Book: Red Azalea by Anchee Min

When I turned the first few pages, I thought it was just one of those books about Cultural Revolution. But it is not simply so. It depicts in a very personal way the struggles of the young women living and working on a military farm away from their home city, and how two of them found ways to explore and express their growing sense of emotional and physical needs in a time anything sensual was forbidden.When Anchee was fortunate enough to be picked for a leading acting role in a movie orchestrated by Madame Mao, she only found herself in a different type of struggles...until one day she came to US.