So little is known of China and oppression the people suffered under various regimes. Through the life stories of 3 generations of women a clear picture unfolds - not necessarily an easy one to hear. The people who clearly were interested in this book were those of us who had families during this time. The younger members found it too difficult and didn't stay with it.

Very engrossing and portrayed lives of women on three generations realistically and well, but was definitely depressing. We had just finished reading SHANGHAI GIRLS and DREAMS OF jOY by Lisa See--which were purely fiction. WILD SWANS added meat to their story, but characters in See books were more "real" to me as they had more emotional depth--more drama in fiction than in the probably more historically accurate SWANS.

While the book was quite lengthy, it was interesting and informative. At times it was very sad and other times it was depressing. Amazing how a leader can affect the lives of all the followers for good or bad. In this case mostly bad.
While it is a true account of what occurred in China during those three lives, the three generations as seen through the women's lives the book would have probably been better to have three books.

This is not an "easy read"...but stick with it and you'll learn so much about China and its people during the frightening rule of Mao.

We all learned a lot about China, that's for sure. But this book was very hard to read because of all its details and names. Only two of us completed the book in a month.