Book Review Binge This Week

IN THE NYRB:
The Death and Life of a Great Chinese City, Richard J. Bernstein

The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed, by Michael Meyer. Walker, 355 pp., $25.99
Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by
Philip P. Pan. Simon and Schuster, 349 pp., $28.00

Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China, by Jen Lin-Liu. Harcourt, 341 pp., $24.00

IN THE NYTIMES SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW

'Brothers'

By YU HUA, Reviewed by JESS ROW
A popular Chinese epic about growing up during the Cultural Revolution and chasing love and fortune in the new market economy.
First Chapter Sunday Magazine: A Profile of Yu Hua

'The Vagrants'
By YIYUN LI, Reviewed by PICO IYER
Centered on the aftermath of a young woman’s execution in a desolate part of China in 1979, Yiyun Li’s grieving and unremitting first novel examines the costs and consequences of a society gone mad.
First Chapter

'China Witness: Voices From a Silent Generation'

By XINRAN, Reviewed by JOSHUA HAMMER
A Chinese journalist coaxes reminiscences out of Cultural Revolution survivors.

ALSO

Gish Jen, Yu Hua, Ha Jin, and some prominent translators will be talking in Cambridge Thrusday at 5:30, at the Northwest Building, 52 Oxford Street, B103.