Do Not Say We Have Nothing

By: Madeleine Thien

Narrated by: Angela Lin

Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition, even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, 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 in the mid-20th century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century. With exquisite writing sharpened by a surprising vein of wit and sly humor, Thien has crafted unforgettable characters who are by turns flinty and headstrong, dreamy and tender, foolish and wise.

©2016 Madeleine Thien (P)2016 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"This audiobook marries a haunting, compelling story and a memorable performance by its narrator. Angela Lin reads with assurance, confidence, and a gentleness that captures the mood of the story.... Lin also uses her impeccable Chinese language skills to pronounce the names and keywords that dot the text, lending credibility and atmosphere to this lyrical audiobook." ( AudioFile)

Devastating and complex

Would you consider the audio edition of Do Not Say We Have Nothing to be better than the print version?

I had a conversation with a friend who read the book. I had no idea how one could read it, given all the subtleties of the Chinese language that were brilliantly narrated. My friend had no idea how one could listen to it, because it was such a complicated story.

Would you be willing to try another book from Madeleine Thien? Why or why not?

I would possibly try a future book by this author, but not soon.

Which scene was your favorite?

There was a beautiful scene of a noodle-selling woman who offered hungry student protesters something to eat for free. It was all she had to offer. The tenderness of the exchange and conversation was uplifting in the midst of a confrontation that lacked humanity and decency.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was struck by the random violence and targeted violence of mobs and political movements that care nothing and know nothing about the lives they destroy. Deep meaningful life is sacrificed for political ideologies and slogans that get repeated but no one really knows what they mean. The fear of being a thinking creative person in times of revolution was palpable. Thien's writing pulls the listener into the dread and danger of daily living without falling into graphic descriptions of violence.

Any additional comments?

I do have to admit, a lot of the long expositions and explanations of music, math and literature were lost on me. It was not an easy book to follow, but its subject matter and characters will stay with me.

Beautiful

Beautifully written. The language is so descriptive. Loved listening to this. It is like listening to a symphony.

This should have won the 2016 Man Booker

It is one thing to read nonfiction and journalism about a tragic event. And it is quite another to read fiction based on it. The former, well, informs with the help of hindsight. But fiction, on the other hand, transports you into the world of story as it happens--and in so doing you empathize with the characters who lived and died thirty years ago when a government turned its own tanks upon their own people. If the Mandate of Heaven is a thing, then, surely, June, 4, 1989 heralds the day of its revocation.

Incredible story, beautifully read

This is my new, all-time favorite book! So clever, so informative, so intricate, so sad. Beautifully read in a way I could never have if I had read it myself.

Beautiful, enrapturing story

This books is incredible. The story beautifully interweaves many characters, places, time periods, and themes. It’s long, but so worth the listen. A truly moving story, and wonderful audio performance. All the stars.

A sweeping story of China across generations

Any additional comments?

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 places; really didn't feel as if it was necessary to jump around quite so much. I also found myself getting a little impatient with all the back-and-forth of the story, since you can tell from fairly early in that the book is going to culminate in Tiananmen Square, and keeps hinting at it, but takes ages and many detours to get there.

I'm sure this is a book that reveals more and more, and is more deeply appreciated, on subsequent rereadings. It deserves 4 stars on that merit. However, based on my personal enjoyment of it as pure entertainment value, 3 stars.

Beautifully slow

The book takes sometime to draw you in and then you are deeply involved and emotionally connected to the characters. I cried often as I listened.

Window into life under Mao

The author gives us a peak into the world of everyday people as they navigate through political and cultural upheavals from Mao’s vision of his China. This ancient civilization has been grabbed and turned on its head many times over. Chinese society had not only been split, more shredded! It’s a study on how to remake and recreate.

20th Century China in a Russian Lit Motif

"One thing I have learned, dear Sparrow, is that light is never still and solid and so it is with love. Light can be split into many directions. Its nature is to break apart." --Comrade Glass Eye

'Where to begin with this review?' is an apt question for my writing of these notes for Thien's 2016 historical fiction novel, for continuous life cycles (in all their varieties) are one of 'Do Not Say's' main themes.

So many themes: music/silence, writing/composition/self-expression, Chinese history/government, freedom, identity, remorse, and the like. Thien weaves her characters into the major milestones of actual Chinese history (The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen 1989) a la Tolstoy, diving in and out of macro and micro details across a music conservatory and three generations of families.

I found 'Do Not Say' profoundly moving. I really had no idea about some of the horrors of 20th century China until now, which Thien brings to full color. While I haven't fully grasped how this book changed me yet (an increased appreciation of freedoms in the US for starters) I know it certainly changed--and will continue to change--me for the better. Angela Lin's narration was great; the print book has lots to enjoy as well (Chinese characters, jianpu musical notation, and the like). Pocket notes (tl;dr) below.

-----
- Jiang Kai: did what he needed to survive.
- Zhuli: stuck to her beliefs.
- Sparrow: caught in the middle.
- The drawer of glass eyes: it is better to see, or be seen?
- "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." --Zhuli
- "[Sparrow had] been thinking about the quality of sunshine, that is, how daylight wipes away the stars and the planets, making them invisible to human eyes. If one needed the darkness in order to see the heavens, might daylight be a form of blindness? Could it be that sound was also a form of deafness? If so, what was silence?"
- Jiang Kai's reaction to Ai-ming abandoning the phone call.
- Ai-ming's inability to process 1989.
- He Luting on the television: "Shame on you!"
- Zhuli's thoughts at the conservatory: "The present, Sparrow seemed to say, is all we have, yet it is the one thing we will never learn to hold in our hands."
- "I wondered: what happens when a hundred thousand people memorize the same poem? Does anything change?" --Jiang Kai

another top of the list

Takes place largely during the cultural revolution in China. Perceptive, beautifully written, compelling, enlightening, another must read.