Accurate Historical Fiction

books:


	• Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China Jung Chang Touchstone, 2003 - 544 pages average customer review:based on 347 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Extraordinary

Exquisitely written. Though this book was highly recommended to me, I was somewhat intimidated by its historical range, difficulty in pronouncing and remembering names and places (Tolstoy comes to mind), and the painful period it covers. Chang writes so clearly and deliberately (again Tolstoy comes to mind) that none of the above mattered. I raced through it. I had read a lot about the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath as it was happening but nothing in depth. I have since purchased Mao: The Unknown Story.

Accurate Historical Fiction

I read "Wild Swans" along with several other fiction and nonfiction books before I went to live in China for a 2-year assignment with a multinational corporation. No book better prepared me to understand the Chinese people and the history they have seen in their recent past. China is a country that is changing faster than we can comprehend in the West. But this change is only a continuation of the enornous changes that have occurred in the last century. "Wild Swans" takes us into the lives of 3 women of very different times and allows us to see and understand their day-to-day lives in the context of the times in which they lived.
The book helped me to be able to look at the Chinese of all ages and know the history and living conditions that they have experienced in their lives. To understand one's frame of mind is a gift of understanding that helped me in my social life and business dealings in this fascinating country. My 2-year assignment ended too soon and I opted to return for 3 more years later.
I recommend "Wild Swans" to anyone who wants a better understanding of China. I have not found another book to equal it in insight into the Chinese mind.

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Wild Swans

Great historical overview but a tended to be a bit too much information and too long.

riveting!

I just finished reading this book which is the riveting story of three-generations of women in one Chinese family. This book opened my eyes to a time in history that (embarassingly enough) I really knew nothing about. While the story of these women's lives are heart-wrenching, it is also a story of three very couragious women. I doubt many women of today would be able to put up with the mental, physical, and emotional pain that these women, and really all people in China at that time, had to. Wild Swans should be required reading in high school and college because there is so much to be learned about not only history, but human nature, from this book.

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How could we not know...

I read this book back in 1994 and it is still one of my most favorite writings. It is one of the few that I loan out and WANT back. It has a permanent place on my bookshelves. As I read it,I had to keep reminding myself that this is NON-fiction. How could I have grown up (born 1951) and not know what a different life was being experienced elsewhere!

This was the first of many books I have read on China, some fiction some non-fiction and it has had a lasting impression on me.

AN INCREDIBLE STORY!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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