The Dance of the Spirits
Catherine Aerie, 2013
Aurora Press
335 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780989690928 (print)
9780989690911 (ebook)
Summary
A youthful US army lieutenant and a female Chinese surgeon from opposing fronts of the Korean War are forced to endure the hardship and the suffering around them as their fates intertwine. Through a chronicle of merciless battles, freezing winters, and the brutality and hypocrisy of human nature, the two find themselves weaving through the twists and turns of fate and destiny while in the pursuit of love and liberty.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—Shanghai, China
• Education—M.A., University of California, Irvine
• Currently—lives in southern California, USA
Catherine Aerie, a graduate from the University of California, Irvine with a master degree in finance, grew up in China as the daughter of a Shanghai architect. She was inspired to write The Dance of the Spirits while researching a family member’s role in the Korean War, deciding to revive an often neglected and overlooked setting in fiction and heighten the universality of resilient pursuit of love and liberty. Her debut novel was finished after about two years of research. She currently resides in southern California. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
During the Korean War, a young American officer is overwhelmed and captured, while a young female Chinese doctor struggles to heal the wounded in the Chinese Communist army. These two have several brief encounters with each other and eventually develop a love that is stronger than all the horrors that war can throw at them... believable and compelling...poignant, and her love with Wesley sensitive and beautiful... The story came to a satisfying (although emotional) conclusion and left me feeling thoughtful and more compassionate about those who endure the devastation of war.
San Francisco Book Reviews
Adversaries in the Korean War find love in Aerie's debut novel. The story starts in the middle of a firefight... Out of the rubble, two characters emerge: an American officer, Wesley Palm, and a Chinese military doctor, Jasmine Young. Their paths cross again and again.... Aerie keeps readers on their toes with the twists and balances her relatively weak portrayal of Communist hacks with fleeting but intense moments of camaraderie between grunts.... An often engaging tale of a flickering moment of love during a forgotten war.
Kirkus Reviews