"Wild Swans" by Jung Chang

"At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general ..." is the first line of this book about three generations of remarkable women. The grandmother had bound feet and was born before the last emperor was toppled. Shortly after her daughter, the narrator's mother, is born she realises that the warlord is dying; this means that the warlord's wife will have sole possession of her and she might be sold into a brothel. So she engineers her escape, fleeing on horseback with her baby. Back in her home town she meets an old Chinese medicine doctor who falls in love with her and determines to marry her even though his three sons and their wives demand that he should not (the eldest even commits suicide). They marry and move town becoming poor and living by a sewer. But slowly his practice improves and they get richer and move into a nice house. The narrator's mother is growing up a remarkably determined and intelligent young lady, showing all the spirit of her warlord father and her concubine mother and all the compassion and humanity of her step-father.

Now the Japanese invade. Things become chaotic but the family manages to carry on, often hiding wounded soldiers. Once the Japanese go, the Kuomintang take over (and are very corrupt) and the civil war between them and the Communists erupts. This family, showing compassion and concern for the weak and the unwell, manage to have friends on both sides of the war but the narrator's mother starts to work secretly for the Communists, using a besotted Kuomintang soldier to help her. At last the Communists take over at which point she meets her husband to be, who is a high-ranking Communist having joined Mao in his enclave at the end of the Long March.

She and her new husband make a long journey to his province of Sichuan where he becomes a very high-ranking official and she a moderately high-ranking official. One of her complaints about her husband is that he is very puritanical and refuses whenever possible to do anything to help his family on the grounds that the new Communist order has no time for nepotism. So the kids are more or less neglected while the parents work all hours to create their new utopian society. They struggle with some of the edicts coming from Peking such as the requirement to find amongst their colleagues a certain percentage of traitors and 'class enemies'. They also struggle against the famine caused by Mao's Great leap Forward.

Then the Cultural Revolution begins and, having led privileged lives as high-ranking officials, they are denounced as 'capitalist roaders'. Ten years of Mao-inspired chaos ensues. The narrator is growing up; at the start she is besotted by her love for Mao but slowly she begins to realise that it is him, rather than corrupt officials, who has caused her family's miseries. She herself progresses from peasant to barefoot doctor to electrician to university student.

This book is 676 pages long but the action hardly ever flags. There is so much to tell and the style is simple and sparse, allowing the action to tell the story. Where there is description it is usually to extol the beauties of China's countryside and the elegance of her old way of life; these delicate and fragrant details are perfect counterpoints to the brutality and mindlessness of the mob.

But the main message is contained in the balance between two men. Jung Chang's father is a dedicated and inspired Communist official who is instrumental in creating what is successful in Sichuan immediately following the Communist takeover. But his idealism blinds him to everyday humanity: he is sharp with no blurred edges. When he is denounced he goes mad. He is cured after treatment in a mental hospital but he is a broken man and he realises how badly he has treated his wife and family. On the other hand, Jung Chang's step-grandfather, the doctor, is a model of enlightened humanity who marries the love of his life, an ex-concubine with a warlord's child, and protects many people at great risk to himself.

Idealism must be balanced with humanity.

This is a fantastic book about a remarkable family living through unbelievably turbulent times. It is a warning against dogmatism and an inspiring tribute to the human spirit.

Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 1994

April 2015; 676 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Fidel and Che: a revolutionary friendship" by Simon Reid-Henry

Fred gave me this hardback. It felt heavy and looked really dry. I put off reading it for a couple of weeks. I picked it up with the feeling that I was going to have to push myself.

But Che Guevara is such a romantic figure and Reid-Henry writes so well that I really enjoyed this book. From his youth motorbiking and hitch-hiking around South America to fighting as a guerilla in the Cuban Sierra the story rattled along. And it bounced backwards and forwards to the story of Fidel Castro who, if not so good-looking and less exciting still packed an awful lot into his early years staging an attempted coup, being imprisoned, seeking exile in Mexico and then leading the small group of men on a leaky boat who were almost wiped out on landing in Cuba but went on to defeat an army.

The book falters slightly in the early days of the new Cuban regime. It's difficult to thrill when describing the manoeuvrings of politicians although there is a fascinating narrative in the story of how the US repeatedly pushed the Cubans into the arms of the USSR despite the Cubans feeling terribly betrayed when Khrushchev backed down to Kennedy during the Missile Crisis. But the tale picks up again when Che, desperate to foment world revolution by repeating his Cuban guerilla success abroad, disappears from the Cuban stage. Rumours abound. Is he dead? Has he been put away by Castro? In fact he is fighting anonymously in the Congo from which he barely escapes with his life. After having hidden in the Cuban embassy in Tanzania for some time he then returns to Cuba briefly to move on to try his luck again in Bolivia. Another failure awaits him and he is finally captured and executed.

This book is a brilliant exploration of the enduring friendship of two different but very complimentary men. It is unlikely that either would have achieved all that they did without the other and the fact that they split at the end does not mean that they stopped being friends. Rather, Fidel supported Che in pursuing his dreams abroad. The difference was that Che was the idealist (which caused difficulties and tensions when they were finally in government together) and Fidel was the pragmatic politician, shucking and jiving to stay in power.

There is one brilliant photograph of the pair together in a Mexican prison before they set out to invade Cuba. Reid-Henry says it is the first photograph of the pair together. The unbearded Fidel is buttoning up his jacket; he looks rather like a natty dresser. Che stands to the side. He is topless with his hands behind his back; his trousers are undone at the top and the belt is undone. It looks for all the world as if Fidel is dressing after having enjoyed a rent boy. But what is stunning is how young Che looks. He too is clean shaven and his hair is quite short; he is no more than a handsome boy. He is 28. He looks 17. Within three years this pair will be the leaders of Cuba.

The book stops with Che's death before his fortieth birthday. The friendship is finished although Castro and Cuba continued to honour Ernesto Guevara.

I thoroughly enjoyed this revealing and well written joint biography of two fascinating men. March 2014; 382 pages