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Title details for Finding Iris Chang by Paula Kamen - Wait list

Finding Iris Chang

Friendship, Ambition and the Tragic Loss of an Extraordinary Mind

by Paula Kamen
Bernadette Dunne
Audiobook
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Iris Chang, best-selling author of The Rape of Nanking and tireless human-rights activist, symbolized strength to many in the literary and social justice worlds. Her fearlessness made it all the more shocking when she committed suicide in 2004 at age 36.

Long-time friend and confidante Paula Kamen, author of the critically acclaimed All in My Head, reveals for the first time the private Iris behind the bold international celebrity. She offers a tribute to the lost heroine while attempting to explain Iris's tragic psychological decline. Through letters, diaries, and her own memories and investigative journalism, Kamen fills in the surprising gaps in Chang's personal transformation, from awkward teen to world-class writer and lecturer, and finally into mental illness and paranoia. Finding Iris Chang is a portrait of a real, vulnerable woman who changed the world.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 9, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781483051048
      • File size: 313510 KB
      • Duration: 10:53:08

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 10, 2007
      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.

    • Library Journal

      May 15, 2008
      Kamen's biography examines the life of writer and historian Iris Chang ("The Rape of Nanking"), who, at age 36, committed suicide. Kamen, a friend of Chang's, questions whether Chang could separate herself from the atrocities about which she wrote. The author wonders what signs she missed concerning the depth of depression that prompted Chang to take her own life. She interviewed a wide range of people who knew Chang; her professors, friends, sorority sisters, and fellow journalists attested to Chang's intensity and perfectionism, her muckraking journalistic style, her craving for accomplishment, and her desire for others to take notice of her and her work. Overall, Bernadette Dunne is a capable narrator, save for a mispronunciation of "Illini," in reference to Chang's writing for "The Daily Illini" newspaper at the University of Illinois. Not an easy work to listen to given the gravity of the subject matter, "Finding Iris Chang" is an important exploration of the fine line between genius and madness that afflicts so many exemplary writers. Recommended for larger public libraries. [Also available as downloadable audio from Audible.com.Ed.]Lisa Powell Williams, Moline P.L., IL

      Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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