A nightmarish tale of political persecution in Communist China. In 1951, Wu (English/Univ. of Montana) left the University of Chicago to return to his native China and teach English literature. But the China that Wu returned to was deeply suspicious of intellectuals, and, two years later, Wu was denounced as an ``ultrarightist, a backbone element of the reactionary right wing of the bourgeoisie.'' What he actually seems to have been was only a naive, somewhat self-absorbed quasi-aesthete—one who tried to forget the humiliation and stress of his state-imposed public ``self-criticism'' by reading ``the Moncrieff translation of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past in the shaded stillness of the garden around my college house.'' But labeled a ``poisonous weed,'' Wu was sent for ``corrective education through forced labor'' to a state farm on the shores of Lake Xingkai, a thousand miles from his pregnant wife and young son. Transferred to the Third Branch Farm for Rightists and Juvenile Delinquents and fed clear turnip soup and sweet-potato strips, he nearly died of edema and starvation. Released to continue teaching, then reimprisoned, Wu was branded a reactionary ``cow demon'' during the Cultural Revolution, then was released again to join his family for reeducation by peasants in a tiny village, with his wife as sole ``ricewinner.'' In 1974, Wu was allowed to teach ``party-approved fiction'' to ``worker-peasant- soldier-students,'' and, in 1978, his name was cleared during a nationwide rehabilitation and he was allowed to return to real teaching. ``I came, I suffered, I survived,'' is how he sums up his experiences. An often heartrending portrait of a family and a life shattered by state paranoia, and of a world turned upside-down. (First printing of 25,000)
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1993
ISBN: 0-87113-494-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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