Review of Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream

By Amy Bloom

This extraordinary first novel combines originality, humor, satire and warmth as it skillfully juxtaposes two cultures and a fascinating set of characters.

Chai, his beautiful young wife, Ding, and their daughter are Chinese Americans living a comfortable suburban lifestyle.  But we quickly learn that there is much more to this picture as we see glimpses of Chai's earlier life when he risked death swimming from mainland China to Hong Kong.

There, a bit of luck and his won good nature enable Chai to find a banking job and a mentor.  A compatible relationship with a young woman seems to secure Chai's happiness until he learns Selina is merely passing time until she receives permission to leave the country and rejoin her fiancé in America.

The adult Chai of the novel is a successful bank executive who has spent years of studying and working to achieve his goal.  Banking is not his only interest, however.  He is fascinated with the English language and American history, often pursuing single subjects with an almost maniacal intensity.

When his latest interest in the live and frugal philosophy of the late President Calvin Coolidge intensifies, Chai drags his family to Coolidge's humble New England birthplace.

Then, by coincidence, Chai learns that Selina is living near, and forsaking all the Coolidge maxims he so admires, Chai attempts to renew a romance after a 20-year absence.

But his resourceful wife pulls a few Coolidge tricks of her own, which succeed in drawing Chai back to hearth and home.

Englishman John Derbyshire, who spent years in China, has written a novel with a smooth plot line enhanced by Chai's memories of his early life as a member of the Red Guard in China.  His youthful observations of the brutality of Mao's Cultural Revolution naively emphasize the horror of the times.  Derbyshire is a fresh talent worth watching.