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Little Reunions
Now available in English for the first time, Eileen Chang’s dark romance opens with Julie, living at a convent school in Hong Kong, on the eve of the Japanese invasion. Her mother, Rachel, long divorced from Julie’s opium-addict father, saunters around the world with various lovers. Recollections of Julie’s horrifying but privileged childhood in Shanghai clash with a flamboyant, sometimes incestuous cast of relations that crowd her life. Eventually, back in Shanghai, she meets the magnetic Chih-yung, a traitor who collaborates with the Japanese puppet regime. Soon they’re in the throes of an impassioned love affair that swings back and forth between ardor and anxiety, secrecy and ruin. Like Julie’s relationship with her mother, her marriage to Chih-yung is marked by long stretches of separation interspersed with unexpected little reunions. Chang’s emotionally fraught, bitterly humorous novel lifts a fractured mirror directly in front of her own heart.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
96 people are currently reading
2787 people want to read
About the author
Eileen Chang
84 books658 followersEileen Chang is the English name for Chinese author 張愛玲, who was born to a prominent family in Shanghai (one of her great-grandfathers was Li Hongzhang) in 1920.
She went to a prestigious girls' school in Shanghai, where she changed her name from Chang Ying to Chang Ai-ling to match her English name, Eileen. Afterwards, she attended the University of Hong Kong, but had to go back to Shanghai when Hong Kong fell to Japan during WWII. While in Shanghai, she was briefly married to Hu Lancheng, the notorious Japanese collaborator, but later got a divorce.
After WWII ended, she returned to Hong Kong and later immigrated to the United States in 1955. She married a scriptwriter in 1956 and worked as a screenwriter herself for a Hong Kong film studio for a number of years, before her husband's death in 1967. She moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1972 and became a hermit of sorts during her last years. She passed away alone in her apartment in 1995.
She went to a prestigious girls' school in Shanghai, where she changed her name from Chang Ying to Chang Ai-ling to match her English name, Eileen. Afterwards, she attended the University of Hong Kong, but had to go back to Shanghai when Hong Kong fell to Japan during WWII. While in Shanghai, she was briefly married to Hu Lancheng, the notorious Japanese collaborator, but later got a divorce.
After WWII ended, she returned to Hong Kong and later immigrated to the United States in 1955. She married a scriptwriter in 1956 and worked as a screenwriter herself for a Hong Kong film studio for a number of years, before her husband's death in 1967. She moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1972 and became a hermit of sorts during her last years. She passed away alone in her apartment in 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
January 15, 2018
The translator for this book had quite the task, because it isn't just the words needing translated, but also a complex family structure and intricate layers of meanings behind gestures and comments. But to read a "romance" of sorts set in Shanghai right before the Communist Revolution is a very specific capture of a moment in time. This is its first time in English, and although it was written in the 1970s, it was not published in China until 2009.
It is somewhat challenging to read because of the complex relationship trees, and reminds me of a 19th century novel of manners, but with a new setting, one I am less familiar with. One where loyalties are complicated, love is not always monogamous, and leaving is sometimes the best option. (That's where the title comes from, all the "little reunions" people would have when returning from exile/pilgrimage/escape.)
The central character of Julie shares some characteristics with the author, in that they both had to leave school in Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded during World War II, and they both ended up married to Japanese sympathizers who ended up as traitors.
Thanks to the publisher for providing early access to this title via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The book comes out January 16, 2018.
It is somewhat challenging to read because of the complex relationship trees, and reminds me of a 19th century novel of manners, but with a new setting, one I am less familiar with. One where loyalties are complicated, love is not always monogamous, and leaving is sometimes the best option. (That's where the title comes from, all the "little reunions" people would have when returning from exile/pilgrimage/escape.)
The central character of Julie shares some characteristics with the author, in that they both had to leave school in Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded during World War II, and they both ended up married to Japanese sympathizers who ended up as traitors.
Thanks to the publisher for providing early access to this title via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The book comes out January 16, 2018.
January 26, 2018
3.5 stars.
Let me start off by saying that Eileen Chang is one of my favorite Chinese authors. I was an Asian Studies major back in college and it was in one of the many Chinese Literature classes I took back then that I was first exposed to Eileen Chang’s writing. The very first work I read of Chang’s happened to be her most famous and critically acclaimed novella “The Golden Cangue” – the version I read was from the anthology Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas: 1919-1949 (published by Columbia University Press in the 1980s), which I found out later was a version that had been translated by Chang herself (Chang was fluent in both Chinese and English and wrote in both languages, though most of her earlier works were in Chinese and she only started writing in English after moving from Shanghai to Hong Kong – and later to the United States -- in the 1950s). Since then, I have read many of Chang’s works off and on and also watched my fair share of movies / TV series that had been adapted from Chang’s various works over the years. As one of the most famous and influential Chinese writers of the 20th century, Chang’s repertoire was quite prolific – in addition to writing short stories, novellas, essays, and novels, she also wrote screenplays and scripts for both film and stage as well as did translation work for her own works and those of others. One of the things that set Chang apart from many of her contemporaries during her time was the fact that much of her writing focused on the complexity of relationships, love, family, societal conventions, and everyday life (in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), but without the heavy political slant that was a common characteristic in much of the Chinese literature of that period (ironically though, despite Chang’s largely apolitical stance and her focus on writing love stories set against the backdrop of the time period in which she lived, two of her most well-known works -- both written after she moved to the U.S. in the mid-1950s -- were widely viewed as being “anti-Communist propaganda” due to her searing criticisms of everyday life under Communist China, which caused her works to be banned in Mainland China for many decades). Many of Chang’s works were known for being semi-autobiographical in nature, as her stories often reflected the bitterness, anguish, resentment, disappointments and loneliness that marred much of her childhood and adult life – also, her characters’ often complicated family dynamics as well as frustratingly bitter romantic relationships, most of which usually ended in tragedy, were common themes in her narratives that in large part mirrored her own experiences. In her later years and up until her death in 1995, Chang became increasingly reclusive and chose to live an intensely private life in an apartment in Los Angeles, largely cut off from the outside world.
Knowing the above background context and also having already read quite a few of Chang’s earlier works, I went into Little Reunions expecting to see the same beautiful, emotionally poignant storytelling that Chang was known for. In a way, this book, more than her previous works, can be considered her most personal work, as the character of Julie – the main protagonist in the story – is said to be a reflection of Chang’s own self. Indeed, Julie’s family background in the story was very similar to Chang’s: born into a deeply traditional, aristocratic family in Shanghai, to an opium-addicted, abusive father and a sophisticated, worldly mother, Julie was constantly surrounded by a revolving door of meddling relatives and extended family, yet emotionally she was lonely and indifferent as a result of never having experienced true love and support from parents whose lives were selfishly defined by constant love affairs and infidelities. Later, Julie meets the charismatic Chih-yung, a fellow writer who later becomes a traitor working for the Japanese puppet government. Despite Chih-yung already being married and simultaneously attached to other women, Julie engages in a love affair with him, even agreeing to marry him in secret. At the same time, Julie has to deal with her mother’s often cold and indifferent attitude toward her. Just like her relationship with Chih-yung, Julie’s relationship with her mother is fraught with emotional complexity amidst long intervals of necessary “separations” and subsequent “little reunions”. Through Julie, Chang provides insight into the lives of a privileged yet deeply dysfunctional family as they deal with the realities of a country at war (the Japanese occupation of China and the subsequent escalation into WWII), but on a more significant level, she provides intimate and often candid insight into her relationship with the 2 people she loved most – her mother and her first husband.
Overall, I would say that this was an interesting story, though definitely not as good as Chang’s previous works. I know that Chang’s writing style changed quite a bit in her later years, especially in the 1960s and 70s when she lived primarily in the U.S. and tried to adapt her writing to mainstream American society. The difference in writing style aside though, it’s important to note the back history of this book and why such a fan of Chang’s work like myself is more than willing to overlook whatever flaws may exist with this book. Eileen Chang actually wrote Little Reunions back in 1976 and upon its completion, she sent the 600+ page handwritten manuscript to her close friend (and literary executor of all her works) Stephen Soong and his wife Mae Fong. After reading the manuscript and understanding the autobiographical nature of the story, the Soongs were concerned that the story’s explosive content – especially the detailed descriptions of Julie’s (Chang’s) intimate relationship with Chih-yung (Chang’s ex-husband Wu Lan-cheng) – could bring untold condemnation upon Chang. They were also concerned that Chang’s ex-husband, the traitor Wu Lan-cheng (who was hiding out in Taiwan at the time and was supposedly waiting for an opportunity to rebuild what he had lost) may try to use the contents of the book to further exploit her (and possibly destroy her). Due to these concerns, the Soongs and Chang decided to “indefinitely hold off” on publishing the novel – over the next 20 years, Chang would continue to make small edits to the manuscript, though it was unclear whether the fully revised version ever got sent to the Soongs. In 1992, in a letter to the Soongs to discuss her will, Chang expressed her intention to “destroy” the manuscript of Little Reunions that was in existence. Three years later, Chang died unexpectedly and one year after that, Stephen Soong also passed away (Mrs. Soong continued to preserve Chang’s manuscript of Little Reunions up until her own death in 2007). In 2009, with the permission of the Soongs’ son Yi-lang, who had taken over for his parents as the literary executor to Chang’s works as well as estate, the original, unedited version of the manuscript (in Chinese) was published in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China – 14 years after Chang’s death. The version released this year by NYRB (New York Review of Books) is the very first translation of Chang’s “autobiographical” novel into English (published 9 years after the Chinese version came out in Asia and 42 years after the original book was written).
With this being one of Chang’s very last published works – and the one that most closely paralleled her own life -- I feel honored to have gotten the chance to read this book. Even though I did have some issues with the nonlinear format of the narrative (which made the story a little hard to follow, especially with the multitude of characters/family members that flitted in and out throughout the story) and also the writing was not what I expected (possibly due to the translation), these were relatively minor issues in the overall scheme of things. For fans of Eileen Chang’s works, this is definitely a “must-read,” though I would recommend reading the original Chinese version in order to hear Chang’s story in her own voice. (Note: After reading the English version, I actually went and bought the Chinese version, as Eileen Chang had a unique narrative voice that no amount of translation could ever do justice to. Some time in the near future, I hope to re-read this book in it’s original context and once I do, I’ll definitely come back here to update this review).
Received ARC from NYRB (New York Review of Books) via Edelweiss
Let me start off by saying that Eileen Chang is one of my favorite Chinese authors. I was an Asian Studies major back in college and it was in one of the many Chinese Literature classes I took back then that I was first exposed to Eileen Chang’s writing. The very first work I read of Chang’s happened to be her most famous and critically acclaimed novella “The Golden Cangue” – the version I read was from the anthology Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas: 1919-1949 (published by Columbia University Press in the 1980s), which I found out later was a version that had been translated by Chang herself (Chang was fluent in both Chinese and English and wrote in both languages, though most of her earlier works were in Chinese and she only started writing in English after moving from Shanghai to Hong Kong – and later to the United States -- in the 1950s). Since then, I have read many of Chang’s works off and on and also watched my fair share of movies / TV series that had been adapted from Chang’s various works over the years. As one of the most famous and influential Chinese writers of the 20th century, Chang’s repertoire was quite prolific – in addition to writing short stories, novellas, essays, and novels, she also wrote screenplays and scripts for both film and stage as well as did translation work for her own works and those of others. One of the things that set Chang apart from many of her contemporaries during her time was the fact that much of her writing focused on the complexity of relationships, love, family, societal conventions, and everyday life (in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), but without the heavy political slant that was a common characteristic in much of the Chinese literature of that period (ironically though, despite Chang’s largely apolitical stance and her focus on writing love stories set against the backdrop of the time period in which she lived, two of her most well-known works -- both written after she moved to the U.S. in the mid-1950s -- were widely viewed as being “anti-Communist propaganda” due to her searing criticisms of everyday life under Communist China, which caused her works to be banned in Mainland China for many decades). Many of Chang’s works were known for being semi-autobiographical in nature, as her stories often reflected the bitterness, anguish, resentment, disappointments and loneliness that marred much of her childhood and adult life – also, her characters’ often complicated family dynamics as well as frustratingly bitter romantic relationships, most of which usually ended in tragedy, were common themes in her narratives that in large part mirrored her own experiences. In her later years and up until her death in 1995, Chang became increasingly reclusive and chose to live an intensely private life in an apartment in Los Angeles, largely cut off from the outside world.
Knowing the above background context and also having already read quite a few of Chang’s earlier works, I went into Little Reunions expecting to see the same beautiful, emotionally poignant storytelling that Chang was known for. In a way, this book, more than her previous works, can be considered her most personal work, as the character of Julie – the main protagonist in the story – is said to be a reflection of Chang’s own self. Indeed, Julie’s family background in the story was very similar to Chang’s: born into a deeply traditional, aristocratic family in Shanghai, to an opium-addicted, abusive father and a sophisticated, worldly mother, Julie was constantly surrounded by a revolving door of meddling relatives and extended family, yet emotionally she was lonely and indifferent as a result of never having experienced true love and support from parents whose lives were selfishly defined by constant love affairs and infidelities. Later, Julie meets the charismatic Chih-yung, a fellow writer who later becomes a traitor working for the Japanese puppet government. Despite Chih-yung already being married and simultaneously attached to other women, Julie engages in a love affair with him, even agreeing to marry him in secret. At the same time, Julie has to deal with her mother’s often cold and indifferent attitude toward her. Just like her relationship with Chih-yung, Julie’s relationship with her mother is fraught with emotional complexity amidst long intervals of necessary “separations” and subsequent “little reunions”. Through Julie, Chang provides insight into the lives of a privileged yet deeply dysfunctional family as they deal with the realities of a country at war (the Japanese occupation of China and the subsequent escalation into WWII), but on a more significant level, she provides intimate and often candid insight into her relationship with the 2 people she loved most – her mother and her first husband.
Overall, I would say that this was an interesting story, though definitely not as good as Chang’s previous works. I know that Chang’s writing style changed quite a bit in her later years, especially in the 1960s and 70s when she lived primarily in the U.S. and tried to adapt her writing to mainstream American society. The difference in writing style aside though, it’s important to note the back history of this book and why such a fan of Chang’s work like myself is more than willing to overlook whatever flaws may exist with this book. Eileen Chang actually wrote Little Reunions back in 1976 and upon its completion, she sent the 600+ page handwritten manuscript to her close friend (and literary executor of all her works) Stephen Soong and his wife Mae Fong. After reading the manuscript and understanding the autobiographical nature of the story, the Soongs were concerned that the story’s explosive content – especially the detailed descriptions of Julie’s (Chang’s) intimate relationship with Chih-yung (Chang’s ex-husband Wu Lan-cheng) – could bring untold condemnation upon Chang. They were also concerned that Chang’s ex-husband, the traitor Wu Lan-cheng (who was hiding out in Taiwan at the time and was supposedly waiting for an opportunity to rebuild what he had lost) may try to use the contents of the book to further exploit her (and possibly destroy her). Due to these concerns, the Soongs and Chang decided to “indefinitely hold off” on publishing the novel – over the next 20 years, Chang would continue to make small edits to the manuscript, though it was unclear whether the fully revised version ever got sent to the Soongs. In 1992, in a letter to the Soongs to discuss her will, Chang expressed her intention to “destroy” the manuscript of Little Reunions that was in existence. Three years later, Chang died unexpectedly and one year after that, Stephen Soong also passed away (Mrs. Soong continued to preserve Chang’s manuscript of Little Reunions up until her own death in 2007). In 2009, with the permission of the Soongs’ son Yi-lang, who had taken over for his parents as the literary executor to Chang’s works as well as estate, the original, unedited version of the manuscript (in Chinese) was published in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China – 14 years after Chang’s death. The version released this year by NYRB (New York Review of Books) is the very first translation of Chang’s “autobiographical” novel into English (published 9 years after the Chinese version came out in Asia and 42 years after the original book was written).
With this being one of Chang’s very last published works – and the one that most closely paralleled her own life -- I feel honored to have gotten the chance to read this book. Even though I did have some issues with the nonlinear format of the narrative (which made the story a little hard to follow, especially with the multitude of characters/family members that flitted in and out throughout the story) and also the writing was not what I expected (possibly due to the translation), these were relatively minor issues in the overall scheme of things. For fans of Eileen Chang’s works, this is definitely a “must-read,” though I would recommend reading the original Chinese version in order to hear Chang’s story in her own voice. (Note: After reading the English version, I actually went and bought the Chinese version, as Eileen Chang had a unique narrative voice that no amount of translation could ever do justice to. Some time in the near future, I hope to re-read this book in it’s original context and once I do, I’ll definitely come back here to update this review).
Received ARC from NYRB (New York Review of Books) via Edelweiss
December 7, 2020
I loved LITTLE REUNION. It gave us a unique perspective of WWII from the Chinese lifestyle.
The plot shows the complexity life during the war. In particular, levels of class privilege, the ups and downs in romance, and the multi levels of political intrigue in China.
On a negative side, there were too many characters. So many that approximately 5 pages in the back of the book were dedicated to listing these characters.
Overall,. I enjoyed this book and recommend it.
The plot shows the complexity life during the war. In particular, levels of class privilege, the ups and downs in romance, and the multi levels of political intrigue in China.
On a negative side, there were too many characters. So many that approximately 5 pages in the back of the book were dedicated to listing these characters.
Overall,. I enjoyed this book and recommend it.
March 25, 2024
I have read two other books by Eileen Chang - Love in a Fallen City and Naked Earth. I enjoyed both, finding the writing tasty. I especially liked Chang's use of symbolism. This one, not so much.
The brief biographical squib in this book informs that Chang was born into an aristocratic family in Shanghai; that her father was an opium addict who beat her; that her mother was "a sophisticated woman of cosmopolitan tastes"; that Chang studied Literature and began a writing career; that her first husband was a Japanese sympathizer in the Second World War and a serial adulterer. There. Now you know what Little Reunions is all about. Meaning, this could not be more autobiographical.
Which would be okay if the writing carried it. It doesn't. There is none of the nuance, the tantalizing restraint, the exceptional turn of phrase as in her other books. We learn, in a Translator's Note, that Chang never intended for this book to be published and even considered destroying the manuscript. Would that her instincts had been honored. Instead this novel was published fourteen years after her death.
While definitely autobiographical, there is little exposed beneath the veneer. For example, the author describes in gruesome detail the protagonist's abortion, at four months pregnancy. But then, flush, and on to the next relationship.
I suppose this book does serve to paint a picture of place and time and manners. At times things seemed almost Victorian, with class and maids and expectations. Yet the sexual promiscuity surprised. For instance, the female protagonist (the author) loves a man who has two wives and any number of concubines. It's not a secret, but the protagonist seemingly accepts it. Until:
"Were you ever intimate with that Miss K'ang?"
"Um," he acknowledged, "only once, when I was about to leave." His voice lowered. "In the end I forced myself upon her . . . perhaps that is always inevitable--but of course you were different."
Meaning, it was rape, something unnecessary with the protagonist.
The brief biographical squib in this book informs that Chang was born into an aristocratic family in Shanghai; that her father was an opium addict who beat her; that her mother was "a sophisticated woman of cosmopolitan tastes"; that Chang studied Literature and began a writing career; that her first husband was a Japanese sympathizer in the Second World War and a serial adulterer. There. Now you know what Little Reunions is all about. Meaning, this could not be more autobiographical.
Which would be okay if the writing carried it. It doesn't. There is none of the nuance, the tantalizing restraint, the exceptional turn of phrase as in her other books. We learn, in a Translator's Note, that Chang never intended for this book to be published and even considered destroying the manuscript. Would that her instincts had been honored. Instead this novel was published fourteen years after her death.
While definitely autobiographical, there is little exposed beneath the veneer. For example, the author describes in gruesome detail the protagonist's abortion, at four months pregnancy. But then, flush, and on to the next relationship.
I suppose this book does serve to paint a picture of place and time and manners. At times things seemed almost Victorian, with class and maids and expectations. Yet the sexual promiscuity surprised. For instance, the female protagonist (the author) loves a man who has two wives and any number of concubines. It's not a secret, but the protagonist seemingly accepts it. Until:
"Were you ever intimate with that Miss K'ang?"
"Um," he acknowledged, "only once, when I was about to leave." His voice lowered. "In the end I forced myself upon her . . . perhaps that is always inevitable--but of course you were different."
Meaning, it was rape, something unnecessary with the protagonist.
March 21, 2019
Even if the plot was excellent in the first part of book, the involvement of all characters managed to keep the reader interested in the book as a whole.
3* Love in a Fallen City
4* Little Reunions
3* Love in a Fallen City
4* Little Reunions
February 24, 2018
This is the story of Julie Sheng ( I wondered if it's a novel with autobiographical elements) from her schoolgirl days at a boarding school in Hong Kong to her finding success and relative happiness as a novelist and screenwriter in her 30s. Her story begins with the Japanese attack on Hong Kong and continues well past the communist victory in the Civil War.
The novel is described as a "dark romance." It's probably a fitting label because much of the novel's narrative follows Julie's romance and marriage to Shao Chih-Yimg, a collaborator with the Japanese and later a romance with a movie star, Yen Shan.
This was an interesting read. Not that many Chinese novels are available to westerners, for one thing. Chang writes as if it wasn't tailored at all for a western audience. Little is explained about Chinese kinship, for instance, or about social attitudes, leaving the reader to figure it out. The novel covers turbulent historical times, too, the final years of the Sino-Japanese war and the Civil War which followed and ended with Mao and the communists winning the country. All those events background the characters without really playing a part in the novel, so Chang doesn't spend time explaining the history. I liked it that she didn't feel she had to.
I thought it a difficult read because of the names. Characters often have a kinship designation as well as a name and are referred to interchangeably by either throughout the novel. Julie's mother's name is Rachel, but she's also called Second Aunt. Family members may be referred to by either name or kinship, and though the book does contain a comprehensive character list and kinship identifier, I had to constantly refer to it to learn, for instance, that Third Mistress is Judy, Julie's aunt, or that Second Master is also her father.
The novel is described as a "dark romance." It's probably a fitting label because much of the novel's narrative follows Julie's romance and marriage to Shao Chih-Yimg, a collaborator with the Japanese and later a romance with a movie star, Yen Shan.
This was an interesting read. Not that many Chinese novels are available to westerners, for one thing. Chang writes as if it wasn't tailored at all for a western audience. Little is explained about Chinese kinship, for instance, or about social attitudes, leaving the reader to figure it out. The novel covers turbulent historical times, too, the final years of the Sino-Japanese war and the Civil War which followed and ended with Mao and the communists winning the country. All those events background the characters without really playing a part in the novel, so Chang doesn't spend time explaining the history. I liked it that she didn't feel she had to.
I thought it a difficult read because of the names. Characters often have a kinship designation as well as a name and are referred to interchangeably by either throughout the novel. Julie's mother's name is Rachel, but she's also called Second Aunt. Family members may be referred to by either name or kinship, and though the book does contain a comprehensive character list and kinship identifier, I had to constantly refer to it to learn, for instance, that Third Mistress is Judy, Julie's aunt, or that Second Master is also her father.
Read
May 8, 2018A fictionalized account of Chang’s youth in Shanghai and Hong Kong, as the last child of a fading, internationally oriented caste of Mandarins, with special emphasis on the relationship with her brilliant,, narcistic mother, and her fickle first lover who plays Quisling with the Japanese invaders. I was excited to read this, having really like the other stuff of Chang’s I read, but this was kind of disappointing. A lot of effort goes into trying to express the elaborately complex social relationships common to this era (there’s a lot of ‘First Uncle’s second concubine and I used to…’), but the narrative remains peculiarly narrow, and I kept hoping for a wider perspective which never really presented itself. She’s obviously talented, there are some savage little bits here and there, but the book feels goopy, like someone do a really deep dive into their familial dirty laundry without the narrative sharpening required for fiction. Disappointing.
May 29, 2025
What can I take away from the experience of reading this novel/ memoir , the last of four Chang novels / short story collections I have read in a few short weeks ?
Probably that it should have stayed unpublished ..a bit harsh but it's so inferior to everything else I've read that it's embarrassing . No cohesion , far too many characters it reads like a jumble of memories waiting to be fashioned into shape . Page after page it is both boring and confusing .
Julie , the narrator , is recounting her life and principally her dysfunctional relationship with her parents, who fetched up every now and again from their opium oblivion or foreign exile, as Julie and her brother are raised by a whole chorus of maids and relatives . Emotional distance is normalised in the decaying paternal family ,which resembles a besieged village full of rivalries , intrigues , impecunious financial transactions and where women are wives , concubines or spinsters and entirely dependent on a complex pecking order of relationships and preferments for their status .
Julie's mother , Rachel , rebels and looks West but fails to map a path for her own daughter , who must find her own route out . This route is predictably difficult , falling for unavailable men and then convincing herself that their obvious duplicities are explainable and not unexceptional . Julie's paternal aunt is the most consistent person in her life but their relationship is marred by divided loyalties and unstated emotions .
It's all relentless . I wanted more context , more about the seismic effects of the war and occupation , not much more as , after all , Chang is someone who excels at exploring the domestic , but this incoherent jumble felt foundation less , like pages from a novel thrown down at random and collected up without care .
In many ways Chang in this novel reminded me of De Beauvoir , whose fiction when it featured a Sartre stand in , seems to be stuck in that same groove of My Great and Exceptional Love even as she writes and excuses the sort of unabashed infidelities of Sartre The Genius . Both women show how they were exposed to gaslighting on the grand scale and both show how , even as exceptionally intelligent writers , neither could see how vulnerable they both were to being exploited by older men of this stripe . Both women seem to try to work out their romantic failings on the page . it's both exposing and humiliating as both worked hard to curate and create a myth of The Truly Liberated Creative Woman .
Probably that it should have stayed unpublished ..a bit harsh but it's so inferior to everything else I've read that it's embarrassing . No cohesion , far too many characters it reads like a jumble of memories waiting to be fashioned into shape . Page after page it is both boring and confusing .
Julie , the narrator , is recounting her life and principally her dysfunctional relationship with her parents, who fetched up every now and again from their opium oblivion or foreign exile, as Julie and her brother are raised by a whole chorus of maids and relatives . Emotional distance is normalised in the decaying paternal family ,which resembles a besieged village full of rivalries , intrigues , impecunious financial transactions and where women are wives , concubines or spinsters and entirely dependent on a complex pecking order of relationships and preferments for their status .
Julie's mother , Rachel , rebels and looks West but fails to map a path for her own daughter , who must find her own route out . This route is predictably difficult , falling for unavailable men and then convincing herself that their obvious duplicities are explainable and not unexceptional . Julie's paternal aunt is the most consistent person in her life but their relationship is marred by divided loyalties and unstated emotions .
It's all relentless . I wanted more context , more about the seismic effects of the war and occupation , not much more as , after all , Chang is someone who excels at exploring the domestic , but this incoherent jumble felt foundation less , like pages from a novel thrown down at random and collected up without care .
In many ways Chang in this novel reminded me of De Beauvoir , whose fiction when it featured a Sartre stand in , seems to be stuck in that same groove of My Great and Exceptional Love even as she writes and excuses the sort of unabashed infidelities of Sartre The Genius . Both women show how they were exposed to gaslighting on the grand scale and both show how , even as exceptionally intelligent writers , neither could see how vulnerable they both were to being exploited by older men of this stripe . Both women seem to try to work out their romantic failings on the page . it's both exposing and humiliating as both worked hard to curate and create a myth of The Truly Liberated Creative Woman .
March 14, 2021
A tough book to rate. Between 3 to 3.5 stars.
Fascinating and frustrating. Published posthumously at one point Chang told her agents she wanted to destroy the manuscript. It is good that it survives because it gives a unique view into WWII and a fictionalised account of the author’s experience. On the other hand I wonder if she would be happy it was published. At times it meanders and little reunions are just disjointed paragraphs.
She also wrote this after living for sometime in the United States. I wonder how that changed her narrative... thatisup to the reader. Props to the translators for taking on such a complex cast of characters and attempting to make it easier for westerners to attemp to follow the family naming structure.
Fascinating and frustrating. Published posthumously at one point Chang told her agents she wanted to destroy the manuscript. It is good that it survives because it gives a unique view into WWII and a fictionalised account of the author’s experience. On the other hand I wonder if she would be happy it was published. At times it meanders and little reunions are just disjointed paragraphs.
She also wrote this after living for sometime in the United States. I wonder how that changed her narrative... thatisup to the reader. Props to the translators for taking on such a complex cast of characters and attempting to make it easier for westerners to attemp to follow the family naming structure.
September 12, 2020
Eileen Chang is one of my favourite Chinese writers. This book, a semiautobiographical novel written long after she had emigrated to US, was published only a few years ago posthumously. Any fan of Eileen Chang must have known she was a very private person who fiercely guarded her privacy. It's good and bad that we readers now can get a close look at the most intimate part of her. There were two people in Chang's life whom she loved dearly, yet her love unfulfilled. One was her beautiful, talented and sensitive mother, another was her first husband. The estranged mother-daughter relationship cuts me deeply.
Eileen Chang is famous for her astonishingly beautiful and piercingly poignant stories with a feminine focus. Her writing is lucid and flawless. However, comparing this book with her early works, I notice a difference in the language style. To me, it reads as if she were thinking in English while writing in Chinese.
Eileen Chang is famous for her astonishingly beautiful and piercingly poignant stories with a feminine focus. Her writing is lucid and flawless. However, comparing this book with her early works, I notice a difference in the language style. To me, it reads as if she were thinking in English while writing in Chinese.
August 30, 2024
Never published during her life time, Eileen Chang’s Little Reunions is a highly autobiographical novel of a woman’s complicated life from the 1920s to the 1950s. The novel feels unfinished, and the nonlinear style doesn’t help. To me, Little Reunions is a dizzying look back at a life full of disappointment, insecurity, unrequited love, and guilt. I realize this might not sound like much of a recommendation, but I did like how this novel touched on so many ideas without feeling overstuffed. I feel that I’ve experienced an entire life while reading this book, which is the most I can really ask from a book...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss for review consideration.
January 16, 2021
A dizzying out-pouring of uninteresting anecdotes and a list of ‘characters’ so extensive that a glossary is given at the end of the book. I could not bring myself to finish this; after 150 pages I had yet to encounter a single actual character. I very much enjoyed the last Chang I read, but this is a droll slog through family histories and petulant, ordinary dramas.
January 22, 2018
Jan 2017 NYRB Book Selection
-Can't finish because I can't care about any of the characters. I guess my relationship to Chang's work is like my relationship to McEwan's.
-Can't finish because I can't care about any of the characters. I guess my relationship to Chang's work is like my relationship to McEwan's.
November 2, 2018
Here's a book I didn't much care for. I'd been trying to read it for months, and kept failing to find the right headspace for it. But now it's done. It bored me.
Too many characters I didn't care anything about — I had trouble keeping them straight. And I could never quite figure out the tone with which to read it. Is it funny or melancholic? Is the awkwardness in the translation (from Chinese) or in the characters, or is it a function of being a world completely foreign to me.
The first half of the book deals with Julie's upbringing and extended family. There's a complicated family hierarchy of wives and concubines that's tricky to navigate. There are secrets and scandals — many of them not so secret at all. But for the most part, these secrets are only obliquely referenced.
Much of this novel reads like a gossip column, with all its tangents of who visited whom wearing what under what pretences. Julie's mother has a string of lovers; she is emotionally and often geographically distant from Julie. (Julie's father, meanwhile, is an opium addict — I would love to read a novel about the women that fell into his world.)
It's not until the second half of the novel that Julie falls in love (kind of) and gets married (kind of). I had to read between the lines not only to figure out what Julie felt, but also to piece together what actually happened.
At one point, in a seemingly complete disconnect, the story jumps for a few pages to New York City a decade into the future, Julie bathing while waiting for the abortionist.
At another point, there's this sex scene:
This is such a strange metaphorical paragraph that is completely out of keeping with the rest of the text. But! "The terror of exposing herself" — how telling is that?!
Maybe that's the thing, and the source of awkwardness, the terror of exposing oneself. Clearly Julie is brimming with feelings, with regard to her mother, her aunt, her husband, as well as lesser characters like her father and her brother, but is never given rein to express them.
So, as with many "young socialite"-type stories, it moves from comedy to tragedy in a flip of the hair.
Too many characters I didn't care anything about — I had trouble keeping them straight. And I could never quite figure out the tone with which to read it. Is it funny or melancholic? Is the awkwardness in the translation (from Chinese) or in the characters, or is it a function of being a world completely foreign to me.
The first half of the book deals with Julie's upbringing and extended family. There's a complicated family hierarchy of wives and concubines that's tricky to navigate. There are secrets and scandals — many of them not so secret at all. But for the most part, these secrets are only obliquely referenced.
Much of this novel reads like a gossip column, with all its tangents of who visited whom wearing what under what pretences. Julie's mother has a string of lovers; she is emotionally and often geographically distant from Julie. (Julie's father, meanwhile, is an opium addict — I would love to read a novel about the women that fell into his world.)
It's not until the second half of the novel that Julie falls in love (kind of) and gets married (kind of). I had to read between the lines not only to figure out what Julie felt, but also to piece together what actually happened.
At one point, in a seemingly complete disconnect, the story jumps for a few pages to New York City a decade into the future, Julie bathing while waiting for the abortionist.
At another point, there's this sex scene:
"Hey! What are you doing?" she asked, terrified. His hair brushed against her thigh — the head of a wild beast.
The beast sips at the eternal springs of a dark cavern in the netherworld, slurping with his curled tongue. She is a bat hanging upside down at the mouth of a cave. Like a hermit hidden withing the bowels of the mountain being explored, encroached upon, she felt helpless and hopeless. Now the small beast sips at her innermost core, small mouthfuls one at a time. The terror of exposing herself mingled with a burning desire: She wants him back, now! Back to her arms, back to where she can see him.
This is such a strange metaphorical paragraph that is completely out of keeping with the rest of the text. But! "The terror of exposing herself" — how telling is that?!
Maybe that's the thing, and the source of awkwardness, the terror of exposing oneself. Clearly Julie is brimming with feelings, with regard to her mother, her aunt, her husband, as well as lesser characters like her father and her brother, but is never given rein to express them.
So, as with many "young socialite"-type stories, it moves from comedy to tragedy in a flip of the hair.
March 16, 2019
A smoky quartz of a novel. Darkly obscure but still sparkles. Eileen Chang writes from an "it girl" perspective--sex, drugs, frenemies, family dysfunctions, glamour and ruin. It takes place mostly in Shanghai during WWII, but the war is in the background, we never experience combat. The main character, Julie, and her family seemed like they were living on the cusp of privilege and collapse and on the edge of a tremendous cultural shift (the cultural revolution is on the horizon, but for now we can still feel some of the British/European influence). This is a world where Nazi soldiers and American sailors consort with Chinese women with bound feet and permed hair, and relationships are constantly in flux.
I never felt like I truly understood exactly what was going on, plot-wise, in this novel, yet I kept delving into it never really losing interest (except a little bit toward the end). It seemed like nothing was stated explicitly and time was treated like an ocean washing around me instead of running forward like a train.
This was a reading experience that took me out of my wheelhouse.
I never felt like I truly understood exactly what was going on, plot-wise, in this novel, yet I kept delving into it never really losing interest (except a little bit toward the end). It seemed like nothing was stated explicitly and time was treated like an ocean washing around me instead of running forward like a train.
This was a reading experience that took me out of my wheelhouse.
May 15, 2019
3.5 gwiazdki. Moje pierwsze spotkanie z literaturą chińską i myślę, że pozytywne - czuję, że jeszcze nieraz sięgnę w tę stronę. Chciałabym przeczytać coś innego tej autorki, gdyż ta powieść (w pewnej części autobiograficzna) została wydana pośmiertnie, bez końcowej redakcji Eileen Chang, co pewnie wpłynęło na to, że zdarzały się tu fragmenty dość chaotyczne i trudne dla mnie do ogarnięcia. Struktury chińskich rodzin w tej książce są doprawdy kosmiczne: jako że główna bohaterka została adoptowana przez starszego brata jej ojca, do matki zwracała się per „Druga Stryjenko” a do ojca „Drugi Stryju”. Nie znam się jednak na Chinach, więc spodziewałam się szoku kulturowego. Najważniejsze, że poczułam się zaintrygowana i wiele momentów emocjonalnych w powieści przemówiło do mojej wyobraźni. Ale nie jest to chyba mój najlepszy wybór na (łatwe) pierwsze zetknięcie z literaturą chińską.
November 18, 2017
以前写的，现在写不出来这种读后感了，张爱玲的书实在太伤人了
九莉的凉薄冷漠是时代悲剧，曾经最想着带着九林和韩妈逃出这个大家族，父亲和姨太只知道抽大烟赌博，从小谨言慎行察颜观色，长辈的问题会左右权衡他们想要听什么样的答案。
她所依附的亲情只是幻灭的存在，从小抚养自己的韩妈走时也没掉半滴眼泪。于自己母亲也没有半点情谊，早早把自己抛弃留洋出国，自己唐突的被她牵着只觉得恶心，觉得她的手像横七竖八的细竹管子，她只能喊二婶，母亲死了不愿探望遗物也典当掉。
爱情也是，他们那么相爱，有家室的之雍对她说起自己的太太云云，爱着的另一个女人，她只是微笑，心里恶心妒忌却从不露声色，骨子熬出血仍然云淡风轻，“汉奸妻，皆可欺。”若干年后在抽水马桶看着自己墮掉的男胎，觉得像和他拥抱时望见门头上木雕的鸟。喜欢是“对海的探海灯搜索到她，蓝色的光把她塑在临时的神龛里。”等到两相看厌“他们的过去像长城一样，在地平线上绵延起伏。但是长城在现代没有用了。”总算读完了小团圆。
九莉的凉薄冷漠是时代悲剧，曾经最想着带着九林和韩妈逃出这个大家族，父亲和姨太只知道抽大烟赌博，从小谨言慎行察颜观色，长辈的问题会左右权衡他们想要听什么样的答案。
她所依附的亲情只是幻灭的存在，从小抚养自己的韩妈走时也没掉半滴眼泪。于自己母亲也没有半点情谊，早早把自己抛弃留洋出国，自己唐突的被她牵着只觉得恶心，觉得她的手像横七竖八的细竹管子，她只能喊二婶，母亲死了不愿探望遗物也典当掉。
爱情也是，他们那么相爱，有家室的之雍对她说起自己的太太云云，爱着的另一个女人，她只是微笑，心里恶心妒忌却从不露声色，骨子熬出血仍然云淡风轻，“汉奸妻，皆可欺。”若干年后在抽水马桶看着自己墮掉的男胎，觉得像和他拥抱时望见门头上木雕的鸟。喜欢是“对海的探海灯搜索到她，蓝色的光把她塑在临时的神龛里。”等到两相看厌“他们的过去像长城一样，在地平线上绵延起伏。但是长城在现代没有用了。”总算读完了小团圆。
August 13, 2017
四星是因为这意识流写法读起来太累。恋爱中的张爱玲也是个傻子。
June 3, 2025
Translation by Jane Weizhen Pan & Martin Merz
Published posthumously, this is in many ways the culmination of Chang's obsessions. Wonderfully written and translated. Not a linear story; more like collections of memories - each one a piece of a larger mosaic. Chang really goes for it here with themes she keeps coming back to. Very feminist tale, centered around women, their loves, losses and appetites.
It was wonderful to read several of her works (autofiction) over a couple of months and get a sense of her style. She sets a high bar and it's no wonder that she's one of the authors discussed in the Masterpieces of World Literature MOOC by HarvardX.
Rating for Eileen Chang novels, novellas, stories:
Love in a Fallen City - 4
Aloeswood Incense - 3
Jasmine Tea - 2
The Golden Cangue - 3
Sealed Off - 3
Red Rose, White Rose - 3
Half a Lifelong Romance - 4
Lust, Caution -3
Little Reunions - 4
Published posthumously, this is in many ways the culmination of Chang's obsessions. Wonderfully written and translated. Not a linear story; more like collections of memories - each one a piece of a larger mosaic. Chang really goes for it here with themes she keeps coming back to. Very feminist tale, centered around women, their loves, losses and appetites.
It was wonderful to read several of her works (autofiction) over a couple of months and get a sense of her style. She sets a high bar and it's no wonder that she's one of the authors discussed in the Masterpieces of World Literature MOOC by HarvardX.
Rating for Eileen Chang novels, novellas, stories:
Love in a Fallen City - 4
Aloeswood Incense - 3
Jasmine Tea - 2
The Golden Cangue - 3
Sealed Off - 3
Red Rose, White Rose - 3
Half a Lifelong Romance - 4
Lust, Caution -3
Little Reunions - 4
July 15, 2024
beautiful writing but a challenging read– a long list of characters and a non linear narrative especially contribute to this. one of the most interesting aspects of this book would be that it is highly autobiographical. a fascinating look into familial and romantic relationships as well as a portrait of shanghai during ww2
June 16, 2019
This is really more like a 2.5 to me because I have such respect for Eileen Chang but this review will unfortunately have a lot of gripes. I understand that this was published after her death so who knows if this is the finalized product in her mind. I also have an issue with the tone but I don't know if it's because of a bad translation or what.
I don't know what it is about it. Perhaps it's an "it's not you, it's me" situation because I've heard great things about Little Reunions in literary circles. This is my first Chinese literature translation and my first Eileen Chang novel. What I appreciate is the introduction to Chinese culture. It opens in Hong Kong on the eve of the Japanese invasion in 1941. The main character Julie comes from a family of decaying wealth and her mother is Rachel, a socialite who flits around the world with her lovers. Julie falls in love with a traitor who is working with the Japanese and the synopsis promises a tale of mistaken love, glamour, and wit. The story drifts in and out of comedy and tragedy. Julie's father is an opium addict and her first marriage almost immediately begins with drama. The synopsis is good and I found glimpses of what was promised in the text.
My biggest complaint is that it's a lot of information too soon for a relatively short novel. There is an eight page glossary of characters in the back of the book which is excessive for a novel that's not even 330 pages long in story. I am immediately hit with names and descriptions of characters who don't really play a part in the plot at all and there's so much detail about them only for them to not even serve as secondary characters. The tone of the novel is flat, tedious, and meandering at times. This reads more like a stream of consciousness, there is a lot of jumping around in time and things are overly explained. Again, I don't know if it's the translation but it seems like the things that are important to the plot end up getting glossed over with vague explanations while other parts of the novel go into excessive detail.
I didn't enjoy this and I'm disappointed that I didn't because I've enjoyed films written by her and I admire her life story.
I don't know what it is about it. Perhaps it's an "it's not you, it's me" situation because I've heard great things about Little Reunions in literary circles. This is my first Chinese literature translation and my first Eileen Chang novel. What I appreciate is the introduction to Chinese culture. It opens in Hong Kong on the eve of the Japanese invasion in 1941. The main character Julie comes from a family of decaying wealth and her mother is Rachel, a socialite who flits around the world with her lovers. Julie falls in love with a traitor who is working with the Japanese and the synopsis promises a tale of mistaken love, glamour, and wit. The story drifts in and out of comedy and tragedy. Julie's father is an opium addict and her first marriage almost immediately begins with drama. The synopsis is good and I found glimpses of what was promised in the text.
My biggest complaint is that it's a lot of information too soon for a relatively short novel. There is an eight page glossary of characters in the back of the book which is excessive for a novel that's not even 330 pages long in story. I am immediately hit with names and descriptions of characters who don't really play a part in the plot at all and there's so much detail about them only for them to not even serve as secondary characters. The tone of the novel is flat, tedious, and meandering at times. This reads more like a stream of consciousness, there is a lot of jumping around in time and things are overly explained. Again, I don't know if it's the translation but it seems like the things that are important to the plot end up getting glossed over with vague explanations while other parts of the novel go into excessive detail.
I didn't enjoy this and I'm disappointed that I didn't because I've enjoyed films written by her and I admire her life story.
September 20, 2018
故事讲到最后，所有的人都成为过客，他们走过一程，留下些印记，“有些随风，有些入梦，有些长留在心中”，“于是有时疯狂，有时迷惘，有时唱”。斯人已逝，留下了什么？这是张爱对她生命中的怕和爱一次审视的回顾。她一向刻意保持着一种疏离，对身边人不客气，对自己也是丝毫不客气。她什么都懂，却偏要逞强任性，故作凉薄，摆出一副没人能奈她何的姿态，却也还是没能避免放荡不羁的母亲和之雍给自己带来的伤害。可她终究是释然了。这些人，簇拥在她的生命里，有人沉沦，有人懦弱，有人永远潇洒，乐得快活，或许他们在别人的眼睛里有着另一番人生，但在张爱的这方天地里，他们如此相遇，史诗般的荒凉的小团圆。
June 27, 2014
auto-biographic based novel.
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April 19, 2019以前是不懂的，現在因著似懂非懂也不雀躍，反倒更困惑了。
February 25, 2022
Somewhat difficult to follow due to the long list of characters to keep track of (many are referred to by different names which further confuses things), as well as the complex web of relationships between all these characters. The effort wasn't really worth it as there just wasn't much for me to get invested in (characters weren't super well defined, not a very coherent storyline). A large portion of the book felt like exposition about the protagonists's relatives, without much to really keep you grounded in the novel. From what I can tell this book was published posthumously, so I won't judge it alongside Chang's more well-developed novels published in her lifetime. I'd recommend anyone interested in Eileen Chang read Half a Lifelong Romance instead
September 25, 2025
This wasn’t very enjoyable to get through, lots of random anecdotes about a huge cast of characters in Julie’s life, and based on the authors blurb it seems autobiographical. Translators note says this manuscript was left unfinished for ages and didn’t seem like she was interested in publishing in her lifetime, even contemplating destroying it, which makes me wonder why they even bothered releasing it?
July 4, 2024
Chang’s story drifts back and forth through time in a way that can sometimes be confusing, but it ultimately works for this dreamy memoir of the all the complicated emotions that accompanied her fraught relationships with her family and lovers. Loved her writing and razor sharp observations.
January 12, 2021
Not the easiest read but some bits were memorable and resonated with me.
September 6, 2023
Beautiful but fragmentary, and like memory itself-- non-linear. I enjoyed this book but I found it hard to follow.
I ended up liking the characters, especially the independent and rebellious Shengs, however I found myself ambivalent about their relationships with one another.
Chang certainly wrote a wonderful autobiographical novel, I'm just not sure how I feel about it, I think.
I ended up liking the characters, especially the independent and rebellious Shengs, however I found myself ambivalent about their relationships with one another.
Chang certainly wrote a wonderful autobiographical novel, I'm just not sure how I feel about it, I think.
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