Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: John Derbyshire
- First Published: 1996
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1970’s to the 1990’s
- Setting: The People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and New York
- Principal Characters: T. C. Chai, Ding Li, Selina Guo
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Parents and children, Communism or communists, Love or romance, Immigration or emigration, Fathers, Adultery, Death or dying, Capitalism, China or Chinese people
- Locales: New York, China, Hong Kong
Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream is John Derbyshire’s first novel. One of its themes is change, particularly as experienced by protagonist T. C. Chai as he exchanges his life as a Communist for that of a capitalist, and his life as a bachelor for that of a husband and father. The other theme of the novel is responsibility, which, in the Marxist milieu Chai comes from, leaves little room for the individual, and which in the democratic milieu he adopts can be easily discarded.
Chai’s life in China is one of loss and disillusion. His father is killed in the Korean War,...
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