K: The Art of Love
It appears that the author of K could not be happier that people are talking about the sexually explicit nature of her writing-touted as a Chinese Lady Chatterly's Lover-expressing her pleasure in the lengthy foreword: "So to all you readers who see the erotic in K, I congratulate you on your luck." Hong writes of the illicit love affair between young Julian Bell, son of Vanessa and nephew of Virginia Woolf, and Lin Cheng, then the wife of a college dean who is Julian's employer in China. Grabbing the freedom to blend fact with fiction, Hong imagines, quite vividly, all the angst, guilt, and eroticism involved in the taboo union between a "respectable" Chinese woman and a "foreign devil." Set against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of China and all its attendant horror, the book conveys a vivid sense of the disparities between sensibilities both emotional and physical. This is a fast and interesting read that will not disappoint those looking for yet another literary work alluding to the Bloomsbury group. Recommended for all libraries. [The daughter of Ling Shuhua, on whom Lin Cheng is based, has brought suit against this book in China, claiming that it defames her mother. Hong Ying currently lives in London.-Ed.]-Michelle Reale, Elkins Park, P.--Michelle Reale, Elkins Park, PACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.