Are you tired of all the politalk that you’ve been seeing on tv, the web and this site? Are you anxiously awaiting the end of election day. Do the words, “Hanging Chad” send you into convusions? I have the solution for you. Communism. Well, maybe not as an option for the United States, but it made great reading material for me the last couple weeks.

My most recent read, aaa|Wild Swans|0385425473|aaa by Yung Chang, opened my eyes to life in Communist China. Being a history buff I have studied Communism and the theories and policies of Chairman Mao Zedong but had yet to understand the effects on the Chinese people.

Chang walks the reader through China’s history in conjunction with her own family’s history. We learn about her Great Grandmother, ‘Wu’ Er-ya-tuo (which means, Number Two Girl), her Grandmother, concubine to a War-Lord, and her Mother, an enthusiastic Communist leader and how these women affected the life of the author. The men in these women’s lives make appearences, but are hardly the focus of the book.

The adventures of Chang and her family sometimes border on the unbelievable, but are put into context with the discriptions of Mao’s regulations and the tortures that were carried out by his followers.

This very personal look into Communist China really gives those of us in the capitalist west a unique perspective. The research done by the author along with the fact that she grew up the child of two middle ranking Communist officials, makes this book a logical companion to texts and historical documents regarding the Communist reign. Despite needing to refer to the family tree at the front of the book, and the author’s tendency to go back and forth from story to story, this was a very enlightening read. I’d reccomend it to anyone looking to hear another side of the story.