A really well-written account of the brief period in which the author, as a young man, lived in Peking (now Beijing) when it was taken over the People's Liberation Army. Kidd was in a doubly difficult position at the time, being an American on an exchange programme, and recently married to a young Chinese woman of aristocratic family. Although the money and influence of Aimee's family is failing, Kidd still seems almost insulated from all but minor difficulty, and he and his wife eventually leave China (and her family) behind before things get really bad. Just how bad is seen in retrospect, when many decades later Kidd returns in epilogue, and how far his warm and loving family has fallen - and survives, still and in part - is made clear. Mostly this is just wrenchingly sad - the accounts of beauty and history that are wilfully destroyed seems wasteful and short-sighted at best.