In Dear Chrysanthemums, an elegant collection of 11 linked short stories by poet and translator Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Rain in Plural), China's mid-20th-century political upheaval casts a long shadow. Music and food--not to mention love--bring meaning to those displaced in the aftermath of dissent. The stories--set in China, Singapore, Paris, and New York--span seven decades but always take place in a year ending in a six, a sacred number in Chinese divination. In 1946, Chang'er invents a famous salad as Madame Chiang Kai-shek's private chef. In 1996, Chang'er's daughter, Willow, takes possession of a piano that has traveled from Singapore to her Paris apartment.
The title story features Mei Zhen, who escapes the back-breaking work of picking chrysanthemums at a rural reform camp, thanks to her celebrated zither composition. She was lucky; the sinister opening story, "Death at the Wukang Mansion," revealed her lover's demise in suspicious circumstances at the start of the Cultural Revolution. Another character perishes in the massacre following the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. The epistolary "Back to Beijing," in which a woman begs forgiveness of her sister, is a highlight, as is "News from Saigon," in which a Vietnamese prostitute meets Marguerite Duras in a Paris café.
The connections are subtle, with the final story pulling together many strands. Sze-Lorrain's lyrical writing suggests that rebellion, even if it has tragic consequences in the present, might bear fruit in the future through artistic expression. This is perfect for fans of Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck