A true family saga set against the violent, incredible events of the Chinese civil war (1927-1950). It starts while Margaret Gaan is still a Shanghai schoolgirl and war is still rumor. This is one of those vibrant, extravagantly peopled memoirs that lights up the sky. A prodigal Portuguese grandfather (no pirate, alas, but a bona-fide bigamist) and a Chinese-matriarch grandmother--who commanded attendance at the annual lacquering of her coffin--nourish household legend. In the kitchen is Dahsoo, turtle-cook-supreme, stoveside politician, clown; but the clamor of his three wives on payday is too much for Mother. Granting the virtues and faults of each, which to keep? ""Well,"" says youngest, newest retainer Ah-May, ""Number One has much to be bad-tempered about."" (And, as the sole wife, she smiles.) Ah-May's problem is more intractable. She is betrothed to Small Amah's son and, for his benefit, robbed--Margaret would call it--of her personal two dollars a month. ""Break my betrothal?"" Gape, giggle. But ultimately, to Small Amah's unsettling shame and dismay, she will. From Dahsoo comes news of peasant suffering and landlord greed, of Communist militance and Kuomintang perfidy; and a coolie's unspeakable ""Tsor-lor"" to sister Veronica signals the end of complacent privilege. More seriously for the book, the narrator becomes ""a young lady""--expressly, ""a young lady victimized by my siblings."" Archly, self-consciously, she tells of beaux and dates; ideological harangues are repeated as if verbatim; and the long wartime period (1937-50) which Margaret spends as secretary for an export-import firm yields only one vivid incident.

Last Moments of a World

Gaan, Margaret

W W Norton & Co (Sd)

A true family saga set against the violent, incredible events of the Chinese civil war.

Last moments of a world

Norton

From front flap: Despite Imperial Edicts forbidding the smoking and importation of opium in China at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a lively smuggling business was developed by the British to finance the tea trade. Thirteen-year-old Charlie Tyson is sent from England by an unloving father to serve the Chairman of the East India Company at Canton. After his unhappy home, Charlie, whose flame-colored hair wins him the nickname Red Barbarian, welcomes the affection of the Chinese, particularly Wei and his little daughter Ling-ling. He is quick to learn their ways and decides to remain in China

Red Barbarian

Literature & Fiction

Action & Adventure

Dodd, Mead

After the Chinese legalize opium, the English open a vast market of smuggling that is opposed by the Chinese millionaire Yinkwa and the Englishman Charlie, the Red Barbarian, in a plan that ends with the last Chinese dynasty

White Poppy: A Novel of the Opium Wars

United States

Dodd, Mead, & Company

Red Barbarian (U)

Genre Fiction

Ulverscroft

Imprint unknown

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