Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.
DDC/MDS
| 813/.6 |
Description
"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.… (more)
Media reviews
Skillfully and elliptically told..At times, however, the ambitious scope of this novel bogs down its writing, sometimes feeling like a history lesson in disguise. Dialogue is weighed down by background information, with unnatural monologues whose prime purpose is historical exposition. Here,
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Thien’s writing loses the subtlety and elegance for which she has become known, and I found myself yearning for the more streamlined approach she took in Dogs at the Perimeter, a novel equally far-reaching in scope but focused on fewer characters and subplots.
Nevertheless, there are many sections of Do Not Say We Have Nothing that show Thien at the height of her abilities...With unflinching clarity, Thien examines the strange, frightening psychology of mass violence in this period and how countless lives were lost as a result. It falls to music, art and literature to salvage fleeting moments of beauty from the ruins of history, the lives of the dead. Show Less
Do Not Say We Have Nothing cements Madeleine Thien as one of Canada’s most talented novelists... Although ostensibly a historical novel about two of the most significant moments in recent Chinese history, Thien has written a supple epic about that which remains behind after each new beginning. Do
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Not Say We Have Nothing is thoroughly researched but without the burden of trivia, both riveting and lyrical. I’m reminded of a few words from the American poet Lyn Hejinian: “And we love detail, because every detail supersedes the universal.” Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member charl08
I'm going to be pushing this book to friends. Tracing two families, in particular through the friendship of Kai, Sparrow and Zhuli, through the civil war, the cultural revolution, the Tiananmen Square protests and the liberalisation of China. It sweeps across China and beyond, as exiles are sent to
"He watched the lowlands disappear, giving way to higher altitude and drier winds. Quilts were unrolled, thermoses opened and whips of steam plaited together and curled into the night sky. Sparrow slept under the protection of stars and a half moon..."
In case this sounds too worthy - it made me laugh as well. Unlike other stories with a contemporary narrator, I genuinely felt the connection and relevance of Marie's story too, united by a samizdat story circulated around China hand to hand.
"I leaned over the notebook and stared at the gathering of words. Chinese characters tracked down the page like animal prints in the snow.
"It's a story," Ma said.
"Oh. What kind of story?"
"I think it's a novel. There's an adventurer named Da-Wei who sets sail to America and a heroine named May Fourth who walks across the Gobi Desert..."
I stated harder but the words remained unreadable.
"There was a time when people copied out entire books by hand," Ma said. "The Russians called it samizdat, the Chinese called it...well, I don't think we have a name. Look how dirty this notebook is, there's even bits of grass on it. Goodness knows how many people carried it all over the place....it's decades older than you Li-Ling. "
I wondered: What wasn't?"
In choosing to focus on a musical family the author has been able to ask all sorts of questions about what you do when the thing that makes you you is banned, or you are told you have to do a different job. And the characters all have different responses, which feels real too.
"...the music had no beginning, it persisted, whether she was there or not, awake or not, aware or sleeping. She had accepted it all her life, but lately, she had begun to wonder what purpose it served. Prokofiev, Bach and Old Bei occupied the space that the Party, the nation and Chairman Mao occupied for others. Why was this? How had she been made differently? After her parents had been taken away from Bingpai, she had been cut into an entirely different person.
There was a man limping across the park, one hand holding a rip in his shirt, as if this unsightliness bothered him more than the blood that ran down his face."
(Do I need to say I want this one to win the Booker? )
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the far reaches of this enormous country, as well as encompassing the experiences of change in the almost unrecognisable cities. As well as the horror of the actions of the revolutionary guard there is also joy, such as shared company on the top of a bus, squashed in with other students."He watched the lowlands disappear, giving way to higher altitude and drier winds. Quilts were unrolled, thermoses opened and whips of steam plaited together and curled into the night sky. Sparrow slept under the protection of stars and a half moon..."
In case this sounds too worthy - it made me laugh as well. Unlike other stories with a contemporary narrator, I genuinely felt the connection and relevance of Marie's story too, united by a samizdat story circulated around China hand to hand.
"I leaned over the notebook and stared at the gathering of words. Chinese characters tracked down the page like animal prints in the snow.
"It's a story," Ma said.
"Oh. What kind of story?"
"I think it's a novel. There's an adventurer named Da-Wei who sets sail to America and a heroine named May Fourth who walks across the Gobi Desert..."
I stated harder but the words remained unreadable.
"There was a time when people copied out entire books by hand," Ma said. "The Russians called it samizdat, the Chinese called it...well, I don't think we have a name. Look how dirty this notebook is, there's even bits of grass on it. Goodness knows how many people carried it all over the place....it's decades older than you Li-Ling. "
I wondered: What wasn't?"
In choosing to focus on a musical family the author has been able to ask all sorts of questions about what you do when the thing that makes you you is banned, or you are told you have to do a different job. And the characters all have different responses, which feels real too.
"...the music had no beginning, it persisted, whether she was there or not, awake or not, aware or sleeping. She had accepted it all her life, but lately, she had begun to wonder what purpose it served. Prokofiev, Bach and Old Bei occupied the space that the Party, the nation and Chairman Mao occupied for others. Why was this? How had she been made differently? After her parents had been taken away from Bingpai, she had been cut into an entirely different person.
There was a man limping across the park, one hand holding a rip in his shirt, as if this unsightliness bothered him more than the blood that ran down his face."
(Do I need to say I want this one to win the Booker? )
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LibraryThing member lit_chick
“’A life can be long or short but inside it, if we’re lucky, is this one opening … I looked through this window and made my own idea of the universe and maybe it was wrong. I don’t know anymore, I never stopped loving my country but I wanted to be loyal to something else, too.’”
Vancouver, 1991: Ten-year-old Marie and her mother have invited a guest into their home: Ai-Ming, a young woman who has fled China following the protests in Tiananmen Square. Ai-Ming tells Marie the story of her family in Revolutionary China – from Mao Zedong’s ascent to power, to the Cultural Revolution, and finally to the events leading to Beijing demonstrations of 1989.
China (Shanghai/Beijing) 1950s-1989: Three musicians – the genius composer Sparrow; his ethereal cousin and talented violinst Zhuli; and their best friend, the enigmatic and headstrong Kai, a gifted pianist – study at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s. Through Mao’s Cultural Revolution, they struggle, each in their own way, to remain loyal to the China they love, to each other, and to the music they have devoted their lives to. As the relentless denunciations and humiliations of contemporary society force them to re-invent both their private and their artistic selves, their decisions and their fates will reverberate through the years – and have deep and lasting consequences for both Marie and Ai-Ming.
It’s no surprise that Do Not Say We Have Nothing is sweeping the literary prize world. The novel is hauntingly intimate as well as historically ambitious – and beautifully written. For one who knew so little of Revolutionary China, I put this book down feeling better informed as well as fulfilled by a remarkable story. Thien’s characters – and the lives they lived in Revolutionary China – are unforgettable. My single suggestion for improvement is that a more ruthless editor might have made the novel a somewhat shorter one. But Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a highly recommended read! I will be following Thien to see what she does next.
_______________
Most Powerful Quote: on the emotional distance between people, even family, who survived Revolutionary China:
“People lost one another. You could be sent five thousand kilometres away, with no hope of coming back. Everyone had so many people like this in their lives, people who had been sent away … You couldn’t live against the reality of the time but it was still possible to keep your private dreams, only they had to stay that way, intensely, powerfully private. You had to keep something for yourself, and to do that, you had to turn away from reality. It’s hard to explain if you didn’t grow up here. People simply didn’t have the right to live where they wanted, to love who they wanted, to do the work they wanted. Everything was decided by the Party.” (417)
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(260)Vancouver, 1991: Ten-year-old Marie and her mother have invited a guest into their home: Ai-Ming, a young woman who has fled China following the protests in Tiananmen Square. Ai-Ming tells Marie the story of her family in Revolutionary China – from Mao Zedong’s ascent to power, to the Cultural Revolution, and finally to the events leading to Beijing demonstrations of 1989.
China (Shanghai/Beijing) 1950s-1989: Three musicians – the genius composer Sparrow; his ethereal cousin and talented violinst Zhuli; and their best friend, the enigmatic and headstrong Kai, a gifted pianist – study at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s. Through Mao’s Cultural Revolution, they struggle, each in their own way, to remain loyal to the China they love, to each other, and to the music they have devoted their lives to. As the relentless denunciations and humiliations of contemporary society force them to re-invent both their private and their artistic selves, their decisions and their fates will reverberate through the years – and have deep and lasting consequences for both Marie and Ai-Ming.
It’s no surprise that Do Not Say We Have Nothing is sweeping the literary prize world. The novel is hauntingly intimate as well as historically ambitious – and beautifully written. For one who knew so little of Revolutionary China, I put this book down feeling better informed as well as fulfilled by a remarkable story. Thien’s characters – and the lives they lived in Revolutionary China – are unforgettable. My single suggestion for improvement is that a more ruthless editor might have made the novel a somewhat shorter one. But Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a highly recommended read! I will be following Thien to see what she does next.
_______________
Most Powerful Quote: on the emotional distance between people, even family, who survived Revolutionary China:
“People lost one another. You could be sent five thousand kilometres away, with no hope of coming back. Everyone had so many people like this in their lives, people who had been sent away … You couldn’t live against the reality of the time but it was still possible to keep your private dreams, only they had to stay that way, intensely, powerfully private. You had to keep something for yourself, and to do that, you had to turn away from reality. It’s hard to explain if you didn’t grow up here. People simply didn’t have the right to live where they wanted, to love who they wanted, to do the work they wanted. Everything was decided by the Party.” (417)
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LibraryThing member vancouverdeb
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, short listed for the 2016 Book and also on the Canadian Giller Prize Longlist 2016.
This is a fairly dense read about three generations. The story opens in Vancouver BC in 1990 but we are quickly transported back to China, and taken through the civil
This is a powerful and enlightening read about the violence and brutality of China during these times, as well as a very personal look into each character's lives. There is much courage among those who lived through the times.
The story is dense and involves many characters, while taking us on a very intimate journey through China during those turbulent times.
A wonderful story, from which I learned much about China. I did find it a challenge to keep track of the many characters and how they were related, and I also felt that at times, the story could have been tightened up by a good editor.
Overall, a 4 star read . I'll be happy if it wins the Booker or Giller, but do be aware that at times you will feel as though you are slogging along through many pages and furiously creating charts about the relationships between the characters.
Recommended. 4 stars .A powerful and worthwhile read.
This is a fairly dense read about three generations. The story opens in Vancouver BC in 1990 but we are quickly transported back to China, and taken through the civil
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war, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tienanmen massacre and forward to the start of the liberalization of China. The story is told through two intertwined families, but focuses mainly on three different characters, all of them gifted musicians. Sparrow is a shy, but accomplished composer, Kai a masterful pianist ,and Zhuli a talented violist. All three teach or attend the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, in the 1960's, during the Cultural Revolution. The trio try to remain together, but the forces of the revolution pull them apart.This is a powerful and enlightening read about the violence and brutality of China during these times, as well as a very personal look into each character's lives. There is much courage among those who lived through the times.
The story is dense and involves many characters, while taking us on a very intimate journey through China during those turbulent times.
A wonderful story, from which I learned much about China. I did find it a challenge to keep track of the many characters and how they were related, and I also felt that at times, the story could have been tightened up by a good editor.
Overall, a 4 star read . I'll be happy if it wins the Booker or Giller, but do be aware that at times you will feel as though you are slogging along through many pages and furiously creating charts about the relationships between the characters.
Recommended. 4 stars .A powerful and worthwhile read.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Do Not Say We Have Nothing traces the impact of China's political revolutions on two families from the mid-20th century to the present day. Marie, the daughter of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver, begins her story in 1989, with her father's death. The story reaches back in time to the Cultural
The book's recurring themes include music, mathematics, Chinese characters and their shades of meaning, the social and psychological effects of the lack of self-determination, familial duty, love, and friendship. The first section covering the end of the Communist Revolution through the first years of the Cultural Revolution is the strongest part of the book. The characters are well rounded and the physical setting is vivid. The second half that centers on the events of Tiananmen Square isn't as sharply focused, and Ai-ming is not as fully developed as the other major characters in the book. Perhaps that's intentional, though. As a child of the Cultural Revolution, her life has always been controlled by the state. The well-deserved attention this book has received from major literary prize committees has it poised to become Thien's breakthrough novel.
This review is based on electronic advance reader copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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Revolution, when Marie's father, Kai, was a student at a Shanghai music conservatory. His life intertwined with that of Sparrow, a composer and professor at the conservatory, and Sparrow's cousin, Zhuli, another student at the conservatory. The three are separated when the events of the revolution catch up to them. The story continues with Sparrow's daughter, Ai-ming, and her aspirations of attending a Beijing university. The student protests at Tiananmen Square change the direction of her life. A mysterious Book of Records provides a link from the past to the present.The book's recurring themes include music, mathematics, Chinese characters and their shades of meaning, the social and psychological effects of the lack of self-determination, familial duty, love, and friendship. The first section covering the end of the Communist Revolution through the first years of the Cultural Revolution is the strongest part of the book. The characters are well rounded and the physical setting is vivid. The second half that centers on the events of Tiananmen Square isn't as sharply focused, and Ai-ming is not as fully developed as the other major characters in the book. Perhaps that's intentional, though. As a child of the Cultural Revolution, her life has always been controlled by the state. The well-deserved attention this book has received from major literary prize committees has it poised to become Thien's breakthrough novel.
This review is based on electronic advance reader copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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LibraryThing member Bostonseanachie
This Booker prize short listed novel is a story of fragments and shards, stops and starts, texts and copies, mathematics and unfinished symphonies and words with dual meanings. Ostensibly, this is the tale of several related families set in and around the cultural revolution in China, but also
In some ways, Thien's writing is unconventional with quick shifts of point of view. In others, it is quite conventional, and symbols hit you on the head like cartoon anvils. However, the novel grew on me, as the restrained passions (even at times passivity) of the characters acquired over time a narrative momentum and quiet emotional charge. Terror, denunciations, humiliations, beatings, false confessions, disappearances, vicious mobs, and wasted lives are part and parcel of this novel, so it is no easy read, but there are survivors and there are heroes and a host of well-drawn secondary characters.
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springing forward to Tiananmen Square in 1989 and Canada in the early 90s. It describes the struggles in particular of Sparrow, a talented composer, who--in order to preserve his family--destroys his own work and is put to laboring in a factory (and dreaming of a perfect silence). It also describes his lover-in-all-but-physical-deed Kai, who has a “purer” peasant family history and a quicker turn to the Red Guard and thus prospers as a musician in Beijing despite the revolution, yet loses his soul.In some ways, Thien's writing is unconventional with quick shifts of point of view. In others, it is quite conventional, and symbols hit you on the head like cartoon anvils. However, the novel grew on me, as the restrained passions (even at times passivity) of the characters acquired over time a narrative momentum and quiet emotional charge. Terror, denunciations, humiliations, beatings, false confessions, disappearances, vicious mobs, and wasted lives are part and parcel of this novel, so it is no easy read, but there are survivors and there are heroes and a host of well-drawn secondary characters.
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline Thien is a multi-generational novel about the Chinese Cultural Revolution and afterwards that puts all other multi-generational novels to shame. It's really good, combining wonderful and vibrant character studies with excellent writing and story structure.
Marie is a girl living Vancouver, Canada, with her mother, her father having returned to China and committed suicide, when they are joined by Ai-ming, a college student fleeing China in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square. She leaves them to go to the US in hopes of being granted asylum and Marie never sees her again. In adulthood, Marie undertakes a search for Ai-ming, who may have returned to China. As her search goes on, the story is told of how Ai-ming and Marie's family were connected and goes further back to the story of Ai-ming's parents and grandparents, as they survive WWII, Mao's reign as dictator and on into the turmoil of Tiananmen Square.
It's a lot of history, and a quantity of characters, but Thien juggles the storylines adeptly and makes each character from Big Mother Knife to Marie herself, vivid and complex. This is a novel well worth reading. Also, it's a page-turner.
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Thien deserves all the praise she's received for this book. Marie is a girl living Vancouver, Canada, with her mother, her father having returned to China and committed suicide, when they are joined by Ai-ming, a college student fleeing China in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square. She leaves them to go to the US in hopes of being granted asylum and Marie never sees her again. In adulthood, Marie undertakes a search for Ai-ming, who may have returned to China. As her search goes on, the story is told of how Ai-ming and Marie's family were connected and goes further back to the story of Ai-ming's parents and grandparents, as they survive WWII, Mao's reign as dictator and on into the turmoil of Tiananmen Square.
It's a lot of history, and a quantity of characters, but Thien juggles the storylines adeptly and makes each character from Big Mother Knife to Marie herself, vivid and complex. This is a novel well worth reading. Also, it's a page-turner.
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LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Any hugely ambitious work will take risks either in its form or content or both. In Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Madeleine Thien follows a collection of friends and relations across the social upheavals that have swept through communist China from its inception. These narratives are framed by the
That it is not entirely satisfying is due, I think, to attempting too much, perhaps. Despite the length of the novel, you might be thinking it should have been twice as long again in order to adequately do justice to its many storylines, motifs, and themes. Or perhaps it could have used a bit of pruning. Sometimes less is actually more. But that sounds churlish, which is unintended. For I do think Madeleine Thien is a fine writer.
In particular, I thought she handled the tension and aggression in the sections on the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre very well. And I enjoyed her treatment of music. I could have stood even more.
So, I’m a bit on the fence here. I think you’ll have to make up your own mind.
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story of the last heir, a woman living in Canada searching for answers concerning the suicide of her father when she was a child. As she encounters individuals connected to his past in China, the story jumps to their stories so that a richly interwoven intergenerational tapestry results. Running across these narrative is a story about a book — The Book of Records — which may or may not contain this history in its changing, coded, and much-copied text. And in everything there is music since most of these characters are musicians or composers whose truth lies in their connection to and reinterpretation of the music that has preceded them. So, an ambitious project. And it largely succeeds.That it is not entirely satisfying is due, I think, to attempting too much, perhaps. Despite the length of the novel, you might be thinking it should have been twice as long again in order to adequately do justice to its many storylines, motifs, and themes. Or perhaps it could have used a bit of pruning. Sometimes less is actually more. But that sounds churlish, which is unintended. For I do think Madeleine Thien is a fine writer.
In particular, I thought she handled the tension and aggression in the sections on the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre very well. And I enjoyed her treatment of music. I could have stood even more.
So, I’m a bit on the fence here. I think you’ll have to make up your own mind.
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LibraryThing member saresmoore
This book deserves more than five stars because it is in a league of its own. Thien writes with the insight and keen, careful observation of a fly on the wall of history. And yet, her words carry such breadth and depth and significance, it's as though she were floating high above her characters and
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watching the story unfold in the context of the universe. Historical fiction, generational saga—none of the standard depictions do justice to this masterful piece of creative beauty. The words practically sing and each component of this book has a life of its own. My thoughts are all jumbled here because I am so deeply impressed by this work, I don't even know how to begin reviewing it. Show Less
LibraryThing member otterley
Booker shortlisted, Madeleine Thiem's book takes the reader through Chinese history from the 1930s to the 2010s, using a group of three students at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s as the centre of a very diffuse narrative. As a reading experience, I found the book grew more satisfying as it
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progressed; the beginning is one of those fragmented narratives where we don't really know who anyone is - and although the book opens up and ties up all of these loose ends, it reads better as the relatively straightforward epic narrative it turns into. And learning more about China is something that most of us in the West should be trying to do more of. Show Less
LibraryThing member brendajanefrank
I wanted to like this book. The Chinese Cultural Revolution interests me. The presentation of the many characters in various settings was too confusing. The lack of organization made reading it too difficult, and I gave up.
LibraryThing member Anjreana
A fantastic book about Chinese oppression during the 20th century, in China and beyond. Really fascinating and not heard before expose of the consequences of Tianneman Square
LibraryThing member Romonko
This is a book that I found very diffiuclt to read, but, at the same time, I couldn't put it down. I knew that horrible things were going to keep coming, and there would be no happy ending, but still I read, and read, and read. This book covers a time form the 1950's until 2006, but still we knew
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that the culmination was going to be in Beijing in 1989 at Tiananmmen Square. All those of a certain age remember the atrocities of Tiananmen Square and the innocent people that lost their lives during that demonstration, but to actually live through all the atrocities that led up to it, was an eye opener for me. And that is what Madeleine Thien has done with this Giller Prize winning book. She has picked up her readers and put them into the era - the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong as he brought Communisim to China. We are forced to suffer as all the families suffered that lost family members either to repatriation or to death, and how they had to hide all their emotions, and praise Mao's efforts to build a "new" China during the Cultural Revolution. Some people have a hard shell and can go through this kind of traumatic event like this without showing their emotion, but others are like Sparrow. Everything is submersed until it erupts into widespread revolt twenty years later. The book works in positive and negative chapters wihch is a huge difference from most books, but the thread of the music and the unfinished story from the many-copied versions of the Book of Records that also threads thorought this book tie everything together - both the horrific and the heartwarming. The classical music and the Book of Records provide a dream-ike atmosphere to the story of Sparrow, Mother-Knife, Ai-Ming and Marie (back in Canada). This is a tour de force of a novel; that covers two continents, but only one indomitable familyl, And as difficult as it was to read, I would not have missed this story for the world. Madeleine Thien has created a masterpiece here, and everyone should read it. Well done! Show Less
LibraryThing member LDVoorberg
Not an easy book to read - I never felt compelled to keep reading, and I preferred the Vancouver story to the China story. However, it is a well-written book and addresses a time and place in history I knew little about, so I appreciate the opportunity to be educated on the oppression by Mao and
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others. What could the peole do?? There isn't a sense of hopelessness in the characters, though, and it is interesting to see how each one deals with the situation differently. Definitely worth discussion in a book club or classroom! Show Less
LibraryThing member icolford
Madeleine Thien's multi-prize-winning novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a sweeping journey through several decades of eventful and tragic Chinese history. The complex story, which weaves together various narrative threads, begins in Canada in 1989, with young Marie learning that her father, 39
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years old and a concert pianist, has killed himself while living in Hong Kong. 1989 is of course a watershed year in Chinese history and politics because of the uprisings and protests that were tolerated for months before being brutally suppressed by the government, with the loss of hundreds and perhaps thousands of lives. The next year, in December 1990, 19-year-old Ai-ming, a relative fleeing the clampdown, arrives in Canada to live with Marie and her mother. Marie and Ai-ming form a close bond, but Ai-ming subsequently leaves Canada for the US; Marie loses touch with her and spends the remainder of the book trying to track Ai-ming's movements over the years. Much of the novel is a vivid and often heartbreaking account of the lives and hardships endured by an earlier generation of Marie's family who lived their entire lives in China, starting in the late 1950s and ending with the violence of June 1989, a 30-year swath that includes the Cultural Revolution, the death of Mao, the rise of Deng Xiaoping and the trial of the Gang of Four. For many of us in the West, the story of Communist China is a daunting and impenetrable tale of repression and brutality. Our knowledge is riddled with gaps and our comprehension rudimentary at best. Maybe we know a few names and phrases, but the pieces don't necessarily coalesce into a coherent rendition built on cause and effect. Thien deploys considerable narrative skill and a highly developed sense of drama to help us attain a more solid understanding of what took place during those years by relating the story of a group of people whose talents and ambitions centre on music, and who suffer severe and sometimes fatal trauma from the immediate and lasting effects of government policies imposed by a rigid and unfeeling totalitarian regime that treats its citizens like pawns on a chessboard whose lives are not their own to live. The narrative is sometimes disorienting, with its frequent shifts of setting and period and a sizable cast of characters. But the cumulative effect of the suffering depicted in these pages is emotionally devastating and memorable. With Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Madeleine Thien vaults into the front ranks of Canadian novelists, serving notice as well that she is writing sophisticated fiction for an international audience. Show Less
LibraryThing member AliceaP
Much like when I read The Historian, I was unable to decide if what I was reading was fiction or nonfiction. (Of course, there were no vampires in this book so maybe this isn't the best comparison except for the way they both made me feel.) I couldn't put down Do Not Say We Have Nothing by
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Madeleine Thien despite how much I sometimes wanted to in order to spare myself further heartbreak. This is the story of those who lived through China's Cultural Revolution and their successors a world away in Canada...at least a tiny little slice. Our main characters rotate between Sparrow, Kai, and Zhuli who lived during Mao Zedong's reign of terror, Ai-Ming who took part in the demonstrations of Tiananmen Square, and Marie who wants to piece everything together in present day Canada. This is also about music and its power to lift the soul or to mire it in secrets. A lot of sensitive topics are touched on in this book including but not limited to torture, public humiliation, and sexual assault. This is not just a work of historical fiction but also a mystery about people, events, and a book that keeps resurfacing. Intricately woven with details which seem to make the story come to life in vivid color right before your eyes this book is one that I think everyone should experience. This is the hallmark of excellent historical fiction. 10/10 Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
There is a lot packed into this book. I am almost afraid to try to describe the plot because I am sure to leave out something important. Nevertheless I will do my best and, hopefully, what I do highlight will spark someone's interest.
Marie or Li-ling is the narrator of the story. She was born in
I am not surprised that this book has been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, the Scotiabank Giller prize and the Governor General's prize for English literature. It is surprising to me that I saw so many errors in it. I am not talking about factual errors because I don't know enough about the time and place to comment on those. I am talking about spelling, grammatical and syntactical errors. I feel like a proofreading crank because this is the second excellent book I have read lately about which I have had to comment on the errors. Do book publishers no longer have editors and proofreaders? Do writers not care about getting their prose perfect when they get the proofs? Or are modern readers, brought up on short news bites, twitter feeds and FaceBook postings, so used to errors that it isn't worth trying to correct them? However, don't let my rant dissuade you from reading this excellent book. It might even win one or more of those prizes.
Marie or Li-ling is the narrator of the story. She was born in
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Vancouver to Chinese parents but never learned to speak or read much Chinese. Her father, Jiang Kai, left Marie and her mother, went to Hong Kong and committed suicide. Marie was only 10 years old; her knowledge of her father is, understandably, sparse. Then a young Chinese woman, Ai-Ming, who is fleeing the crackdown on students after the Tianamen Square protests comes to stay with Marie and her mother. Through Ai-Ming Marie learns about her father and his relationship with Ai-Ming's father (Sparrow). Sparrow was a composer and teacher at the Shainghai Conservatory which Jiang Kai attended as a piano student. Another student was Zhuli who was Sparrow's cousin. All of them studied European music by composers such as Bach, Debussy, Prokofiev and Beethoven. A prized recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould was one of Sparrow's favourites. During the Cultural Revolution music like this was reviled and all three had to discontinue playing it. In fact, Sparrow became a factory worker and never played music again. Ai-ming was not at all musical and never really understood how music formed a great a part of her father's life. When Ai-ming was studying for the university entrance exams Beijing became a hotbed of protest and she got caught up in it. She had to leave China which is how she ended up in Vancouver staying with Marie and her mother. Ai-ming moved to the United States hoping to get citizenship there; for a while she wrote to Marie but the letters stopped and Marie did not know what happened to her. While trying to find Ai-ming Marie learned more about her father and about Sparrow and his family. Her discoveries have modern Chinese history as a backdrop and so we, the readers, absorb details about Communist China as we read along.I am not surprised that this book has been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, the Scotiabank Giller prize and the Governor General's prize for English literature. It is surprising to me that I saw so many errors in it. I am not talking about factual errors because I don't know enough about the time and place to comment on those. I am talking about spelling, grammatical and syntactical errors. I feel like a proofreading crank because this is the second excellent book I have read lately about which I have had to comment on the errors. Do book publishers no longer have editors and proofreaders? Do writers not care about getting their prose perfect when they get the proofs? Or are modern readers, brought up on short news bites, twitter feeds and FaceBook postings, so used to errors that it isn't worth trying to correct them? However, don't let my rant dissuade you from reading this excellent book. It might even win one or more of those prizes.
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LibraryThing member alexrichman
I found this more informative than moving - which probably says more about gaps in my knowledge than anything else. That said, the wider horrors of Mao's regime overshadowed the characters, and the Tiananmen denoument was oddly flat.
LibraryThing member Beamis12
A very powerful story, beginning with the cultural revolution and it's effects on one family, followed through to the next generation. A family that is in love with music, Sparrow the composer, young Zhuli, a musician, Kai a closer friend also a composer/musician, all at the Shanghai composer, all
Hard to believe that was less than fifty years ago. An amazingly centered story, based on true events, a terrible look inside Mao's China. It is hard to read this without being seriously effected oneself. Well written and well told, a hard to read story but so many suffered, so many died, the world needs to acknowledge their suffering, starting with one reader at a time.
ARC from publisher.
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will be caught up in its destruction with horrifying results. Starvation, separation, the camps, people turning on people, brutality, it is all here. Following one family lets us thoroughly get to know and identify with them. Through it all are chapters of a book of records, codes hidden inside, the unifying thread throughout the story. Marie, a young woman who will years later try to put everything together. The book finishes with Tiananmen Square, the same family line and what happens there and to them.Hard to believe that was less than fifty years ago. An amazingly centered story, based on true events, a terrible look inside Mao's China. It is hard to read this without being seriously effected oneself. Well written and well told, a hard to read story but so many suffered, so many died, the world needs to acknowledge their suffering, starting with one reader at a time.
ARC from publisher.
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LibraryThing member chrisblocker
This year's strongest contender for the Man Booker Prize: Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien. It is an epic, wonderfully imagined tale of two generations struggling through China's political campaigns, first in the 1960s, then in 1989. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is an incredibly
Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a complex work, however, and can be hard to follow. Initially, the story seems to be about Marie, then Marie and Ai-Ming, but it isn't long before the reader is catapulted into backstory and stories within stories. It's easy to forget Marie even existed in the first place, which is unfortunate because I was anchored in her tale and her tale was effortless reading.
I had some difficulty staying connected, but in full disclosure I believe much of this was my own fault. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is the sort of novel that needs to be savored. By its very structure, it requires a careful reading. In my effort to read the entire Man Booker shortlist before the announcement (made difficult by US publication dates), I sped through this novel in a mere fourteen hours (not nearly enough time for me and for a work of this magnitude). As I approached the concluding chapters, I sincerely regretted that I hadn't taken more time to enjoy this great novel.
For the last several years, the Man Booker Prize judges have favored historical works. Many of these contained chapters from humanity's brutal history. Assuming the judges do not feel the need to deviate from the pattern for the sake of breaking the repetition, I don't believe this year will be an exception. Madeline Thien will win the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
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intelligent and ambitious novel; it is multi-faceted, combing theories of mathematics and language with literature and musical composition.Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a complex work, however, and can be hard to follow. Initially, the story seems to be about Marie, then Marie and Ai-Ming, but it isn't long before the reader is catapulted into backstory and stories within stories. It's easy to forget Marie even existed in the first place, which is unfortunate because I was anchored in her tale and her tale was effortless reading.
I had some difficulty staying connected, but in full disclosure I believe much of this was my own fault. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is the sort of novel that needs to be savored. By its very structure, it requires a careful reading. In my effort to read the entire Man Booker shortlist before the announcement (made difficult by US publication dates), I sped through this novel in a mere fourteen hours (not nearly enough time for me and for a work of this magnitude). As I approached the concluding chapters, I sincerely regretted that I hadn't taken more time to enjoy this great novel.
For the last several years, the Man Booker Prize judges have favored historical works. Many of these contained chapters from humanity's brutal history. Assuming the judges do not feel the need to deviate from the pattern for the sake of breaking the repetition, I don't believe this year will be an exception. Madeline Thien will win the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
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LibraryThing member bodachliath
This is a novel of epic scope and ambition, a complex family story that starts in the China of the 1950s and ends in the present day.
The pivotal events are the Cultural Revolution, and specifically the destruction of the Shanghai Conservatory and the denunciations of the musicians there, and the
Thien's characters are memorable and I found the book compulsively readable and moving. For most of the book I thought this was one of the best books I had read all year, but later I felt a little let down, firstly because of a glaring factual error in which she claims that Bach and Busoni were born 300 years apart (the true figure is no more than 181) and also because the story lost a little impetus and clarity of focus towards the end.
I still think it is the best book on the Booker shortlist and would make a worthy winne
The pivotal events are the Cultural Revolution, and specifically the destruction of the Shanghai Conservatory and the denunciations of the musicians there, and the
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Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and their violent aftermath. There are also many other themes - largely musical but also some intriguing digressions on Chinese writing and mathematics. Thien's characters are memorable and I found the book compulsively readable and moving. For most of the book I thought this was one of the best books I had read all year, but later I felt a little let down, firstly because of a glaring factual error in which she claims that Bach and Busoni were born 300 years apart (the true figure is no more than 181) and also because the story lost a little impetus and clarity of focus towards the end.
I still think it is the best book on the Booker shortlist and would make a worthy winne
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LibraryThing member Dreesie
A long, and intense (especially the last 100 pages) family saga focused on the lives of Sparrow, a professor of Music at the Shanghai Conservancy, and his student Kai. We learn of Sparrow's mother and aunt's experiences as traveling singers, his aunt Swirl's marrying Wen the Dreamer (son of a
Years later, Sparrow's daughter Ai-Ming comes to live with Kai's family in Vancouver, Canada. A decade + after Ai-Ming disappears into the US, Kai's daughter Marie goes to China, searching for her and leaving her own message to her in the form of Sparrow's last musical composition, now played everywhere.
A magnificently complicated story, with many characters, many upheavals, and with hope throughout.
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landlord, who has his land confiscated). Years later, Sparrow's daughter Ai-Ming comes to live with Kai's family in Vancouver, Canada. A decade + after Ai-Ming disappears into the US, Kai's daughter Marie goes to China, searching for her and leaving her own message to her in the form of Sparrow's last musical composition, now played everywhere.
A magnificently complicated story, with many characters, many upheavals, and with hope throughout.
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LibraryThing member ultrabookgeek
This is a wonderful written family saga of recent Chinese history with a lovely focus on music, epic novels and love. A young man watches China transform after a brutal civil war, falls in love with western music, endures the Cultural Revolution and throughout the events leading up the Tienanmen
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Square massacre. Show Less
LibraryThing member thornton37814
Set largely in China, readers become acquainted with the families of Sparrow and Kai at the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s, pulling the narrative forward from the Communist Revolution to the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square and even providing updates after that event. The book shows a
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relationship between mathematics and music. As a genealogist, I was particularly drawn to the mentions of the "Book of Records." As a musician, I was drawn to the rest of the story. I enjoyed the frequent mentions of one of my favorite Russian composers, Shostakovich. The writing was strong. A more in-depth knowledge of twentieth century Chinese history would make the work more enjoyable than it already was. The book was well-deserving of its shortlisting for the Man Booker Prize. Show Less
LibraryThing member brangwinn
It took me two tries to get through this book. The first time I thought it was just too sad to finish, but th characters stayed in my mind and I’m glad I gave it another go. Following a Chinese family through the Cultural Revolution and the Tienanmen Square massacre evolves very powerful images
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of the strength of an ordinary family. It well deserves its place on the Booker Prize shortlist. Show Less
LibraryThing member shazjhb
I really wanted to like this book. The topic of China and it's various revolutions was very interesting but confusing. It was also somewhat confusing. There is a really great book in this book.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2016
ISBN
9780393609882