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4.0étoiles sur 5
"Ironies are the way of the world.", Avril 11 2003
This rip-roaring, old-fashioned saga is plot-based from beginning to end, a novel which quickly engages the reader with its excitement and never lets up. Set from 1949 to 1950, with an epilogue which brings the characters up to date in 2001, the novel uses the political tensions of the mountainous area where Kashmir, the Soviet Union, Outer Mongolia, Tibet, Afghanistan, and China converge as the catalyst for the action. Aidan Shaw, a Chinese/American journalist with Socialist/Communist leanings, disappears while on a story, and his wife and young son find themselves at the mercy of consulates, embassies, and intelligence services, none of which can give adequate information as to his fate. Packing up her young son, Aidan' wife Joanna goes to Srinagar in search of information. Lawrence Malcolm, the Australian friend whose "hot tip" to Aidan inspired him to undertake his journey, accompanies her, bringing along Kamla, a street child Joanna has "rescued" and whose original home may have been the mountains through which they are traveling. Kamla's story parallels that of Joanna. Her first person account of life on the streets of Delhi and her "rescue" by Joanna broaden the scope and show the contrasts between those who hold the life of one individual to be paramount, such as Joanna, and those for whom survival is such a struggle that soft feelings, or "impossible goodness" are regarded as a weakness. Coincidence plays a big role in this romantic, and at times melodramatic, novel, which uses the search for Aidan as the vehicle through which the plot progresses. The action moves from Delhi to Srinagar and the mountains around Sinkiang, and eventually includes Hong Kong, Calcutta, Milwaukee, and Washington. Liu keeps the pace moving smartly, with important details revealed at each location so that the search for Aidan never flags. As in any plot-driven novel, we learn only as much about the characters as we need to know: the author does not dwell on psychological motivations. Aidan remains a cipher, and Joanna's transformation from idealist to more self-absorbed pragmatist is not explained in any detail. Of greater consequence is the author's belief that "Truth, in the end, requires...fact, illusion, faith--alone each is equally incomplete." The conclusion, which mirrors this belief, destroys the reader's own illusions as the facts unfold, and it is not one in which everything is resolved as the reader might expect or hope. Ultimately, what matters most, according to Kamla is not right or wrong. "It was not politics or fidelity or even understanding...It was simply our mutual ineptitude at love." For readers who believe that fidelity and understanding should be paramount values, the ending will be a surprise, and perhaps not a welcome one. Book clubs should have fun analyzing the author's choice of ending. Mary Whipple
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