Reading this book is like looking at a stranger’s photo album, without their narration. You don’t know why they were in China, what they were doing, or what was going on. Each picture may be beautiful, but how it connects with the next photo is unexplained. For example, here is a picture of the author in a city, then one of a city, one of him on a mountain, one with an official, one of beggars, one of the dead, and everywhere pictures of the landscape; and here is an interview, with a famous retired general, sandwiched between landscapes. The stranger has captioned each picture; so you know where it is taken but nothing more. Occasionally, there are more details recorded, maybe even a snatch of conversation, but it still feels terribly impersonal.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, Payne switches styles a bit, and it becomes the chronicle of one small corner of the civil war. Then it switches back to the first style. Now, he is in northern China with the Communists; how or why is left unexplained. The landscape pictures are back and this time they are interspersed with character sketches of famous Communist leaders and poets. Abruptly, after one more obituary, it’s over. He leaves China.
It’s incredibly sad. He tries to focus on the beauty around him, but every beautiful object is always surrounded by disease, starvation, war, corruption, vice, and death. He loves China especially the scholars, students, and children. He sees so much potential around him. (One of the few people he speaks about at any length discussed this with him over and over.) But he leaves China in despair. The diary ends before the end of the civil war.
Not that there were a lot of details, but the way he described Mao and other communist leaders made me wonder if he was sympathetic to their side. It was hard to read the glowing descriptions of them while knowing what they did later.
I can’t say I liked it. The detached feel made the whole book almost cruelly impersonal. Maybe that is just a personal impression, but I didn’t like it. Several times it was vulgar. He described nudity, prostitutes, and rape; not in detail, but more than was needed. There were a few swear words as well. Payne also speaks favorably of drug use. He really wanted to see the fantastic visions opium can give.
I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley and Endeavour Press. No review was required.