missed the May 18 meeting with Li Peng, which turned out to be the last meeting with the government. Shen's friend who attended the meeting told him that "we weren't prepared. It was too disorganized. It wasn't a dialogue; the two sides were just making statements at each other." This meeting was broadcast nationwide, which was what the "Dialogue Delegation" had desperately wanted to achieve for its last two meetings. Shen realized it was impossible to have a real dialogue with the government after the failure of the previous meetings. As a result, Shen spent the following days trying to persuade the hunger strikers to leave Tiananmen Square to avoid the possible military crackdown. At the end of the book, Shen provides a detailed portrayal of the June 4 military crackdown. Because his house was near the Tiananmen Square, he witnessed the death of many ordinary citizens. Shen escaped China with the help from a group of influential people he had met during the movement. Reception Shen Tong's book received many positive responses. Patricia Dorff, who was the associate editor at Foreign Affairs magazine editing articles on the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, believes that after many books written by Western journalists, Almost a Revolution "provides a much needed insider's account of the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre." Dorff further states that Shen Tong's book "reinforces the argument, contrary to Chinese government assertions, that the prodemocracy movement was spontaneous and unplanned." Judy Polumbaum calls Almost a Revolution "an honest book." Polumbaum suggested that "Shen Tong is frank about his own self-centered quest for identity, understanding, and love, and his oftentimes aimless or impulsive political movements; and he is candid about the flaws and failings of the movement." One critic of the book, Judith Shapiro, suggested that the book is "frustratingly thin on description and analysis of the movement itself." Shapiro also wrote that "unlike the engaging account of Mr. Shen's youth, the second half of the book is often tedious." References Sources External links Booknotes interview with Shen Tong on Almost a Revolution, December 16, 1990 1990 non-fiction books Books about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre Houghton Mifflin books Chinese autobiographies