The Communist's Daughter is a war-time novel by Canadian author Dennis Bock. Set mostly in Spain and China during the 1930s, the story is told through letters written by a doctors to a daughter he's never met.
Reviews on Goodreads are mixed. Some reviewers complain about the slow pace and the pretentiousness of the narrator, while other praise his "gorgeous writing." One reviewer from 2007, calling himself Billy, refers to the novel as an "Achingly beautiful and complicated portrayal of non-romantic idealism and political commitment, and the demands they make on one's humanity, with the extremes of war as a backdrop." I couldn't agree with this statement more.
The characters in The Communist's Daughter are just barely likable, but this book is not about the characters so much as it is about the politics and moral dilemmas of the time period, so that's okay. I came to like the characters precisely because they were so flawed and unlikable. I felt sorry for them, plagued by their weakness, and carried along by events beyond their control.
I would definitely recommend this book, but if you do pick it up, don't expect a thriller or a story about bloody battles. This is a novel about the people on the sidelines of wars, trying to live and struggling to carve out their own space in inhospitable places.
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