Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 23

4 Siss to 1985 7B DETROIT FREE PRESSSUNDAY, MARCH 10, Real-life Tl 1 OcIIelvey ynasty is oackeAswith drama Madame ii H.H. Kung 0 (Ai ling Soong) Madame its Chiang Kai-shek (May-ling Soong) Madame bun rat-sen (Ching-ling Soong) I ill I Free Press artwork by MARTHA THIERRY The Soong Dynasty By Sterling Seagrave Harper Row, 532 pages, $22.50 Review by Joe Miller i I Short story still lives; women writers celebrate Probably the healthiest corpse in literature these days is the short story, that oft-maligned form of fiction that many literati keep trying to pass off as dead and buried. 'Well, as Mark Twain would say, an obituary for the short story is decidedly premature. Not only has the short story climbed out of the grave, it has done so with such vigor that publishers who once were solemnly declaring "short stories do not sell" now are scrambling to see who can bring out the most prestigious anthologies. Collections of short fiction, which a few years ago were almost non-existent, now comprise one-fourth of all new fiction being published.

Quality as well as quantity also has become a factor. The publishing world suddenly is showering the short story with prizes. A collection of short stories won the 1984 American Book Award for fiction. The National Book Critics Circle bestowed its award for fiction on Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine," a book of short fiction disguised as a novel. (The people at Doubleday who pass out short-story awards weren't fooled by the "novel" designation: They included one of the chapters of "Love Medicine" in their famous "Prize Stories 1985: The 0.

Henry WITH A short-story renaissance, if not a full-scale revolution, in evidence, it seems reasonable to ask just what advantage the short story holds over the fullblown novel. The best explanation, I think, came from Frank O'Connor, the author-lecturer-critic, who once wrote that the short story reveals truth "in a way that the novel (even) with its wider canvas cannot achieve." In his outstanding study of the short story, called "The Lonely Voice" (Harper O'Connor made the point that "The short story, like the novel, is a modern art form; that is to say, it represents, better than poetry or drama, cjur own attitude to life." With all this hullabaloo over a short-story revival, the Detroit Women Writers decided it would be appropriate to celebrate their 85th anniversary with a Short Story Symposium, co-sponsored by Friends of the Detroit Public Library. The symposium runs for two days, April 19-20, at ling married Sun Yat-sen and remained loyal to his ideals long after his death. May-ling married Chiang Kai-shek and became extremely popular in America Madame Chiang: smooth, glamorous, cunning. Charlie's sons were T.V.

Soong, T.L. Soong, and T.A. Soong. T.V. played a major role in history as Chiang Kai-shek's moneyman.

Along the way he accumulated a fortune and was once known as the richest man in the world. T.L. and T.A. played lesser roles. The Soongs, said Harry Truman, were "all thieves, every damn one of them." The supporting cast in the "The Soong Dynasty" includes Henry Luce, the Time-Life magnate who was captivated by the Chiang gang and helped sell it to the American public; Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers; Gen.

"Vinegar Joe" Stilwell; and, of course, FDR and the world figures of the time. And pulling strings behind the scene was Big-eared Tu, boss of the Chinese Mafia known as the Green Gang. A crony of Chiang, he was ugly, lascivious, brutal, and into vice of any kind. OK, here's the story line for our new prime-time soap. There's this Chinese kid who makes his way to America.

He is befriended and educated, then returns to China as a Now he's a real go-getter and he founds a publishing house to print Bibles, makes a fortune, and fathers three daughters and three sons. Mainly, this is the story of his kids, and it involves narcotics, thievery, murder, power struggles, torture, kinky sex, international intrigue, world leaders, and a little bit of idealism not much, just a little. We'll call it "Shanghai." It will knock the socks off "Dallas." Too improbable, you say? The public will never buy something so wild? Yeah, guess you're right Should we tone it down? Not if it's the story of Charlie Soong and the impact he and his children and their in-laws had on the history of China and the history of U.S. relations with China. Perhaps one shouldn't talk of a serious and important work like "The Soong Dynasty" in such light terms.

But this is an eye-popper of a book, highly readable and sure to stir up controversy. THE AUTHOR, Sterling Seagrave, grew up on the China-Burma border. His father, Dr. Gordon Seagrave was author of "Burma Surgeon." In "The Soong Sterling Seagrave pulls together the many threads of the Soong family history to weave a sordid tapestry of money and immense power power that affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Seagrave puts it this way: "Few families since the Borgias have played such a disturbing role in human destiny." How did the Soongs do this? With whom did they play their deadly games? Charlie Soong, the entrepreneur whose Bible-publishing spawned a widespread industrial empire, was the financial This story involves narcotics, thievery, murder, power struggles, torture, kinky sex, international intrigue, world leaders, and a little hit of idealism.

backer of Sun Yat-sen, the impractical revolutionary who had some ideals highly changeable ones and was out to overthrow the despotic ruling Manchus in the early 1900s. Charlie's daughters were Ai-ling, Ching-ling, and May-ling. Ai-ling was a shrewd financial manipulator who married H.H. Kung, whose pawnbroking and money-lending empire led him to become China's finance minister. Ching- "THE SOONG Dynasty" paints Chiang and most of the Soongs (Ching-ling being an exception) as incredibly vicious and corrupt.

They are also described as incredibly clever in their manipulation of America's politicians and public through the famous (infamous?) China Lobby. Those who still picture Chiang as a towering World War II figure who was tragically driven from his own country by evil Communist forces will no doubt quarrel with this book. But Seagrave has done an immense amount of research and a masterful job of writing. Most will agree with his solid assessment of the Soong clan. "The Soong Dynasty" has 16 pages of black-and-white pictures, an extensive notes section, and an index.

Joe Miller is a retired Free Press news editor and a free-lance reviewer. A the Detroit Public Library, and features the efforts of an impressive array of literary talent, much of it from Michigan. Among the speakers, panelists and readers will be Alan Cheuse Janet Kauffman in the World a Woman Could Max Apple Orang-ing of and Nancy Wil-lard Invisible to Participants also will hear a reading by Stuart Dybek, a Western Stuart Dybek Adolescent is braced by an older woman Michigan University teacher who won first prize in the "Prize Stories 1985: The 0. Henry Awards" for his touching tale of suffering, "Hot Ice." The Finishing School By Gail Godwin Viking, 322 pages, $16.95. Review by Sue Yeager EAGER WRITERS those who, like Ray Bradbury, have been "hit and run over by a short story" have a chance to compete for glory and a $500 first prize.

The deadline for entries in a fiction writing contest is April 1. You can obtain a brochure containing complete symposium-contest information by calling 313-833-4048 between 9 and 5 weekdays, or by writing the Friends of the Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward, Detroit, Mich. 48202. of mundanity, she becomes consumed with her admiration for the older woman, not knowing that her obsession will eventually cayse Ursula's 'downfall. The tragic end to their relationship doesn't dim Ursula's brightest lesson, however: One must beware of "congealment," she says.

"If you ever feel it coming, you must do something quickly. The best antidote I have found is to yearn for something. As long as you yearn) you can't congeal: there is a forward motion to yearning." In an earlier novel, "A Mother and Two Daughters," and her short story collection, "Mr. Bedford and the Muses," Gail Godwin's witty and intelligent look at the changing lives of women established her as one of the more thoughtful women writers. While many were lashing out with foul mouths and fangs bared, Godwin was polishing her skills and proving that the women's novel could have great power and still behave like a lady.

i 1 i J' Gail Godwin, author of "The Finishing School," also has written other novels looking at the changing lives of women. booh notes In this smartly-paced, gently moving story Justin Stokes, a 44-year-old actress, thinks back to the events of her 14th summer, a sad time when her father and grandparents have died and she has been forced to leave a beloved home in the South and move with her mother and little brother to an aunt's house in rural upstate New York. Young Justin's sense of loss is compounded by the grayness of the northern suburb and the dreary conventionality of its IBM people. But she meets a remarkable middle-aged woman named Ursula DeVane, who becomes her mentor and inspiration. In their special meeting place, a crumbling old stone hut by a country pond, which Ursula dubs "The Finishing School," Justin is enchanted with Ursula's colorful world of fantasy and imagination, fine art and emotion.

Rescued from the grip Sue Yeager is Free Press assistant features editorgraphics. Photos focus on reading Candid camera: The Friends of the Detroit Public Library is sponsoring a contest for amateur photographers. Entries must emphasize the importance of reading in American life. Entry deadline is April 2. For details, call Dorothy Manty, 833-4043 9:30 a.m.

to 5 p.m. A second look: Indiana University Press is reprinting in April "A Weave of Women" and "Her Mothers," outstanding novels about women by Esther Broner, a Wayne State University professor. Whose side was this Senate aide on? Finai Week! Detroit's best-sellers 39 Detroit U.S. Previous Current Week Week FICTION The Armageddon Network By Michael Saba Amana Books, 288 pages, $17.50 hardcover; $9.95 paper Review by Marshall Swanson Michael Saba writes that in 1978 he overheard a conversation in a Washington coffee shop in which a Senate committee staff member offered to procure a sensitive Pentagon document for an Israeli official. In his efforts to get the incident publicized and investigated further, Saba says he received co-operation from lower-level officials but was generally thwarted by higher-ups.

He conducted his own investigation when his affairs permitted he was "President of a North Dakota company promoting international trade." Saba soon discovered, as he describes of influential people in and close to government who were so devoted to Israeli causes that their loyalty to the United States was, to put it mildly, The Senate staffer, Stephen Bryen, went on to become a deputy assistant secretary of defense. Bryen, frequently in association with his boss, Richard Perle, an assistant secretary, is the focus of the book. Saba is persuasive when he argues that Bryen's activities merited a thorough investigation and public airing. He is less so when he argues that Bryen and Perle have managed to pervert American foreign policy to serve their own (and Israel's) ends by gaining control of the bureaucratic machinery that regulates the export of U.S. technology.

Nevertheless, we need not buy Saba's thesis to realize that he would not have a book at all if he were not dealing with an important matter: the blurring of loyalties that occurs when persons in government dealing with a problem identify too thoroughly with persons who are, in effect, part of the problem. Marshall Swanson is a Free Press copy editor. Cleans any; single no matter how cushions. 1 1 9 2 2 3 3 4 4 6 6 5 5 7 10 7 8 8 10 9 1. If Tomorrow Comes Sheldon 2.

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Author Anita Desai writes movingly of Deven's slide into despair: "A closer familiarity with the poet had shown him that what he thought of as 'the wider world' was an illusion too it was only a kind of zoo in which he could not hope to find freedom, he would only blunder into another cage inhabited by some other trapped animal." But she has more than sculpted a tale of empty hopes and the skimpy returns from a life invested in pure art. It is a finely shaped, carefully plotted exploration of the breathless despairs and wild hopes that pump lifejnto this world's dreamers. Stephen Franklin is a Free Press staff writer. Stripped of its pompous ring, the argument comes down to this: Is there a truly literary life? No simple answers are allowed here. For this is the gist of dreams large and small, the footprints of a zillion literary characters, among them Deven, a stifled middle-aged Hindu lecturer in a small private college near New Delhi.

He is an unrecognized poet with an unquenched love for his native language, Urdu, a miserably paid instructor stuck on temporary status in a dusty, small-minded college and, to boot, an unfulfilled husband. What could fje worse? Along comes a chance to interview and record ADVICE HOW TO 1.. Weight Watchers Quick Start Program Cookbook Nidetch 4 1 2. Nothing Down Allen 3 4 3. Women Coming of Age Fonda, McCarthy 1 2 4.

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