"What is it like to be part of something greater than oneself. I wonder."

A protected childhood is interrupted when Lili's intellectual parents are transported to a remote town and given a "re-education" during her teenage years. She observes her parents' calm acceptance of their predicament and rebels against them, government, and idealism. When a Communist Party official abuses her, Lili flees the refuge of family and joins a group of displaced youths. Survival is her only stimulant. Shame becomes a brand, and she accepts the label with self-loathing. Branded as a hooligan, Lili Lin is released from prison as a cynical, detached young woman.

The American Jewish journalist who enters her self-absorbed world changes her life dramatically. Roy Goldstein has a thirst for learning the ways, heritage, and politics of the Chinese people and yearns to write their stories. Lili accompanies him to a remote village to observe peasant life in China. The residents treat the couple like anointed royalty; Roy drinks in their hospitality like a child with his first Christmas gift, but Lili longs to return to Beijing where nothing is expected of her except a stoic acceptance of daily Communist routine.

Lili's slow transformation is heart wrenching. Her relationship with Roy meets with bumps along the road she travels. When students take to the streets in Beijing and assemble at Tiananmen Square, Lili joins them to rediscover thoughts long hidden in her wayward past.

Religious perseverance, personal dignity, individual intellectual pursuit, and the political process are themes Wang presents in Lili's story; raw examination of Chinese subservience to government entities after the Cultural Revolution is the meat of the novel. Lili never questions her rights as an individual in a totalitarian society until the passionate foreigner awakens her dormant emotions. For a bittersweet history lesson about modern China, LILI is a must-read. Wang's first English novel is a fine piece crafted by a talented writer.

   --- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad (gigstadjudy@hotmail.com)


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