Wild Swans

[Holly]

I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I know that I'm in a minority in that opinion though. It's not an easy book to read. Nor is it a fast read. Slow books frustrate me. It plods along, but is fascinating and unsettling. It was interesting to me to see the changes that occurred in China in just a few short generations.
Historically it's fascinating and follows the lives of a woman and her mother and grandmother through the reign and fall of warlords, the Japanese occupation, and the rise of Communism and Chairman Mao. Jung Chang paints a beautiful portrait of not only her mother and grandmother, but her father and grandfather. She really captures the horrors of Communism and Mao and the control exerted on the people.

But, more than anything, it's heartbreakingly sad. It's a well-written, interesting book. I just didn't like it.