Chasing Hepburn: A Memoir of Shanghai, Hollywood, and a Chinese Family's Fight for Freedom - Softcover

Lee, Gus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 140005155X ISBN 13: 9781400051557

Publisher: Three Rivers Press, 2004

Synopsis

“Lee . . . has created a gripping and beautiful portrait of his family. . . . Chasing Hepburn is nonfiction, but it reads just as richly as any novel.”—Boston Globe

“Gus Lee brings to his first work of nonfiction the consummate storytelling skills that have always delighted us in his critically acclaimed novels. I promise you that you will be captivated by this epic story of two families who epitomize all that is rich and varied in Chinese culture.”
—Ron Bass, screenwriter of The Joy Luck Club and Rain Man

Gus Lee takes us straight into the heart of twentieth-century Chinese society, offering a clear-eyed yet compassionate view of the forces that repeatedly tore apart and reconfigured the lives of his parents and their contemporaries. He moves deftly from recounting intimate household conversations to discussing major historical events, and the resulting story is by turns comic, harrowing, tragic, and heroic.

Chasing Hepburn is a saga that spans four generations, two continents, and half of Chinese history. In the masterful hands of acclaimed author Gus Lee, his ancestors’ stories spring vividly to life in a memoir with all the richness of great fiction.

About this title

From the Back Cover

“Lee...opens his first nonfiction work with the distressing story of his mother Da-tsien’s foot-binding in 1909 China. The women about to break the child’s toes whisper terms of endearment. Suddenly, as often happens in this rewarding, ambitious memoir, a dramatic turn pushes Da-tsien’s life in an unexpected direction: she’s rescued....[Lee’s] writing is a constant pleasure of vibrant detail and effective dialogue, from his retelling of his parents’ interactions with the underworld gangsters in 1920s Shanghai to his depiction of their enthrallment with Katharine Hepburn, which eventually leads them to America. Lee’s most remarkable skills, however, are his ability to deftly move between the personalities of his family tree and the family’s intimate moments, and his observations of Chinese cultural history.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Gus Lee brings to his first work of nonfiction the consummate storytelling skills which have always delighted us in his critically acclaimed novels. I promise that you will be captivated by this epic story of two families who epitomize all that is rich and varied in Chinese culture.”—Ron Bass, screenwriter:
The Joy Luck Club and Rain Man

About the Author

Gus Lee is the author of China Boy, Honor and Duty, No Physical Evidence, and Tiger’s Tale. He lives in Colorado.
From the Hardcover edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Three Rivers Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 140005155X
• ISBN 13: 9781400051557
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544