Review: re:  endlessly engrossing story of a life
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 2, 2012
The Same Moon is a novel in memoir form by my friend Junying Kirk. Made from a mix of fascinating details from daily struggle and the intense and poetic feelings of men and women in love, it chronicles the life of a Chinese girl growing to womanhood, first under the oppressive yoke of Maoism, and then, as a graduate student, in the United Kingdom. Protagonist Pearl Zhang grows up unaware of her beauty, enduring both physical and emotional torment, and then enters into a series of disappointing and unfulfilling love affairs that occupy a great part of her story. But there is joy, also, in the description of her travels and her transitory but deeply felt friendships. Another subtext of this story is sexual awakening, as Pearl struggles to find fulfillment and to understand sex after an unbringing that refused her knowledge. Although my knowledge of graduate education is rooted in the U.S. not in Britain, I strongly felt also the authenticity of Pearl's struggles with her sponsors in graduate school in Glasgow and Leeds. Furthermore, there was not a single antagonist in this story whom I did not thoroughly hate, to the point that I sent Junying frequent messages like, "I hope Pearl doesn't wind up with this guy."Reading like a memoir, this novel is told mostly in summary, with little dialogue and few scenes longer than half a page. The style is so effective at simulating memoir that I found it difficult to remember I was reading fiction, and kept thinking it was the author's life. I can honestly say that, despite the unorthodox style, there was no page that caused my interest to slacken, no detail that didn't add to my reading experience.I have past experience with books about the experience of Chinese women by authors such as Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston. This is the one I have related to the most. I will be going on to read the next book in the series, and the third, which Junying informs me should be out some time this year. This, friends, is an author who should not be overlooked.