From Publishers Weekly
Centering around the Tiananmen Square massacre and its aftermath, this remarkably structured and textured debut epic seeks to attach a face to the mysterious man who, by stepping in front of the rolling army tanks, became the most recognizable symbol of the massacres. Cheng succeeds in his endeavor, and in the process he gives China a face as well¢one so vivid and provocative it's hard to walk away without a fresh impression of the massacre, the 13 years since, and modern-day China in general. Three months before the massacre, Xiao-Di returns to China after spending four years at Cornell University, where he fell in love with a blonde American girl who left him upon graduation. But he has tasted freedom and his return to China is turbulent. He cannot find work. He grapples with the way the masses adhere to tradition and respect authority. He lives with his grandparents (his parents are dead) and when not at home feeling angry and confused, he is out with his friend Wong, bleakly contemplating the future. Then, through the eyes of president Deng Xiaoping, we enter Tiananmen Square, where students have begun protesting. Cheng successfully humanizes the person he has called a complicated man, driven by a genuine passion to create a better society for the Chinese people. Xiao-Di soon finds himself impulsively partaking in a hunger strike and, before long, facing down a tank. Complicating matters is his brother, Lu, a Chinese soldier who is sent with a unit to find Xiao-Di. Through the brothers and their grandparents, a multifaceted and sophisticated portrait of the Chinese people is rendered. This is a rare find: historical and political without being pedantic, and briskly entertaining without being cheap, simplistic or contrived.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Cheng left Taiwan in 1973 as an infant and grew up in New York. In 1989, he watched the TV reports of the anonymous young man who challenged the tanks in Tiananmen Square and was never heard from again. Cheng's debut novel traces a possible biography for this iconic character. A math student who spent his college years in the States, the young man returns to China, where his long-standing engagement turns sour and the fiancee's family retaliates by blackballing him. Living with helpless grandparents and abandoned by an older brother, he joins the fasting students in Tiananmen Square. As Cheng limns the agony of this youth, he also traces the parallel thoughts and actions of the mastermind at the top of the government, Deng Xiaoping, and the true believer at its bottom, the student's brother, who is a lowly soldier. Despite some fevered overplotting, there is much grace, drama, and insight to be enjoyed; Cheng is particularly effective in depicting the perilous state of mind experienced by risk-taking. A ripping good story about a headline event of great power and resonance, it is sure to be marketed heavily and will appeal to many public library patrons. Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
