Set during Taiwan's White Terror era, the book "tells the tragic story of three young Taiwanese people who become involved with an American journalist".

[1] Sympathetic to the Taiwanese people and deeply critical of Kuomintang rule, A Pail of Oysters was suppressed in the 1950s before gaining new life after the end of martial law in Taiwan.

"[2] Jonathan Benda, in his introduction to the 2016 edition of the book, argues that Sneider's novel intended "to make Americans think in particular about the regime they supported in Taiwan, but more generally about what the U.S. role in Asia should be".

[3] On release the book received positive critical reviews, but was banned in Taiwan and was attacked by the China Lobby in the United States.

[4] One academic familiar with the impact of the book commented in 2003 that "copies of A Pail of Oysters have disappeared from most libraries, probably on instructions issued to the student spies paid by the KMT to monitor Taiwanese on US college campuses".