My First Revolution

In My First Revolution, Winthrop Knowlton, a former publisher of Harper & Row, recounts his unusual passage into adulthood in China and in European countries still reeling from WWII. In 1948, at age 17, Knowlton and his high school friend Jim Thompson went to China to live with Jim's parents, missionaries in Nanking. The two friends traveled the areas of China not yet under Communist rule and were at one point separated by the war. After reuniting, they traveled by freighter to Europe, where they re-entered a relatively familiar social milieu. Anyone who went abroad in the middle of the century will enjoy this elegant little coming-of-age memoir. 30 b&w photos. (Nov.)