Su Xiaokang had faced calamity before- in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square massacre, he became the object of a government manhunt and was forced to flee China, leaving behind his wife and young son. Eventually his family was allowed to join him in exile in the United States, and he believed the worst was behind him. Then a terrible automobile accident left his wife, Fu Li, unable to move or speak. In this remarkably honest account, Su, who blamed himself for his family's disaster, writes wrenchingly of his inner torment and despair. He describes the pain of living in exile, his desperate search for a miracle cure for Fu Li, and his bemusement at his teenage son's increasing Americanization. Above all, Su's moving memoir invites us along on a deeply personal odyssey, as a man who had once been at the center of an international political drama dedicates himself to the far more demanding task of remaking an emotional world for his wife and son.
Ok, I must be honest, Zhu Hong (translator) was my Professor for my Chinese Womens Literature class and I might not have read this book otherwise. That being said, as individual and beautiful as the human mind, Memoir of Misfortune truly is a work of art. The book is written as an interior monologue by Su XiaoKang as he attempts to deal with the traumatic aftermath of a car accident in New York state. Blaming himself for the accident and the pain and suffering he has caused his wife, Xiao Kang expands the scope of his questioning to his involvement in the events leading up to Tiananmen Square and his whole life in general. This book is a testament to one mans spirit that struggles to move on from one hardship to another.
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