The Sisters Mao

McCrea (Mrs. Engels) returns with an ambitious if flawed dual narrative that probes the tensions between art and propaganda, family loyalty and revolutionary zeal. In 1968 London, sisters Iris and Eva Thurlow run a performance collective, the Wherehouse, in a derelict theater owned by their estranged actor mother, Alissa. Dedicated to spreading the gospel of Mao Zedong, the collective hopes to gain media attention by staging a public tribunal like those held in China. Iris decides they should target Alissa during the West End production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie in which she is starring, a plan fueled by her anger at Alissa’s maternal rather than political failings. Meanwhile, in 1991 China, Mao’s widow, Jiang Qing, recalls her political downfall from her cell in prison. Her ruin occurs in 1974, when Qing, a former actor, commandeers a governmental ballet production to ensure it is good enough for a state visit by Imelda Marcos. Her capricious use of power wins her enemies including her daughter, Li Na, who joins in denouncing her. McCrea writes insightfully about mother-daughter dynamics, the power of theater, and women’s roles in revolutionary movements, but lengthy depictions of myriad minor scenes in the Thurlow sisters’ lives sap the novel’s momentum. This is thought-provoking, though not McCrea’s best. (Jan.)