Worse, since Chinese history isn't a big subject in American schools, there will be readers who remain lost most of the time and only recognize Mao and Tiananmen Square

Lastly, every now and then, Lord writes in a vague way that's hard to explain. It is as if she expects that the reader should be able to follow this sort of odd, rambling, meandering, random train of thought process, so she put it down on paper - and I couldn't follow it. Thankfully, it wasn't frequent, but it was annoying, especially the times when the story was somewhat suspenseful. To suddenly have to try to decipher these ramblings was frustrating. All in all, though, a good book and an interesting story that could have benefited from a little less of that and a little more historically relevant info to put the reader in the right timeframe. I'd read more from Lord, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.

- AnnaLovesBooks

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dive into Chinese Culture, July 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Middle Heart (Paperback)

Ms Lord presents a wonderful story of the unknown China at its time of cultural disrupture in a comprehensive way, especially for Non-Asian readers.

The only criticism is, firstly, the plot of the story seems rather constructed and out of place with the move of the last remaining heir to the United States. Secondly, partially a richer description of the characters would have helped to better distinguish between East and West.

Nevertheless, her book opens a fascinating window to peep into the Middle Kingdom from early this century to the present from your armchair.

Karin Jork, MBA, M.A.(Int'l Relations, USC)

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one tragic chinese novel, September 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Middle Heart (Hardcover)

well in the first place, i'm not chinese so i can't react to how 'chinese' her novel is. this is one of the few novels that i've sworn not to read again not because it was ugly... but because it made me cry. i don't like crying and would rather smile and smile and smile than cry. but this novel suceeded in doing that. it is very tragic and a good story of friendship. highly recommended for those who want to shed a few tears...definitely it's not for me.