Summer of Betrayal

Banned in her native China, Ying's first novel is an important social document if not a completely successful work of fiction. Set in Beijing in the immediate aftermath of the government's crackdown on the students in Tiananmen Square, the story focuses on the tumultuous changes in the life of Lin Ying, a young poet studying in the city. Retreating from the brutality that crushed the uprising, Lin Ying returns to the apartment she shares with her lover to find him in bed with his estranged wife. This infidelity lays the groundwork for things to come, as much of the novel describes the nihilistic sexual hedonism that absorbs Lin Ying and her circle of friends in response to martial law. A free expression of sexuality appears to be the only source of rebellion left to them; it soon becomes clear that the ruling powers find sexual liberation as subversive as its political counterpart. While this is a brave book about a shameful episode in recent world history, the story is marred by awkwardly constructed, repetitive sentences and clumsy metaphors (perhaps this is the fault of the translation); only the protagonist is granted any dimension. Likewise, the notion of embracing free love as a way of attaining genuine personal freedom will strike some readers as naive. But those willing to ignore such literary flaws will be moved by this account of the disorientation of idealistic youth in the face of the ugly specter of totalitarianism. (June)