Then there's his love-life. Heroes aren't supposed to have love-lives unless they're either exemplary or heroic ones. Sun is shown to have had many lovers before marrying Song (his second wife). Song's own love-life, too, is shown realistically — not very satisfactory with Sun, and certainly not buried along with her husband after his death.
Here and there the narrative hints that it might have been something rather different — the parallel lives of three women. Qingling was one of three sisters, and one of the others, Song Meiling (宋美齡), married Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) (it so happens Ping has written stories about both of them). The two come together on one page when Chiang's death in Taiwan is reported, and they're joined there by a reference to Mao's widow Jiang Qing (江青), arrested following Mao's death the following year.
The book sticks valiantly to the historical record, and because it presents Sun remembering his life prior to his death in 1925, and Song remembering the events she lived through right up to her death in 1981, the two narratives combined offer a vivid and personalized picture of political events in China through much of the 20th century.
Qingling's life as a widow is presented in part-detailed, part-hazy fashion, possibly as a result of the sparse information available. What is at one point described as her "secret second marriage" is alluded to mostly in the small number of chapters narrated by her daughter, whose father is guardedly referred to as "S". The American man this daughter is about to marry is named as Simpson.
Various Westerners friendly to China appear, from Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw, who visited China in the 1930s, to the American journalist Edgar Snow, author of Red Star Over China, and his wife Helen. Taiwan only appears intermittently, most interestingly when the occupying Japanese authorities refuse permission for a specially-composed anthem to be sung at a memorial service organized to mark Sun's death. Praise for Sun had been widespread in the Japanese press, but it was presumably felt that anything that hinted of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan was too sensitive to be permitted. All this Lu has carefully researched.
It's beyond doubt that Love and Revolution offers a detailed picture of the lives of both its protagonists. For some readers it will be a touch too detailed. The progress of Sun's cancer, and his related medical treatments, are rather gruesomely described, while Song's anxiety about her later obesity, plus her sense of having been side-lined by the Chinese Communist Party, are prominent themes in the later chapters.
Even so, this novel has the outstanding virtue of offering two famous figures as credible individuals. At one point the author refers, in the persona of Song's daughter, to "the numerous Song Qingling biographies that have been written ... filled with archaic language" and leaving "no impression of the person at all." This book most certainly doesn't follow in the footsteps of these, and it is for this reason above all that it's to be recommended.
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