JF Books Review No.4 季風書訊第四期
编者按
在JF Books位于华盛顿特区的书店里，最温暖的场景是这样的：
今天，我们特别聚焦傅国涌的《去留之间：
本期书评涉及到几个值得注意的主题。
首先，记忆与身份奠定了情感的根基，这是一个关于归属的主题。
在此基础上，权力与韧性展开了对自由与人性的深刻探讨，
最终，叙述与沉默升华为对责任的哲学叩问。
— Calvin
《去留之间：1949年中国知识分子的选择》｜ 傅国涌｜ 読道社
— 本期特邀书评作者：江雪——中国著名调查记者、自由撰稿人
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1949年前夜的南京，29岁的殷海光给女友夏君璐写信，
殷海光当时任《中央日报》主笔，不久前刚发表著名社论《
“我知道这是一个残酷的时代，
这是傅国涌的著作《去留之间：1949年中国知识分子的选择》（
本书最初于2005年1月由中国的长江文艺出版社出版，书名是《
作为历史学者，也作为公共知识分子的傅国涌，
他不想从宏大叙事来重温历史，而是从日记、
在殷海光称之为“大变局”的1949，那些更著名的知识分子，
1949年10月10日，夏衍亲耳听到毛泽东说，如此做的目的，
1949年，于胡风是一生“甜美的高峰”。书中写道，
书中也描写了胡适和傅斯年的悲叹。1948年的最后一天，
作为公共知识分子的傅国涌，对胡适、
在书的后序中，傅国涌提到本书2017年原本要在中国再版，
2025年7月7日凌晨，傅国涌先生因疾病突发而于杭州辞世。
—江雪
《娜拉出走以后》｜秦晖｜ 読道社
——从家庭桎梏走向国家控制 - - - “娜拉出走”的中国命运
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娜拉出走之后，她真的自由了吗？秦晖在《娜拉出走以后》
在当代中国语境下，这部书升华至更广的人权追求，
—Calvin
《拯救德先生》｜秦晖｜ 鹿津出版社
——在民主制度内反转的危机时代，谁来守护德先生？民主能否自我免疫？
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民主真的无懈可击吗？秦晖在本书中指出，
此外，秦晖还关注了中国专制主义在全球化中的外溢效应。
—Calvin
《想象的共同体：民族主义的起源与散布》｜ 班纳迪克·安德森 ｜ 時報出版
——民族不是我们天生所属，而是我们被教导去相信的故事：安德森让我们重新思考身份、历史与记忆的政治。
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在华语世界，谈民族主义常陷入两难：
当统一与独立不再只是政治选项，而是文化记忆、
—Can
《拉萨烈日下》｜ 唯色（Tsering Woeser）｜ 二○四六出版
——在炙热的拉萨阳光下，唯色用最安静的语句写下最深沉的乡愁与抗争。
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当日常生活成为一种值得记述的景观，
—Sissi
《牡蛎万岁：美味、诱惑、金钱与权力》｜德鲁·史密斯 ｜ 日出出版
——这是一本将海洋的咸味与历史的韵味熬煮成诗的书，献给每一位懂得慢尝人生风味的读者。
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若说世上有哪种食材能同时承载历史的沧桑与舌尖的惊喜，
—Sissi
Things in Nature Merely Grow ｜ Yiyun Li ｜ Farrar, Straus and Giroux
—— In the quiet aftermath of unimaginable loss, Yiyun Li crafts a luminous meditation on love, being, and the radical act of continuing.
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Things in Nature Merely Grow is not a book about grief in the conventional sense. It is Yiyun Li’s quiet act of radical presence in the face of unimaginable loss. With language both precise and weightless, she invites us into a space where time collapses, where her sons Vincent and James remain not as memory, but as being. There is no resolution here, only a steady willingness to live thinkingly, to go on: gardening, reading, playing piano, writing. Li does not try to explain death; she resists closure. What she offers instead is something far braver—companionship in the unanswerable. This is a book that sits with you like silence after a long breath: raw, unwavering, and fiercely tender.
—Can
The Haves and Have - Yachts ｜ Evan Osnos ｜ Scribner Book Company
—— A razor-sharp journey through the absurd glamour of America's ultra-rich, where money buys not just privilege but the power to bend reality.
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The Haves and the Have-Yachts reads like a guided tour through the gilded absurdity of America’s ultra-rich—except your guide is a journalist with a scalpel and a sense of irony. Evan Osnos doesn’t shout; he lets the stories speak: teenage yacht parties with hired pop stars, apocalypse bunkers as status symbols, and billionaires quietly unraveling in white-collar support groups. It’s not just wealth—it’s a new mythology of power, anxiety, and engineered detachment. Osnos writes with clarity and restraint, but the impact lingers: this is not just about the rich, but about what their choices say about the rest of us. Cool, precise, and quietly damning.
—Can
Those Who Should Be Seized Should Be Seized ｜ John Beck ｜ Melville House Publishing
—— How bureaucratic language and authoritarian logic conspire to erase identity, turning repression into routine?
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With a chilling title taken from an actual CCP directive, this book investigates the machinery behind China’s persecution of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. John Beck draws from survivor testimonies, leaked documents, and on-the-ground reporting to expose the scale of internment, surveillance, and cultural erasure in Xinjiang. But this is not just a report—it is a reckoning with how bureaucratic language turns violence into policy. The repetition in the title—cold, robotic—mirrors the logic of a system designed to erase identity in the name of order. Beck writes with clarity and restraint, allowing the voices of the persecuted to speak for themselves. The result is powerful, urgent, and devastatingly human.
—Calvin
The Red Wind Howls ｜ Tsering Döndrup ｜ Columbia University Press
—— Tsering Döndrup turns socialist realism on itself—quiet, bitter, and devastating.
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The Red Wind Howls is a haunting literary reckoning by Tibetan writer Tsering Döndrup, set amid the brutal collectivization campaigns in Tibetan regions during China’s socialist reforms. At its heart is a conflicted Tibetan cadre who, caught between loyalty to the Party and the disintegration of his community, gradually watches his world unravel—his family fragmented, his traditions hollowed out, and his faith in revolution collapsing. He leads his people into a promised utopia, only to witness famine, betrayal, and death. Döndrup adopts the tropes of socialist realism with unsettling fidelity, only to subvert them from within; the result is a biting satire wrapped in the hushed language of trauma. The “red wind” of the title is no metaphorical flourish—it howls across the plateau, scattering lives like dust. This novel does not simply recount history; it exhumes it, giving voice to those buried in its silence.
—Calvin
Stories from the Edge of the Sea ｜ Andrew Lam ｜ Red Hen Press
—— When talking about Asian immigrant literature, themes of loneliness, silence, and unspeakable emotional complexity are hard to avoid. Lam captures these feelings, weaving them into each narrative.
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Andrew Lam’s Stories from the Edge of the Sea is a hauntingly beautiful collection of 14 short stories, each one a vivid glimpse into the inner lives of Vietnamese immigrants and their children. I was deeply moved by Lam’s writing style—his prose is immersive, his characters emotionally rich, and his imagery lingers long after the last page.
When we talk about Asian immigrant literature, themes of loneliness, silence, and unspeakable emotional complexity are hard to avoid. Lam masterfully captures these feelings, weaving them into each narrative. His characters—some bold, some hesitant—are all bound by the unshakable identity of the diaspora. Their past traumas and fragmented memories create a constant emotional tension as they try to navigate life in America.
The strength of this collection lies not only in its themes, but in Lam’s versatility. Like one reviewer noted, he is a “chameleon writer,” shifting voices and styles with ease, yet never losing sight of the core: displacement, longing, and resilience.
Whether it’s a ghost from an old romance or a queer boy caught between cultures, Lam’s stories pulse with truth, heartache, and grace. This is a deeply affecting, unforgettable work of diasporic literature.
—Sissi
The House of Doors ｜ Tan Twan Eng ｜Bloomsbury Publishing
— — Tan brings an intimate understanding of the region, effortlessly infusing the novel with the lush atmosphere, folklore, and cadence of the Straits Settlements.
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The House of Doors is a masterful blend of history and fiction, personal memory and public myth. Inspired by Somerset Maugham’s colonial short stories, Tan Twan Eng weaves real-life events—including Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary activities in Penang and the infamous Proudlock murder trial—into a richly textured narrative. As a Malaysian author, Tan brings an intimate understanding of the region, effortlessly infusing the novel with the lush atmosphere, folklore, and cadence of the Straits Settlements.
The story unfolds through dual perspectives: Lesley Hamlyn’s intimate first-person narration and Maugham’s more distant third-person point of view. Their paths cross in 1920s Penang, where Lesley, guarded yet restless, begins to share her past with the famously observant writer. What follows is a haunting confession of love, betrayal, political awakening, and moral ambiguity—one that ultimately fuels Maugham’s own fiction.
This is not just a historical novel, but a meditation on storytelling itself—how lives are shaped by secrets, and how fiction can sometimes reveal more truth than fact. Beautifully written and emotionally resonant, The House of Doors is a rare novel that is both intellectually ambitious and deeply moving. It is a literary triumph that lingers like the heat and humidity of Penang.
—Sissi
Wishing you a vibrant and refreshing summer—may it be filled with light reads, long days, and small joys.
盛夏已至，願你擁有陽光、閱讀與片刻清涼的美好時光
编辑部：Sissi, Can, Calvin, Helen