Do not say we have nothing

a novel

473 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2016

ISBN:
978-0-393-60988-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
957522375

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4 stars (8 reviews)

"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 …

5 editions

Struggles and Sorrows

5 stars

It is a heavy read, following multiple generations of hardship and turmoil. There's a charm to the characters being connected through music, specifically classical music, but the music is also crucial to the plot development considering how the cultural revolution would redefine "the art of the people".

The storytelling is strong, so strong that I sometimes had to pause mid chapter to take a breath and introspect on my own life and my extended family. The author really is a master of historical fiction and the craft of this intricate novel is a marvel. I sometimes felt a bit too shaken around with the frequent jumps in the narrative timeline, but each section had its own life and I eventually learned to enjoy the dance.

Review of 'Do not say we have nothing' on Goodreads

5 stars

1) "By February, Ai-ming had been with us only two months, but it felt as if she had been there always. One night, I remember, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 came on the radio. Partway through the third movement, Ai-ming sat down and gazed into the speakers as if into the face of a person she knew. Even I, as young as I was, felt disturbed by the music and the emotions it communicated. Or perhaps this is all hindsight, because later, through the Book of Records, I learned that Shostakovich had written this symphony in 1937, at the height of Stalin's Terror when more than half a million people were executed, including some of Shostakovich's closest friends. Under terrible pressure, he composed the symphony's third movement, a largo that moved its audience to tears by restating and dismantling the theme of the first movement: what initially had seemed simple and …

Review of 'Do not say we have nothing' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A sweeping epic that tells the story of two families from 1950s China to present day Canada. The perspective jumps around between many different members of the families, though two of the main characters are Marie and Ai-Ming, whose fathers' friendship connect the two families. Through the experiences of the families and through a fictional story that becomes closely woven into the family's self-identity, the reader gains an understanding of what life was like in China under Chairman Mao and the communist party, culminating in a first-person view of the student massacre in Tiananmen Square in the 90s.

The historical details appear to be accurate and well researched, and the characters are generally interesting although I didn't find any of them truly grabbed me on a personal level. I found this slow reading at times, and the frequent jumps of perspective and timeline got confusing and a bit annoying in …

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Subjects

  • Social life and customs
  • Families
  • Intergenerational relations
  • Family Life
  • FICTION
  • FICTION / Family Life
  • Literary
  • Historical
  • Manners and customs
  • Fiction
  • FICTION / Historical
  • FICTION / Literary

Places

  • China

Lists