Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Ratings15
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings15
Average rating3.9
"In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old."Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story. Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming's father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli, were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China's political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences.
Reviews with the most likes.
Had a hard time with the writing style. It felt quite stilted and didn't grip me emotionally. Too many characters introduced too quickly and they didn't feel like real people.
A multigenerational story of family, loss, music, politics and revolutions, told in a layered and cyclic way, resembling the rewriting and reworking of music and literature, as it is present in the plot of the novel. The title is a line of a Chinese left-wing anthem, and the story unfolds across the devastating times of the Great Chinese Famine, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the deadly student protests at Tienanmen Square. Family members and lovers are separated, and everyone's life is in general made worse by the oppression of the Party. It was upsetting to learn about “struggle sessions”, mandatory denunciations and self-criticism practice. But there's also a love for music that gives the characters hope, a purpose and helps them form deep bonds. All the love stories (the obvious or less obvious ones) were told gentle and with great care. The writing is splendid and it's really quite the sweeping saga, with a very political heart.
