Lost in the Long March

October 3, 2022
Wang’s thoughtful and richly detailed debut novel (after the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award–winning collection Further News of Defeat) follows several characters swept up in Mao Zedong’s Communist uprising in the 1930s. The shy Ping and clownish Haiwu both fall for the same woman in their platoon, Yong, a dedicated Marxist and crack sharpshooter. Yong eventually marries Ping and becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, Haiwu gets together with the pregnant Cho, who fled from a landowner’s harem and renounces her “exploiter” to the Communists. During the retreat of the Long March in 1934, Ping and Yong must leave their baby son, Little Turnip, to be raised by strangers in the mountains. Meanwhile, the ever good-natured Haiwu takes it all in stride, even when Mao kicks his prosthetic leg in jest. Later, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when Little Turnip is eight, he leaves to tag along with the Japanese soldiers, hoping they will join up with his parents’ army and bring him closer to them. While some knowledge of 20th-century Chinese history will be helpful, Wang does a great job showing how the bit players in this large-scale historical drama come to grips with the turbulent period and struggle to survive. Thanks to the colorful characters, Wang’s saga is consistently engaging.

Starred review from October 15, 2022
Trying circumstances scramble families and force difficult choices in this debut historical novel set during the Chinese Civil War. As they regroup in the mountains before their next skirmish with the Nationalist army, humble gunsmith Ping longs for Yong, a crack shot and dedicated Communist. To win her over, Ping must be persistent, humble, and willing to betray his oldest friend. But when Yong gives birth just days before the army is to move out, the young couple must leave their infant son with strangers. Years later, their Little Turnip faces similarly challenging dilemmas in the fight against the Japanese. Wang, author of the acclaimed story collection Further News of Defeat (2020), explores themes of loyalty, courage, and loss with a particular interest in the dynamics of makeshift family groups formed in hard times. In focusing on the children left behind by the Long March, the author amplifies a lesser-known aspect of the strategic retreat. (Mao himself abandoned two children during the campaign). But Wang's simple, elegant prose may be the real revelation. Finely drawn details, such as the taste of wild peppercorn discovered by a mine-sweeper lost in the woods, coax poignancy from high-stakes moments.

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