纽约时报书评《小团圆》A Fictional Heroine’s Fitful Upbringing Is Set Against the Sino-Japanese War

                
                
LITTLE REUNIONS
By Eileen Chang
332 pp. New York Review Books. Paper, $16.95.
A Fictional Heroine’s Fitful Upbringing Is Set Against the Sino-Japanese War
By Weike Wang
“Little Reunions” follows Julie Sheng from her teenage years into adulthood as she navigates a series of, yes, reunions, with her various family members and lovers — all set against the backdrop of a tumultuous time in Chinese history, the Sino-Japanese War. Julie splits her time between Hong Kong, where she goes to school, and Shanghai, where she, her family and extended family reside. Later she meets Chih-yung, a charming but mysterious man who works for the Japanese regime during the occupation. They become lovers, despite the fact that Chih-yung is not only married to more than one woman, but also romantically involved with still others besides Julie. The protagonist spends the latter half of the novel waiting for Chih-yung to commit to her; however, even when he does, their marriage is doomed: After the Japanese defeat, Chih-yung is forced to flee to the countryside.
While one might expect “Little Reunions” to chart Julie and Chih-yung’s affair and subsequent marriage, and then her later affair with Yen Shan, it does not. In fact, the novel resists tracing any one particular relationship in a focused way. Eileen Chang (1920-95) uses broad brush strokes to take the reader through decades of a crumbling family. At this time in Chinese history, the aristocracy is falling out of favor. Looming on the horizon a few decades ahead is the Cultural Revolution. Readers should expect an extensive cast and speedy transitions, and take stock of the character index, a helpful 10-page, alphabetized list of everyone in the novel. And, given these quick transitions, be prepared to jump from event to event; for example, from an intimate conversation between mother and daughter to a sudden bombing.
“That’s exactly why I say we Chinese know nothing about romance and still never learn,” says Julie’s mother, Rachel, gloomily. “Who would take a visitor at the gate straight to the inner chamber?”
“When the bombing began, everyone said that the hotel staircase was the safest place. Julie sat on a step reading “The Story of a Noble Family,” a popular novel that her cousins had borrowed. She was happy.”
Perhaps Julie’s nonchalance speaks to the suddenness of these attacks, and yet how seamlessly they weave into everyday life. In “The Story of a Noble Family,” the children experience a broken upbringing. Julie too comes from a broken home. Her father is an opium addict and a mercurial disciplinarian who remarries upon his divorce from Julie’s mother. Rachel travels the world, returning only every four or five years to see Julie, bearing 17 suitcases and a string of new and old lovers. Rachel, the novel’s most interesting character by far, is by no means an affectionate mother — she often dismisses Julie as one would a servant: “You may go now” — yet she exemplifies the modern woman. She leaves behind an abusive husband at a time when divorce is hardly easy, and declares her autonomy, though not without its consequences. Now the Catholic Church — and, therefore, society — no longer recognizes Rachel as Julie’s mother. The daughter must refer to her as “Second Aunt,” and to her father’s new wife as “Mother.”
I wish the Rachel-Julie relationship had been the focus of the novel. Often, the narrative feels too sprawling, too speedy, and major lines of tension are lost. Chang’s prose reads more like a stream-of-consciousness recounting of events than a cohesive story. I yearned for fewer characters and more control. In one standout scene set 10 years later in New York, Julie is married to a man named Rudy and four months pregnant, when she receives a visit from a specialized doctor at her apartment. The ensuing pages, while well written and haunting, do not connect with the rest of the story. Once the episode is over, we immediately go back to Julie and Chih-yung’s affair, never to return to New York or Rudy again.
As a longtime admirer of Chang’s work, I am conflicted. Without writers like her, modern Asian-American literature would not be what it is today. “Little Reunions” expanded my grasp of Chang as a writer and person, as much of the story line resonates with aspects of Chang’s own biography. However, those encountering this author for the first time should read the introductory Translator’s Note first. Chang originally sent her completed 600-page, handwritten manuscript of “Little Reunions” to close friends, who would later become her literary executors. The book’s translators, Jane Weizhen Pan and Martin Merz, worked off of photocopies of this manuscript. To my knowledge, neither this book nor the original Chinese version, published in Hong Kong in 2009, has been edited by a single other hand besides theirs, a fact that may explain why the novel approaches, but never quite achieves, brilliance.
Weike Wang is the author of the novel “Chemistry.”