Mao Zedong’s late 1940s Land Reform Movement in China, which was meant to redistribute land to the peasantry and improve the well-being of the people, failed miserably. Over 36 million civilians starved to death, and the people were forced to hide their thoughts and beliefs, or risk torture and death. The post-Mao era continued the terror of the people and finally resulted in the protests and killings in Tiananmen Square. DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING is Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien’s epic, eloquent, and prizewinning novel--a pean to love, duality, memory, music, and the nature of stories and time. The fate of two families is depicted, and the merging of their stories is intricately bound together with their struggles.
The classical musicians at the Shanghai Conservatory were forced to hide their thoughts and feelings, and they could not play music that had passion and individuality, unless it conformed to Mao’s view of tidy communism. If the musicians demonstrated their personal virtues, they were tortured, and their instruments destroyed. The cast of characters here hid the music they composed, and sang or hummed the notes quietly or silently. Their music was ripped from their lives, but not from their hearts, even as they were forced to work jobs that were in service to the communist government.
Over 70 years of repression is covered in this novel, mostly 20th century but leading up to the re-opening of the Shanghai Conservatory in the early aughts. The duality of identity—the prescribed self and the true self—is the main theme, along with the beautiful music that the characters (many of them musicians) both created and listened to, with Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations (Bach) running throughout the novel, and a fictional Book of Records that the characters contributed to over the decades. It is non-linear, reminding the reader of the nature of time and the powerful, enduring nobility of music, as well as the confluence of politics and art. Duality is present everywhere in the novel, and the narrative thrusts us into two worlds at all times—the one authorized by the government, and the truth that we carry quietly inside.
“The only life that matters is in your mind. The only truth is the one that lives invisibly, that waits even after you close the book. Silence, too, is a kind of music. Silence will last.” Thien does a remarkable, phenomenal job of balancing silence and music in the same thread, opposing forces that remain together.
The opening lines are a pair in itself. “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.” The first pages introduce us to Jiang Li-ling (English name Marie Jiang) in Vancouver, where she lives with her mother in the early 1990s. A teenage relative, Ai-Ming, comes from China to live with them, as she was forced to flee the brutal attacks in Tiananmen Square. As the two girls grow closer, the family history is slowly uncovered. Marie learns that her father, Kai, was a concert pianist during the Cultural Reformation, and that Ai Ming’s father, Sparrow, was his instructor at the Shanghai Conservatory all those years ago. A set of notebooks called Historical Records serves as a motif and a frame for the story, and for a history that is both forgotten in a dense fog, and yet unforgettable, too. How these opposing concepts can be held together is actualized in the unfolding of the story. Lyrical, heartbreaking, tender, brutal, and staggering, this novel will stay with the reader for all time, like the Chinese history of its making.
DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING won Canada’s top prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016, and was short-listed for the Man Booker of the same year.
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A beautifully written historical fiction piece that was too complex at times.
“Do Not Say We Have Nothing” was chosen as a summer read for my book club and I am so glad I gave it a read!My favorite part about the novel is how the past and present are intertwined. Thien does a fantastic job revealing events to the reader that are chronologically out of order. To link the past to the present, Thien introduces a multitude of characters and writes from each of their perspectives. Many of these characters end up interacting with one another, creating interrelation.I also enjoyed the novel’s historical elements and look into Chinese culture. One of the timelines within “Do Not Say We Have Nothing” takes place during the Cultural Revolution in China. I did not know much about this sociopolitical movement prior to reading Thien’s work. Throughout my time spent with the text, I learned much about Zedong’s cruelty and the millions of lives that were lost. With each chapter I read, I did more and more research and I appreciate the novel for pushing me to do so. In addition to learning more about historical events such as the Cultural Revolution, I was exposed to Chinese culture. Thien introduces to the reader to Chinese characters in the very first chapter. It was fascinating to learn how the meaning of certain characters change when they are combined with others.Though there were many parts of this novel I enjoyed, it took me a while to get into it. At times, the book put me into a reading slump. I think one of the reasons I had a hard time getting into this book can be attributed to the fact that there were too many characters and I didn’t connect with them. Their stories felt secondary to some of the musical and historical elements which were overwhelming in and of themselves. Music is tied to many of the characters and many composers and pieces were mentioned that I was not familiar with. Because so many references were made, I eventually gave up doing research because I just wanted to finish the story.That being said, I am grateful to have been introduced to Thien’s work! Her writing is both spectacular and complex.
Top reviews from other countries
Pintu kumar
Nice
Reviewed in India on January 22, 2020
Pintu kumar
Reviewed in India on January 22, 2020
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David G. Hallman
Devastating Beauty and Tragedy: Madeleine Thien’s “Do Not Say We Have Nothing”
Reviewed in Canada on December 19, 2016