Grass Soup

Declared a Rightist by the authorities in 1958, Zhang spent 22 years in a labor reform camp in western China, condemned as an ``intellectual.'' Today he is one of China's best-known writers. As a hod carrier, he subsisted on scraps of food with an occasional ``treat'' such as live toad (``a cold appetizer... delicious''). He traces the weakening of his body and spirit to the point where he cared about only two things: the bowl of grass soup that was his evening meal, and taking his next breath. Starvation, he explains, is an effective government policy: ``Only by making people endure hunger can you make them submit to you, worship you.'' Zhang escaped at one point, remaining free until he realized that there was more food available inside the camp than outside it. Because he returned of his own volition, he was not punished, but he had to take part in indoctrinary struggle-and-criticism sessions. His engrossing memoir, based on a diary he kept in 1960-61, demonstrates that it is possible to retain one's humanity even in the face of terrible privation. (July)