Good translation, well written. The characters were well-rounded. Nicely balanced, showing both the Chinese and American experience in WWII-era China. However, although the three "narrators" are male, much of the plot was driven forward by graphic sexual violence towards women, with no purpose but to propel the men's stories forward - a trope I hate. I also hated that the story was all about a woman but we never once got to hear her voice: it was entirely told through three men's memories of her. In a way, it felt like the book itself was doing her further violence by silencing her. Overall, this was good historical fiction, but too dark and with too much gratuitous suffering for my taste.

There are multiple scenes of rape and sexual assault in the book, some of which are graphic.