they discover how its implementation
falls short of its original conception, they
bond and fall in love. Chang follows Liu
to Shanghai when he is promoted, an
opportunity to expose the Party’s bureaucratic failings, turncoat allegiances, and
inhumane toll on urban communities.
Chang does not shy away from gritty
details, including executions. She writes,
“The whole country lay stretched out like
an open palm, ready to close around any
one person at any minute.” Amid such
harrowing descriptions, Chang develops a
tragic wartime romance that leaves
readers with a painfully clear picture of
just how deeply Mao’s reign scarred her
native country. (Mar.)
The Animals
Christian Kiefer. Norton/Liveright, $25.95
(352p) ISBN 978-0-87140-883-9
Kiefer, author of The Infinite Tides, returns
with a mesmerizing literary thriller about
Bill Reed, a lost soul who winds up in a
remote corner of Idaho, operating a wildlife sanctuary filled with animals who
cannot take care of themselves after suffering
at the hands of humans. The book opens
in 1996, introducing us to Reed and some
of his creatures, including a gentle giant
of a bear named Majer. Reed lives quietly:
Naked Earth
Eileen Chang. New York Review Books, $16.95
trade paper (344p) ISBN 978-1-59017-834-8
An unrelenting portrait of love and loss
in Maoist China, Chang’s novel was originally commissioned in the 1950s as anti-communist propaganda by the U.S.
Information Service. Shanghai-born Chang
(Love in a Fallen City ) writes with a survivor’s clear-eyed frankness about how Mao’s
policies punished China’s people, leaving
no one, even those in positions of power,
untouched. The narrative tracks Liu Ch’uen
and Su Nan, idealistic students who confront the realities of Chinese Communism
when they are deployed to the countryside
with the Land Reform Workers Corps. As
The Tusk That Did the Damage
Tania James. Knopf, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-
0-385-35412-7
This ambitious but uneven novel by
James (Atlas of Unknowns) tells three
intersecting stories involving a murderous elephant on the loose in an
Indian jungle. Part of the novel follows
the elephant, Gravedigger, and does a
stunning job evoking an animal’s sensory world, as when he remembers “the
bark of soft saplings, the saltlicks, the
duckweed, the tang of river water,
opening and closing around his feet.”
These sections also heartbreakingly capture the elephant’s terror and confusion
in the face of human cruelty: the scene of
the murder of Gravedigger’s mother,
and his subsequent mistreatment as part
of a traveling show, are almost unbearable to read. This narrative is a tour de
force, and the other sections in the book
pale by comparison. The chapters
dealing with a love triangle involving
two American documentarians and their
subject, an Indian elephant veterinarian,
seem to be from a lesser moral universe
and are ultimately forgettable after the
life-or-death stakes of Gravedigger’s sections. The story line about Manu, a
would-be poacher, fares better by
evoking the crushing economic and
social realities of rural life in India, but
is diminished by heavy-handed plotting.
Having already killed one member of
Manu’s family, Gravedigger pounces from
the shadows to maim a second in a misguided scene that comes off like grim
parody. Still, the Gravedigger sections
are so original and moving as to tower
over the novel’s less successful elements.
(Mar.)
Roberta Alexander
Allen Appel
Deb Bander
Judy Bates
Kristin Baver
Vicki Bloom
Monique Bos
Fritz Brantley
Matt Bucher
Alexis Burling
Lisa Butts
Laura Cerruti
Lynda Brill Comerford
Henry Carrigan
Dan Cullinane
Jessica Daitch
Tony Daniel
Anna Dembska
Johanna Draper Carlson
Glen Downey
Stefan Dziemianowicz
Jordan Foster
Donna Freitas
Erin Fry
Jeff Galipeaux
Krystyna Poray Goddu
Judi Goldenberg
Acacia Graddy-Gamel
Laine Gyurisin
Bob Hahn
Valerie Hamra
Nan A. Hawley
Samantha Henderson
Mary M. Jones
Michael M. Jones
Karin L. Kross
Pam Lambert
Anaea Lay
Michael Levy
Erin Lewenauer
Adam Lipkin
Shannon Maughan
Chana Mayefsky
Sheri Melnick
Diane Molleson
Elyse Moody
Julie Naughton
Dionne Obeso
Kate Pavao
Laura Peacock
Tim Peters
Lenny Picker
Michael Popke
Sumana Raychaudhuri
Sharon Rice
Sam Riedel
Amanda Rogers
Ken Salikof
Joe Sanders
Antonia Saxon
Liz Scheier
Martha Schulman
Matt Seidel
Steven H Silver
William Simmons
Bonnie Jo Stuf;ebeam
Will Swarts
Julie K. Trevelyan
Misty Urban
Kathy Weeks
Monica Whitebread
Carol Whitney
Annasue McCleave Wilson
Our Reviewers ;
; The Dream of My Return
Horacio Castellanos Moya, trans. from the Spanish by Katherine Silver. New Directions,
$15.95 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-0-8112-2343-0
Moya’s (Senselessness) lyrical meditation on memory and loss tells the story of Erasmo Aragon, an exiled jour- nalist in Mexico City who suffers from ambiguous medical symptoms. Aragon visits an acupuncturist
and holistic doctor named Don Chente, who prescribes hypnotherapy, with the side effect of producing vivid dreams.
As the status quo of his life is disrupted, the narrator of this
Bolañoesque novel dreams of leaving Mexico and returning
to his native El Salvador. His plans to return, however, are
repeatedly interrupted, and he finds himself twisted up in a
state of fear and vulnerable paranoia. Further complications arise when the mysterious Don Chente himself flees to El Salvador without telling Aragon what he said
while hypnotized. Yet Aragon’s dream is worth the risk of retribution, because it
is the dream of all exiles: the return to a new life in a familiar setting. Stories of
political turmoil, communism, love affairs, friendships, and family drama weave in
and out of Aragon’s quest to escape his own “psychic mechanisms.” In this taut,
mesmerizing story of the brain’s far-reaching functions, Moya once again proves
to be a master storyteller. (Mar.)
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