Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #231413 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling author Iris Chang's 2004 suicide at age 36 so shocked friends and colleagues that some initially claimed that Japanese extremists had murdered her to avenge Chang's acclaimed exposé in The Rape of Nanking of atrocities against Chinese civilians perpetrated by Japanese invaders in 1937–1938. Lacking the artistry of Ann Patchett's recent portrait of her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy, this effort by Kamen (All in My Head) is a tedious, obsessive, exploitative effort, drawing on her Salon.com eulogy to Chang. Kamen, who had known Chang since college, repeats some of the far-fetched, irresponsible conspiracy theories before settling on the sad truth that Chang, suffering from bipolar disorder, shot herself in the head with an antique pistol after much planning. Kamen describes her admiration for and jealousy of her rival, Chang's grating ambitiousness and the first-generation American's attempts at being a real American, epitomized by her campaign to be college homecoming queen. Kamen also probes the stigma of mental illness in the Asian-American community, Chang's sense of guilt over her son's autism, her veneer of perfection and the deterioration of her mental state. Despite its flaws, this could find a sizable audience among those Chinese-Americans who lionized Chang. 60,000 first printing. (Nov. 9)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
As with most suicides, the shocking death of writer Iris Chang (THE RAPE OF NANKING) in 2004 left her survivors with many questions. Paula Kamen, a longtime friend and fellow author, attempts to provide some answers, using her personal recollections; interviews with family, friends, and colleagues; and Iris's own diaries and writings. Although the book ultimately provides no definitive answers, a more complete portrait of this complex young woman does emerge. Narrator Bernadette Dunne demonstrates her mastery of the audio format. Without resorting to accent or artifice she presents each voice distinctly, clearly defining the individual's personality and emotion. This is an excellent pairing of material and voice artist. M.O.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
"A nuanced portrait of a brilliant but troubled person." -- Associated Press

"A rewardingly complex portrait of a driven and troubled woman." -- Kirkus Reviews Fall & Winter 2007 Preview

"Allow[s] a glimpse into the deteriorating mind of talented woman whose severe depression and bipolar disorder led her to take her own life." -- Chicago Magazine

"It put me in mind of Ann Patchett's Truth & Beauty, her memoir about her friendship with...writer Lucy Grealy." -- Wilda Williams, LibraryJournal.com

"Kamen creates an intimate and compelling story about an extraordinary woman and her sudden, mysterious death." -- Linda Bubon, Women & Children First, Chicago, IL

"Kamen provides an intimate and respectful consideration of Iris Chang that gives the reader a better grasp of Chang's flawed humanity....Beyond that, Kamen provides some context to Chang's life and slide into mental illness...A valuable book because of its handling of mental illness in general, and specifically for its insight into mental illness in the Asian community." -- The Asian Reporter, 10/16/07

"Offers the same meticulous attention to detail and thorough immersion in primary sources that distinguishes Chang's exhaustively researched books." -- Chicago Reader

"This detached, casually brutal honesty pervades much of the book--a quality that, while seemingly callous to employ in an homage to friendship, ironically drives this book to expose the unique genius and creativity of Chang, the far-reaching effects of her persistent social activism and, sadly, the relentless escalation of the bipolar disorder that impelled her to suicide." -- BookPage, November 2007

"[A] thoroughly-researched and affectionate psychobiograpy...[Kamen's] caring but candid narrative is a noble attempt to shine light on [Chang's] life." -- Deseret News

"[An] engrossing inquiry...illuminating on many points...The book is fascinating...[Kamen] is laudably honest." -- Chicago Tribune

Customer Reviews

A Personal Look at What Was a Brilliant Life!
Author Paula Kamen really walked a fine literary line between her own personal friendship, the mourning process, and the telling of a great, but tragic story. Her book, "Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind" is itself a brilliant effort and one that grabs the reader's heart and mind. This biography is intimate and reflective of not just Chang's life but also suggests a look inside the author as well.

The public knows all about the works of Iris Chang and her voice that told the world about the Chinese Holocaust by the Japanese at Nanking. She was a very successful writer and author. She was known world wide but few knew the real person she was.

Suicide is something, that in some way, touches every human life on earth. When someone we know personally, or learn about from the media, takes their own lives, it always leaves huge unanswered questions. On personal level, I have had several close friends kill themselves. I never have found any "good reason" for doing that. It is the author's own search, I believe, for those reasons and answers that drove her to write this accounting of a beautiful life.

The book is a page turner and holds you emotionally hostage long after you stopped reading it. You are haunted by Iris's last phone call to the author when she leaves her a cryptic clue of what was going to happen. It is always easy to see these as obvious suicide messages retrospectively - but at the time, that thought rarely occurs to friends and family.

The book is a story that needed telling; and being told by a friend is much warmer and compassionate then from a stranger. I am glad that the author took this story on. It may even be of some help for those on the edge themselves.

To say I enjoyed the book would be wrong - as it was painful to know where the story was going to end and how. But like a witness to an bad accident, one just cannot pull away and leave the author's words unread. For some reason, it would feel like a violation. Kamen's words can easily be read but the understanding of why Chang took her life may never be satisfactorily known.

A powerful and serious book that it is truly a gift from a friend to a friend.

Disappointing On An Important Subject
Iris Chang had a gift for reaching scholars and public with groundbreaking writing. Paula Kamen has a worthy goal in trying to understand Chang, but her book could be much better. She approaches the subject in a breathless, watch-me-unravel-the-mystery style. Thus it fits in the confessional/personal memoir genre, but focusing on her own longterm relations with Chang is unfortunate. This leaves her unable to plumb the depths of Chang's work or her death. Kamen seems mostly uninterested in Chang's concerns, including the Rape of Nanjing but also Chinese immigrants in America. Fierce commitment to redressing wrongs against Chinese, eventually shading into obsession, marked Chang's work, so any study cries out for real scholarship on the issues she pursued. Without this "FIC" can only offer raw material for more substantive work. Despite Kamen's speculations the "mystery" is plain enough: sustained study of war crimes and human rights violations is inherently depressing, and Chang presumably succumbed to the weight of history she shouldered. Her unfinished project on the Bataan Death March (also very grim) tends to support this view. Iris Chang's research inspired readers, but it was sometimes flawed, notably in overstating Japanese refusal to confront their 1931-45 history. Engaging these issues is crucial to comprehending East Asia then and now. K. Honda ed, "Nanjing Massacre" critiques Chang fairly along with other writers; S. Ienaga, "Pacific War" grapples heroically with the horror of Japanese aggression. NB, it was rated 3 stars until reading comments on the "I agree with PW" review. The info there, from within the Chinese American community, seems unimpeachable. We will truly honor Iris Chang by holding biographers to a higher standard.

A Starting Point
I hope this is not the last word on Iris Chang.

In a precursive phone call Iris told her "friend", Paula Kamen (who found her exhausting), to tell everyone what she was like "before this happened." I didn't count, but there were probably more pages about "this" and its aftermath, than what she was like before it. Kamen's book does not fulfill her friend's request.

Kamen had, and probably still has, a wonderful opportunity to provide insight. Unfortunately she gives us more about how she reacted to Iris, than about how Iris might have reacted to her. Why did Iris reach out to her? Did her interest in being a sorority member or homecoming queen inform her later career or was it a reaction? How did she become interested in Nanking? The questions surrounding her work on Nanking are huge and very little text is devoted to them.

Whether or not Iris's son was acutally autistic is resolved near the end of the book, which makes it more of a literary device than an factor. Paula is honest but, for me, too causal about her own flaws in her relationship with Iris.

I doubt that this is the telling that Iris had in mind.

Kamen is not the journalist her friend was. Being a lay person, I'm glad to see someone in this profession take "no" for an answer, as Kamen did with Iris's mother, (and Iris at the Tribune where stakes were higher) but the flip side of this is her relaxed approach to the reponses of those who bow (and bowed) to pressure. While I am not a lawyer or reparations expert, I expect that the Holocaust survivors also met resistance of officials citing treaties and precedents. Kamen gives the nay sayers a pass.

I think the world's hunger to know and understand this heroine has led to the warm reception this book has received by readers. I view it as a starting point for a more substantive treatment that I someone is working on right now.