Love and Revolution
A Novel About Song Qingling and Sun Yat-sen
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
"Death is inevitably the end of a journey. Death also allows the journey to go back to the beginning."
In this bold novel, one of Taiwan's most celebrated authors reimagines the lives of a legendary couple: Sun Yat-sen, known as the "Father of the Chinese Revolution," and his wife, Song Qingling.
Born in 1866, Sun Yat-sen grew up an admirer of the rebels who tried to overthrow the ruling Manchu dynasty. He dreamed of strengthening China from within, but after a failed attempt at leading an insurrection in 1895, Sun was exiled to Japan. Only in 1916, after the dynasty fell and the new Chinese Republic was established, did he return to his country and assume the role of provisional president.
While in Japan, Sun met and married the beautiful Song Qingling. Twenty-six years her husband's junior, Song came from a wealthy, influential Chinese family (her sister married Chiang Kai-shek) and had received a college education in Macon, Georgia. Their tumultuous and politically charged relationship fuels this riveting novel. Weaving together three distinct voices—Sun's, Song's, and a young woman rumored to be the daughter of Song's illicit lover—Ping Lu's narrative experiments with invented memories and historical fact to explore the couple's many failings and desires. Touching on Sun Yat-sen's tormented political life and Song Qingling's rumored affairs and isolation after her husband's death, the novel follows the story all the way to 1981, recounting political upheavals Sun himself could never have imagined.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This lackluster Taiwanese import reconstructs the final thoughts of Sun Yat-sen, "the founding father of modern China" who died in 1925, and of his second wife, Song Qingling, who died in 1981. Told from the perspectives of Sun, Song and a daughter of the widow Song's illicit lover, the novel offers a glimpse into a 10-year marriage between a peasant revolutionary and his rich, much younger wife who adored him (but was disgusted by his lapses in personal hygiene). Sun regrets Song's miscarriage during their violent days on the run; reflects on his abandonment of his first wife and children and his years of promiscuity; and worries about his political clout. For her part, Song, whose sister married future Taiwanese president Chiang Kai-shek, laments that she was sidelined politically after Sun's death and pines for her younger, last lover who died when she was 70. Dish on the intimate life of a revered national hero and his widow's political disillusionment and love affairs won't be a surprise to Ping Lu's readers in Taiwan (where she has published multiple works on figures including Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling), but this stilted effort will confuse readers less familiar with the intricacies of the region's political history.
