Do Not Say We Have Nothing

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.

Fabulous book. Took me some time to get into it, because of the different character names. I made myself a family diagram so that I could keep track of the family members. But having said that, Madeleine Thien is a wonderful writer. I first discovered her when I read her short story collection, Simple Recipes years back, before she won all her awards, and was entranced. Her metaphors are not just literary devices to embellish a story. They are poetic in themselves and I found that I would stop and savour them before continuing.

As my husband and I had visited China and toured Tienanmen Square the year after the student revolution, and had read many non-fiction articles about the event and horror of it, I was prepared. But what I wasn't prepared for was the historical narrative leading up to the tragedy. Very well told with engaging characters.