The narrative does not stray far from Shanghai, China, just before, during, and after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Jiang was born there in 1954 and lived there until 1984, except for brief trips to the countryside for reeducation through labor, as it was called in China at that time. Shanghai was a busy, metropolitan center in 1964 and had been so for centuries. It remains one of the more volatile locales for revolutionary activity, and was also prominent in the 1989 youth movement that ended in the massacre at TianAn-Men in Beijing. During the period of this novel, it was an especially chaotic place to live. Most of Jiang's narrative is about her and her family, their friends and enemies in a small part of Shanghai. The novel opens when Jiang is twelve, happy with her life, a member of a loving family and a success at school. This is...