This multi-layered historical novel covers the plight of two families during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the persecution faced by anyone who dared to exercise free will in Mao’s despotic and oppressive society.
Communist China has become a source of endless fascination and intrigue for me. By following the fates of two families, Thien is able to give a human face to one of the most inhumane regimes the modern world has ever seen. Marie and Ai-Ling are both young women that have escaped the iron grip of China’s communist party. As they get seek refuge in a new country and in each other, the two women peel back the numerous layers of their family histories and uncover the talent, hope and love that was ripped apart by a hostile, tyrannical government.
This novel reads like a palimpsest of stories, of lost hopes and treasured memories. This patchwork quilt of experiences is woven together with the thread of the classical pieces that Marie’s and Ai-Ling’s fathers used to play before their occupation was deemed too bourgeois by their society. As such, it is a melodic novel in which the prose moves at a languid, meandering cadence.
Thien’s work loses magnitude slightly due to sections of the work that are bloated and over-written; for a novel that covers periods of tumult and upheaval, it is surprisingly slow-moving. That being said, if you can gnaw your way through the novel’s staler sections, you will uncover moments of delight and profound meaning.
Thien resists platitudinous statements and opts instead to uncover the sheer human tragedy that is often covered up by more sensational factoids. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a rare case of a novel that doesn’t sacrifice style for its substantial educational value; it is a novel that is as beautiful as it is significant.
