My Rating: 3.5 stars
Let me start off by saying that Eileen Chang is one of my
favorite Chinese authors. I was an Asian Studies major back in college
and it was in one of the many Chinese Literature classes I took back then that
I was first exposed to Eileen Chang’s writing. The very first work I read
of Chang’s happened to be her most famous and critically acclaimed novella “The
Golden Cangue” – the version I read was from the anthology Modern Chinese Stories and
Novellas: 1919-1949 (published by Columbia University Press in the
1980s), which I found out later was a version that had been translated by Chang
herself (Chang was fluent in both Chinese and English and wrote in both
languages, though most of her earlier works were in Chinese and she only
started writing in English after moving from Shanghai to Hong Kong – and later
to the United States -- in the 1950s). Since then, I have read many of
Chang’s works off and on and also watched my fair share of movies / TV series
that had been adapted from Chang’s various works over the years. As one
of the most famous and influential Chinese writers of the 20th century, Chang’s
repertoire was quite prolific – in addition to writing short stories, novellas,
essays, and novels, she also wrote screenplays and scripts for both film and
stage as well as did translation work for her own works and those of
others. One of the things that set Chang apart from many of her
contemporaries during her time was the fact that much of her writing focused on
the complexity of relationships, love, family, societal conventions, and
everyday life (in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), but without the heavy
political slant that was a common characteristic in much of the Chinese literature
of that period (ironically though, despite Chang’s largely apolitical stance
and her focus on writing love stories set against the backdrop of the time
period in which she lived, two of her most well-known works -- both written
after she moved to the U.S. in the mid-1950s -- were widely viewed as being
“anti-Communist propaganda” due to her searing criticisms of everyday life
under Communist China, which caused her works to be banned in Mainland China
for many decades). Many of Chang’s works were known for being
semi-autobiographical in nature, as her stories often reflected the bitterness,
anguish, resentment, disappointments and loneliness that marred much of her
childhood and adult life – also, her characters’ often complicated family
dynamics as well as frustratingly bitter romantic relationships, most of which
usually ended in tragedy, were common themes in her narratives that in large
part mirrored her own experiences. In her later years and up until her death in
1995, Chang became increasingly reclusive and chose to live an intensely
private life in an apartment in Los Angeles, largely cut off from the outside
world.
Knowing the above background context and also having
already read quite a few of Chang’s earlier works, I went into Little
Reunions expecting to see the same beautiful, emotionally poignant
storytelling that Chang was known for. In a way, this book, more than her
previous works, can be considered her most personal work, as the character of
Julie – the main protagonist in the story – is said to be a reflection of
Chang’s own self. Indeed, Julie’s family background in the story was very
similar to Chang’s: born into a deeply traditional, aristocratic family
in Shanghai, to an opium-addicted, abusive father and a sophisticated, worldly
mother, Julie was constantly surrounded by a revolving door of meddling
relatives and extended family, yet emotionally she was lonely and indifferent
as a result of never having experienced true love and support from parents
whose lives were selfishly defined by constant love affairs and infidelities.
Later, Julie meets the charismatic Chih-yung, a fellow writer who later
becomes a traitor working for the Japanese puppet government. Despite
Chih-yung already being married and simultaneously attached to other women,
Julie engages in a love affair with him, even agreeing to marry him in
secret. At the same time, Julie has to deal with her mother’s often cold
and indifferent attitude toward her. Just like her relationship with
Chih-yung, Julie’s relationship with her mother is fraught with emotional
complexity amidst long intervals of necessary “separations” and subsequent
“little reunions”. Through Julie, Chang provides insight into the lives
of a privileged yet deeply dysfunctional family as they deal with the realities
of a country at war (the Japanese occupation of China and the subsequent
escalation into WWII), but on a more significant level, she provides intimate
and often candid insight into her relationship with the 2 people she loved most
– her mother and her first husband.
Overall, I would say that this was an interesting story,
though definitely not as good as Chang’s previous works. I know that
Chang’s writing style changed quite a bit in her later years, especially in the
1960s and 70s when she lived primarily in the U.S. and tried to adapt her
writing to mainstream American society. The difference in writing style
aside though, it’s important to note the back history of this book and why such
a fan of Chang’s work like myself is more than willing to overlook whatever
flaws may exist with this book. Eileen
Chang actually wrote Little Reunions back in 1976 and
upon its completion, she sent the 600+ page handwritten manuscript to her close
friend (and literary executor of all her works) Stephen Soong and his wife Mae
Fong. After reading the manuscript and
understanding the autobiographical nature of the story, the Soongs were
concerned that the story’s explosive content – especially the detailed descriptions
of Julie’s (Chang’s) intimate relationship with Chih-yung (Chang’s ex-husband
Wu Lan-cheng) – could bring untold condemnation upon Chang. They were also concerned that Chang’s
ex-husband, the traitor Wu Lan-cheng (who was hiding out in Taiwan at the time and
was supposedly waiting for an opportunity to rebuild what he had lost) may try
to use the contents of the book to further exploit her (and possibly destroy
her). Due to these concerns, the Soongs
and Chang decided to “indefinitely hold off” on publishing the novel – over the
next 20 years, Chang would continue to make small edits to the manuscript,
though it was unclear whether the fully revised version ever got sent to the
Soongs. In 1992, in a letter to the Soongs
to discuss her will, Chang expressed her intention to “destroy” the manuscript of
Little
Reunions that was in existence.
Three years later, Chang died unexpectedly and one year after that,
Stephen Soong also passed away (Mrs. Soong continued to preserve Chang’s
manuscript of Little Reunions up until her own death in 2007). In 2009, with the permission of the Soongs’
son Yi-lang, who had taken over for his parents as the literary executor to Chang’s
works as well as estate, the original, unedited version of the manuscript (in
Chinese) was published in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China – 14 years after Chang’s
death. The version released this year by
NYRB (New York Review of Books) is the very first translation of Chang’s “autobiographical”
novel into English (published 9 years after the Chinese version came out in
Asia and 42 years after the original book was written).
With this being one of Chang’s very last published works –
and the one that most closely paralleled her own life -- I feel honored to have
gotten the chance to read this book.
Even though I did have some issues with the nonlinear format of the
narrative (which made the story a little hard to follow, especially with the
multitude of characters/family members that flitted in and out throughout the
story) and also the writing was not what I expected (possibly due to the
translation), these were relatively minor issues in the overall scheme of
things. For fans of Eileen Chang’s
works, this is definitely a “must-read,” though I would recommend reading the original
Chinese version in order to hear Chang’s story in her own voice. (Note: After reading the English version, I actually
went and bought the Chinese version, as Eileen Chang had a unique narrative voice
that no amount of translation could ever do justice to. Some time in the near future, I hope to re-read
this book in it’s original context and once I do, I’ll definitely come back
here to update this review).
Received ARC from NYRB
(New York Review of Books) via Edelweiss
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