When I first picked the book up, I was too excited but that slowly waned off because the book isn't really easy to read. It does not explain cultural references and is written in a very slow and dull manner. Most of the book has a lot of information about English literature but that was something that I did not enjoy. I usually love reading memoirs but this one just did not speak to me.

I liked the idea of the book. Part memoir, part history the writing of The Great Flowing River doesn't seem to flow. Following a woman's life during war times in China is both fascinating and terifying. Still the story could have been so much better. There were so many names, people, rivers, details. The book seemed more like a puzzle made of three piece sizes. You got the whole picture but something was missing.

Great Flowing River Chi Pang-yuan
This epic autobiographical work by the venerated researcher, literature professor and writer, tells her life story during the tumultuous time when China was attacked by Japan first to take Manchuria then the full fledged 2nd Sino Japanese War followed by the Civil war between Communists and Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek. The author’s coming of age and education all happened during these adverse times and thus show how one family - even if privileged- experience, sufferings and traumas. At the same time it shows resilience of human beings and Pang- yuan’s discipline and energy. It falls short on her treatment of communists in comparison with the nationalists as it is rather simplistically divided into good and bad. The 2 parts of her life story book is between her growing up in China and after 1943 her married and professional life in Taiwan. The first part reads easy while the 2nd part was slow with too many names, too many job descriptions and very little introspection nor any critical view on the nationalist regime. In the end, the first part is a worthwhile read.

An interesting story, but the first part is rather difficult to slog through as it's confusing with all the names, mostly focused on the author's father. The rest of the book is tedious at times since the author has a tendency to meander along side paths, which deviate for the main story.

Chi Pang-Yuan's memoir is packed with every bit of eastern and western literature she studied, enjoyed and taught as well as all the politics and war she grew up amongst in China. Chi's family was large and spread across China during a tumultuous time, yet she manages to document the duration for everybody. Indeed, her memory is alarmingly thorough; I'm afraid I found the sheer volume of names, titles, and other minutiae overwhelming and a bit tedious to deal with. I felt like she was trying to combine memorial tributes for far too many different people with this one book (her father, her husband, various mentors, a fighter pilot, etc).

Off the main topic, but I found it interesting that the daughter of a publishing house holding family should make such offhanded comments like, "Naturally, none of us in those days had any notion of copyright." and "Most afternoons, I'd go... look at the latest pirated books, to see if anything could be used as teaching materials."

While I understand these titles don't cover the same exact historical ground, I much preferred Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Chieng, The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, and even Wild Swans by Jung Chang.