The Palest Ink. Kay
Bratt. Lake Union Publishing. October 2015. 416 pp. ISBN#: 9781503946169.
Mao
Tse-Tung is at a crossroads in China in the year 1966. His original plan to increase agricultural
output has been a disaster and stories about brutality, starvation and disease
travel like lightning despite efforts to curtail dissension and
negativity. Three young Chinese
students, Benfu, Pony Boy and Wen, are divided in their loyalty to Mao. However, little by little, a transformation
occurs in their devotion, an evolution in which they believe they must publish
the abuses and brutalities being committed by Mao’s notorious Red Guard, a
group of supporters who become Mao’s arm of accusation and compliance. The latter discover they have power and they
carry out that formidable opportunity with terror and death. Benfu, Pony Bok and Wen carry out a plan to
reveal this travesty of progress but the consequences will be phenomenal and
costly.
Benfu
is a talented violin player who comes from a distinguished family. His mother is constantly monitoring his every
move and her demands are almost paranoid in her efforts to preserve and guard
the “family honor” and social status they have worked so hard to possess. Benfu is becoming a man and so finds his
mother’s efforts to control him unbearable.
His only consolation is the time he spends with his best friend, Pony
Boy.
Tragedy
worsens Pony Boy’s status as a poor young man.
When his father becomes ill, Pony Boy must work long, long hours just to
allow his family to retain their home and have meager meals to survive. Pony Boy after turning from an ardent
Communist realizes Mao is repressing and brutalizing his people during the
period when all high status Chinese people are being purged and reeducated. Pony Boy and Benfu plan a publication that
will expose all that is wrong with Mao’s plans and actual realities.
Benfu
and Pony Boy will fall in love with women they respect, independent,
strong-minded women who are willing to testify to the travesties of justice now
rampant throughout China. Benfu is sent
to escape to the country to escape the Red Guard’s investigations into wealthy
families but that country journey is one of working on a collective farm in
which self-criticism and judgment by others is a constant threat to life and
limb. Pony Boy continues their efforts
while Benfu works and suffers.
Eventually their reunion will spark a final challenge that is
breathtaking in its fierce challenge and involve some other very special
characters.
The Palest Ink is a potent, beautiful story about
resistance and loyalty to friend, family and foe the reader will find hard to
forget. Its insistence that the written
word surpasses all memories proves significantly true about this particular,
significant historical period. The mission
of serving as a witness to history is valuable beyond words and so succeeds
beyond expectations. Very nicely
crafted, Kay Bratt!
No comments:
Post a Comment