English Book

"Oh dreammaker, you heartbreaker..."

The song "Moon River" will always now make me think of Love Liu and his English classes in China during the Cultural Revolution; its wistful longing is echoed in the unrealized dreams, the deep deep loss of possibility, for these generations of Chinese.

"Where does our cruelty come from? did it fall from the sky? Were we just born that way?" Anxious questions hover over, weave through, Love Liu's childhood and coming of age. Here is another world where trust is fleeting and rare, where self preservation demands detachment from and total disregard for others' lives. Truth and lies are of equal value.

All are guilty. All must confess.

In their confessions, the children are asked to do some soul-searching. What is a soul? they ask.

The adults do not know.