Word: memoirs
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When Mao Zedong's Communist revolution completed its sweep of the mainland in 1949, the oft-asked question in Washington was who had "lost" China. Former American spy, diplomat and straight shooter James Lilley argues in his sweeping memoir China Hands that this historical puzzler is a red herring: America never had China, and the very idea is counterproductive. To influence China, America first has to respect that the vast land has its own interests and ways. Lilley knows. He was born in Qingdao, the son of an American oil executive, and China has been the center of his life...
...Written by first-time author Li Cunxin, Dancer is a poor-boy-makes-good memoir populated by a strange cast of historical figures. Chief among them is the rabid Jiang Qing, Mao's infamous wife, who was a fierce proponent of the Great Helmsman's postulate that "There is in fact no such thing as art ... detached from or independent of politics." To Madame Mao, all presentation was propaganda; she drafted armies of performers to edify the masses through highly politicized operas and films, such as the epic revolutionary musical The East is Red. She also revived the once outlawed...
...Unlike the elegant prose of novelist Anchee Min's 1994 memoir Red Azalea (Min was similarly plucked from serfdom to join Madam Mao's cultural crusade), Li's straightforward narrative rarely delves into agonizing emotional battles, nor does Li use his experiences to comment on social and political issues. Mao's Last Dancer is nonetheless a moving story, and considering the books dedicated to Cultural Revolution horrors, it's heartening to read that someone was able to dance his way through...
Some grown men have trouble embracing their fathers in public. Russert hugs his for 21 chapters in Big Russ & Me (Miramax Books; 336 pages), a memoir that is part tribute to his dad and part guidebook for the author's college-age son Luke. The elder Tim Russert nearly died in World War II, but his namesake celebrates--more than the moments of high drama--the grace with which his father fulfilled his daily obligations. His principles are as simple as the book's chapter titles: "Work," "Faith" and "Discipline." Big Russ worked for the sanitation department in the morning...
...attempt to suppress the nationalist rebellion in the late 1950s. The French political class has been in denial for decades; they'd prefer to pretend it didn't happen. Not so the soldiers. The general in charge of counterinsurgency in Algiers, Paul Aussaresses, recently stirred the pot in a memoir in which he explained that torture was essential to achieving France's goals in Algeria. You sent me to suppress the rebellion, he argued. This was the only way to get it done...