Book Review: Half a Lifelong Romance is a story of thwarted love. A heartbreaking combination of Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy. Throw in Gone With the Wind and a bit of Shakespeare as well. Eileen Chang's focus is love, romance, and marriage, but here that unholy trinity is the gateway to a life of submission, suffering, and sorrow: "All they'd had was a little piece of happiness, a moment that passed all too quickly." The lovers' own hesitation first separates them, but then the twin evils of greed and war complete the division, and lead them into a world where a love meant to be, fails. Constant societal pressures compound the tragedy. At the same time, China is undergoing significant changes, still modernizing and Westernizing, while retaining many of the difficulties and obstacles for women, becoming an almost winless situation, unless one is lucky enough to become a mother-in-law in a comfortable family. The vast divide between rich and poor is also displayed (although servants can be surprisingly outspoken). Half a Lifelong Romance is a story of unrequited, unspoken love, and selfish, horrific betrayal. Ill fated from the beginning. The theme of love denied is repeated and interwoven, afflicting Manlu and Yujin; Shuhui and Tsuizhi; and most notably the star-crossed lovers, Manzhen and Shijun. Chang reveals complex emotions throughout a complex plot of "birth, old age, illness, death." There are extended families, military battles, good and evil. The cruelty of selfishness recurs, many characters trying to manipulate others for their own self-interest. A nice feature was the chaste love between the characters, putting the focus on the emotional rather than the physical, and also interesting that (the worst kind of) lust is presented as like an illness. Much folk wisdom is sprinkled throughout Half a Lifelong Romance: "an invalid soon becomes a physician"; "wine goes to the stomach, worries are in the heart." One truth is "the poor are more than willing to help each other in times of need ... theirs is not the sympathy of the rich, all shriveled up with reservations and inhibitions." The translation is modern ("wimp," "drama queen") and British ("oi," "podgy," "in hospital"). Eileen Chang, or our omniscient narrator, is wise, aware, and thoughtful; a great teacher. In the end fate wins out and all the characters' pitiful striving is just food for the laughter of the gods: "The times spent looking forward to something would be his happiest times with her; their Sunday would never dawn." [4½★]
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