China

 

China – Edward Rutherford

Rutherford’s latest (as of now) and, in my opinion, his best.  I’ve written extensive reviews of all of Rutherford’s novels online and I like to think sometimes that he just might be reading them. Not realistic, of course, but I find it refreshing that the advice I’ve “offered” him, he’s actually listened and implemented; in this novel at least.

Rutherford writes about places, and the people who live in those places. Some of his books have been titled Russia, London, Paris, and New York. His objective is to tell a story, or stories that also educate his readers on the history of the particular location.  This can be rewarding but it can also be a hindrance if not done carefully. It’s hard to tell a compelling tale that takes place over 700 years or so.  Often, we read of events that have historical significance of the particular place, with the characters rooted in the middle of said events. In order to tell such lengthy history, a lot of time periods are skipped, and so we never get to really know our characters that well.  We’ll read about a young couple, for instance, and just as we’re getting to know them, we have to be jarred into the next section of the book that takes place 50 years later, and the young couple (if even still alive) are now in their waning years.  We then have to assimilate their offspring, and just as we get to know them, the cycle begins anew. 

Rutherford is also guilty of pushing too much history and not enough story.  Often, he’ll have two of his characters, say, at the dinner table, and one of the characters is telling the other one about the last half-century or so of history of the locale over brandy and biscuits. This really serves no purpose other than to ensure the reader has a better understanding of the place and time.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but not something that many readers want to dig through when reading a “novel”.

The good news is that “China” has very little of this. In fact, the entire story takes place over about a 70-year period.  So, no, we’re not really reading that much about the entire history of the country, but my guess is Edward Rutherford realized he could effectively write a novel that “takes place” during an important part of China’s history and still succeed.  He does so mightily.  In fact, I would argue that he could feasibly write a “part 2” to this tale (he did so only once, when writing about Ireland).  There’s an awful lot more story to tell about China.

This book covers roughly the years of about 1830 – 1905.  This was during the last dynasty (The Qing Dynasty) of China before the country became modern or westernized (or whatever).  We read about several different characters and several different plotlines, yet they’re all tied together in some form or fashion. The overall theme of the book seems to be around the time England began selling Opium to China, which many would argue caused the downfall of the mighty empire.  In fact, our main character is one of the English captains, and we follow his story throughout the entirety of the novel.

We read about many indigenous people as well, Even though many would argue that the opium trade wrecked the country, when one looks at this place with Western eyes, we learn that this country was far from kind and or philanthropic towards its subjects.  There were few that lived in power and luxury and the masses were subjugated to be peasants for life.   When a servant to one of the emperor’s concubines is working on her mistress’ nails and accidentally cracks one of her fingernails, the poor soul is flogged to death.

We also read about the cruelness of feet binding of women (ouch) and castration of men (triple ouch) in rather explicit detail.  In case you’re wondering, the former is to make women more attractive to rich and powerful men. The latter is done since only eunuchs may serve in the emperor’s palace, since it would be a tragedy if any of the emperor’s harem of concubines were to become….well…disturbed.

We read about a lot of other cultural practices and behaviors as well, and the reader finishes the novel wanting to learn more about the history and geography of the place. Rutherford succeeds very well if that was, in fact, his goal.  There are a few real people woven into this tale as is common for this sort of work.  The most notable is the Empress Dowager Cixi, a concubine of one of the less effective latter emperors who many say actually ran the empire until her death immediately preceding the end of the Qing dynasty.

So if someone is wanting to learn anything about mid to late 20^th century China, they should be warned that there is absolutely nothing here. Again, I wouldn’t be disappointed in a part 2 if Rutherford chose to continue his story. Although to be honest, there were many very dark moments for China from the rape of Nanking to the reign of Mao Tse Tung, that I imagine writing any kind of appealing story during this time in history might be too dark a task.

If so, no great loss. This novel was a wonderful experience despite the fact that there is actually very little of the history of China told here.