Guyette received a bachelor's degree in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh and is a longtime journalist. In this essay, Guyette discusses how Lee is able to combine the story of a nontraditional romance with a sweeping historical backdrop to create a somber assessment of the dark side of love.

By any measure, the novel Farewell My Concubine by Lilian Lee is a nontraditional love story. Few mainstream novelists have dared to create a plot that revolves around a romance involving two men. Even today, homosexuality is still considered by many to be taboo subject. As Lee writes, "their story is not that simple. When one man loves another, it can't be simple." But, she could just as well have said the same thing about love in general. As this story shows, it is a complicated emotion no matter who is involved. Certainly, it is much...