Dear Chrysanthemums

March 20, 2023
In Sze-Lorrain’s graceful debut collection, women negotiate the violence of pivotal events in Chinese history. “Death at the Wukang Mansion” takes place in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution, when an accomplished ballerina is banished to a mansion and watches the same coffin entering and leaving the building with a different body each day. In “Cooking for Madame Chiang,” a former servant of Madame Chiang Kai-shek works in the nationalist leader’s household in 1946. Sze-Lorrain picks up with the narrator years later, in “Green,” dealing with the suspicion for her role in “the old aristocratic society.” In “The Invisible Window,” set in 2016, three Chinese women meet in a Paris cathedral to reminisce about their involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, while the title story traces the rise and fall of a famous guzheng player during Mao Zedong’s reign. Sze-Lorrain effortlessly evokes the spirit of each setting, be it the ardent fervor of nationalism during the Chinese Civil War or the seedy glamor of a dive bar in Paris, and she imbues her characters with haunting melancholy as victims “doomed to the mishaps of verity and the equally hurtful edges of fiction.” This author is one to watch.

June 10, 2024

Musician, translator, and poet Sze-Lorrain (The Ruined Elegance) offers a beautiful and heartbreaking collection of connected stories featuring women navigating times of great change in Chinese history. Spanning 1946 to 2016, each chapter occurs in a year ending in the number six--in China, a divine number representing "a smooth life, a perfect path." The content herein is anything but easy, however, as it confronts grief, loss, adultery, exile, and trauma. Among the stories is "Death at Wukang Mansion, 1966," a former dancer charged with having an affair spends her days in an apartment where tenants leave in coffins. Exiled in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, three women gather together in a church in France in "The Invisible Window, 2016." In "The White Piano, 1966," a pianist settling into life in Paris is assaulted following the surprise arrival of a piano. Narrator Catherine Ho enhances the stories with varied characterizations, capturing the many experiences, attitudes, and emotions of the women Sze-Lorrain describes. Ho's superb pacing will keep listeners engaged through the ins and outs of changing time periods and settings. VERDICT This lyrical, haunting collection of stories weaves an intoxicating spell. Share with listeners who appreciate gorgeous writing edged with melancholy.--Whitney Bates-Gomez

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