Eileen Chang's short story "Lust, Caution" subtly but brilliantly mixes "big picture" themes (country, revolution, sacrifice) with the personal (love, lust). Wang Chia-chih is a beautiful young woman, planted by an inexperienced student group to seduce Mr. Yee, a powerful figure in the collaborationist government in Japanese-controlled WWII Shanghai. Does she end up falling in love with him? What is real and what is false, and who actually treated her well? These questions call out from Chang's sparse, elegant prose which very much evokes the period. I loved Ang Lee's more fleshed out film adaptation as well.
This short story pacts a lot of plot into a very small number of pages, but it is undeniably engaging and ultimately very heartbreaking. Set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai of the mid 1900s, the story is one of intrigue, espionage, and sex, and involves the main character literally having to fall in love with an enemy man in order to kill him. The film version of this story, one of my all-time favorite movies, benefits from having a rather long running time, but this short story by Eileen Chang is truly one of the best-written shorts I've ever read. A smoothly written tale with high stakes and heartrending drama.
