China Mountain Zhang

This book imagines a future with China ascendant and America in the wake of a socialist revolution. About half of the chapters follow our protagonist, China Mountain Zhang, while the other half follow various other characters. Some side characters get multiple chapters, some only one, and their stories overlap to varying degrees with Zhang's. To me this is mostly a story about people trying to make a life on the margins of society.

All of these concepts sound really interesting - but I found myself having difficulty getting really engaged with the story. The world building is really cool but maybe had one too many ideas - while the plot line(s) just fell a little flat. I also felt like the book was trying to make Big Points about socialism v capitalism and I wound up not really caring enough to figure them out. It may not help that this was published in 1992 and just feels dated.

I'm not mad that I read this, but it won't be something I'm going to be recommending a lot to others.