Customer Reviews: Read 91 more reviews...
 The most amazing history lesson I have ever had!! October 22, 2008
I've never felt so sad to reach the end of a book in all my life. This book is truely amazing and is well and truely the best book I've ever read! I even had the urge to start reading it all over again as soon as I'd finished.
Wild Swans follows the journey of three generations of women, from the same family, through the tragic history of twentieth century China.
I felt almost ashamed that I wasn't aware of hardly any of China's recent history. I picked the book up as I was doing a charity trek along the Great Wall in August 2008 and felt I should brush up on the history of the country. Although I had read wonderful things about this book I was prepared for a dull history lesson, one that I felt I had to put myself through. Sure it was a history lesson, but a breathtaking, extraordinary, unforgettable one. I struggled to remember that what I was reading was a true story, an account of three peoples' lives!
No one told me this book was banned in China. So in my hand luggage it went, luckily I, and the book, made it there and back safely. I wish I had managed to finish it before I left for China, but when I returned from my trip I was even more eager to learn about the wonderful country I had just visited!
This book is outstanding! It's not possible to put into words how much I enjoyed it. Please, just read it!!
An accessible history October 16, 2008
One of the best books I have ever read.
Touching and heartfelt, yet matter of fact and never sentimental. This book is remarkably easy to read, I found it hard to put down. At once, this is the epic story of a family and a country. I could never have believed the amount of knowledge I accumulated from this book. The writing style of Jung Chang made it effortless.
worth it October 15, 2008
Firstly I will admit it's been a few years since I read this and a friend has it now so I can't skim through it to refresh my memory.
The story travels through china before communist rule to the present. Most of the book is in the time of the Mao rule but I found it never really thought of this government as a bad thing, or a good thing. I never got an impression that the author blamed this government for what happened. I think this is one of the best things about this book, you see more the mindset of the people at the time.
As I had said a friend has it now, it got passed around and all of us loved the book. It even gave two the idea of going to China on holiday.
I picked this book up for a fiver because I was a student at the time and found it difficult to justify spending that much money on a book, but it would have been worth it even it I did pay the full price. (and thank you to the person who left it into a 2nd hand book shop)
An emotionally gripping, roller-coaster ride through the lives of three fascinating women October 2, 2008
This is without doubt one of the best books I've ever read. It is a powerful, gripping story that takes you through act after act of what human beings are capable of doing on this Earth, sometimes in the most brutal fashion.
Based on the lives of three generations of women, it starts in turn of the 20th century China, when the Qing dynasty was starting to crumble and that way of life was coming to an end, taking you through the civil war, Mao coming to power, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution before ending in the 70s when the author leaves for Britain.
This is a "no holding back" story of survival with frequent scenarios detailing the worst and most brutal of human suffering. Reading through makes you realise the many things in this world we take for granted: democracy, security, civil liberties and freedom. It is an epic life story seen through the eyes of three ordinary women. They weren't world leaders or iconic historical figures, but ordinary citizens living their lives in a regime that is regarded with controversy even to this day.
All in all, although it's a book detailing suffering, fear and brutality it is an uplifting story of survival. You can't help but shed a tear for the person who survives, against all the odds, to make a better life for themselves. Like Pandora's box, once opened you'll see all the sins of the world come to fruition but one thing will remain at the end: hope.
 Grossly overrated July 31, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is probably the most boring and unenlightening book I have ever read. My wife was asked to read it as part of a literature appreciation group and said it was shocking in its revelations. I bought another copy of it from Waterstones for one of her friends and the assistant was gushing in her enthusiasm for it. I decided to read it and thus wasted an unnecessary amount of valuable time.
If you can believe 10% of what Jung Chang asks you to believe you will be stretching credulity. She is obsessed with her own family's righteousness in the face of unmitigated evil and her attention to trivialities shows a great sense of imagination.
Instead of a simple family tree we have a long boring tirade of the minutiae of everyday life affecting 900 million people - perhaps! I have no connection with China but the only other reviewer who claims to be Chinese is sceptical - and so am I.
This may be the only sort of material available on this era in Chinese history but we should not accept it at face value.
Don't waste your time on this. I wish I hadn't.
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