This novel offers a fresh
look at Communist China in the Mao era. The focus of the story is a coffin. It is a
family memoir that spans from when the author was nine years old to his life as
a new immigrant in the United States. He begins his memoir in 1973 while he was
living in a tiny house in Xia, Central China with his parents, brother and
sisters and his grandmother. His grandmother became obsessed with her death and the planning of her burial.
During the time, all traditional Chinese practices, including burials, were strictly forbidden. Eventually Huang’s father built her a coffin, appointed his
older son, Wenguang, as coffin keeper who slept next to it at night. This
excellent plot, takes us over the next fifteen years while the entire family is
consumed with planning and talking about Grandma’s burial much to the detriment
of Wenguang. The story revealed the nature of the China’s political era and the
period leading up to the Tiananmen Square tragedy. It isn’t overly historical but remaining personal, funny and
touching throughout. This is a powerful drama of a universal family struggles
to find their way through transition and oppression.
Watch below clip of the author, Wenguang Huang explaining the background of his writing.
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