Reviews: Book

Two mommies

As a novelist, A. M. Homes has made a minor speciality of luridness. In all of her writing there is a latent sense that a crime has been or is about to be committed.

Her memoir, The Mistress's Daughter, is no exception: It has the same foreboding, the same ambience of barely controlled menace.

As Homes moves through her account of her origins, the prevailing mood is that of film noir. Homes was 31 when she was contacted by her biological mother, Ellen Ballman. It emerges that her real father, Norman Hecht, was Ellen's boss older, married, an ex-football player, with children of his own.

Homes tells us that she was adopted by a couple whose own son had died six months earlier. Before they brought her home, "the trusted pediatrician" was "dispatched to the hospital to make an evaluation of the merchandise think of movies where the drug dealer samples the stuff before turning over the cash."

Homes writes sleek, violent cartoons of contemporary existence, and it's fascinating to watch this novelist of extremes handle the delicate material of her own life.

The New York Times Syndicate

Master of War's biography

Sun Tzu: The Ultimate Master of War by the China Intercontinental Press is an ideal way to get acquainted with one of China's most famous ancient sages.

It includes lots of pictures to help entice the reader into the mysterious world of Sun Tzu, who lived some 2,500 years ago, but whose philosophy would affect the United States Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

Why would Napoleon Bonaparte lament that he should have read Sun Tzu's book The Art of War before Waterloo? Why would it have such relevance to 21st-century military commanders and businessmen alike?

Chinese readers may find surprising how Sun helped Wu Zixu and the King of Wu to defeat other powerful kingdoms in battle.

Many legends say Xishi, the most beautiful of all four ancient Chinese beauties, beguiled the King of Yue to enable the army of Wu to gain the upper hand.

In such a short volume, the authors Xu Yuanxiang and Li Jing have done a good job providing a glimpse into Sun's life.

One problem is repetition. Having portrayed Sun as a figure of supreme wisdom, the authors could have given more examples of his book or explained more about how the marvelous swords of Wu were made, instead of lauding him again and again.

Liu Jun

(China Daily 04/13/2007 page20)