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coffeemybook's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Can’t resonate with the music aspect of the book (Bach etc) but definitely a good read for those who can.
lara_aadelis's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I find it hard to rate this book. It’s an undeniable emotional story, yet jumbled around so much I had a hard time following the track of this story. Might be, I will rate this book higher as time moves on, but for now I am mostly left confused.
dellaposta's review against another edition
5.0
I found this epic novel following two families over several generations in 20th century China to be challenging, beautiful, and moving. Music, language, memory, and the reverberations of time and history are at the novel's thematic core. The narrative loops back and forth; chapters count up and then down; lost voices and old notes return like musical refrains with beautiful and haunting effect. The greatest strength of the novel is the detail with which Thien constructs her characters and seamlessly traces the relationships between their complex inner lives and the era of political and social upheaval they inhabit.
courtgoz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
First half was very slow and hard to read but the second half I read through so quickly, although I do think that was aided by the struggle to read the first half
the_escape_artist_'s review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book, I'm glad I read it, but honestly it was heavy and I didn't love the writing style. I think it is worth reading, I didn't know anything about the Chinese socio-political history of the past 100 years and this book was a good primer that encouraged me to read and research more....Maybe I should give it a higher start rating.
sawyerai's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
daja57's review against another edition
3.0
I found this a curiously muddled novel. The frame story, which I found distracting and, to some extent, redundant, involves Marie Jiang, a Canadian of Chinese descent trying to discover what has happened to her missing dad with the help of Ai-ming, an illegal immigrant from China who is staying with her family. The main narrative concerns the history of how Marie's father, Jiang Kai, once a renowned concert pianist was involved with Sparrow, a composer, the father of the immigrant, and Sparrow's extended family: his uncle Wen the Dreamer and Wen's daughter, violin student Zhuli, Sparrow's mother, Big Mother, and father, long marcher Ba Lute, and others. This is mostly their history, focusing on how the events of the cultural revolution affected Jiang Kai, Sparrow and Zhuli, and how the student protests in Tienanmen Square affected Sparrow and Ai-ming.
The PoV head hops between the principal characters; we are able to hear the thoughts of Saprro and Zhuli, of Marie and Ai-ming and Wen the dreamer, and to a certain extent of the other characters. Given the complex nature of the story, and the revolving cast, such that there is no single character who can narrate the entire story, this way of telling the story is probably inevitable.
Perhaps it is a sort of Doctor Zhivago for China. It reminded me also of Wild Swans by Jung Chang.
There's also another story, that of the apocryphal and fragmentary Book of Records, incomplete and copied by hand and curated mostly by Wen the Dreamer, who uses the repeated copies to encode hints as to what happened to him and others during the purges of the cultural revolution. This Book, and Sparrow's music, symbolise both the fragility and endurance of art.
There's also a theme about systems of coding (primarily linguistic and musical, but also mathematical) and their ambiguities (Chinese characters can, it seems, be interpreted in a number of ways). It's about recording histories in the face of the destruction of records and the distortions of truth implemented by governments.
It is a complicated novel and quite long-winded; I had to break it into small chunks and read it over an extended period of time to manage it. The principal characters (Swallow, Zhuli, and Jiang Kai) are complex and real; others such as Big Mother and Ba Lute are Dickensian in that they are larger than life but quite one-dimensional. It paints a compelling picture of a very alien society and its upheaval. But it's hard work and a more straightforward narrative with a simpler structure and a smaller cast would have been more entertaining. Nevertheless, I suspect that poor Swallow and conflicted Jiang Kai will stay with me long after characters from lesser novels are forgotten.
The PoV head hops between the principal characters; we are able to hear the thoughts of Saprro and Zhuli, of Marie and Ai-ming and Wen the dreamer, and to a certain extent of the other characters. Given the complex nature of the story, and the revolving cast, such that there is no single character who can narrate the entire story, this way of telling the story is probably inevitable.
Perhaps it is a sort of Doctor Zhivago for China. It reminded me also of Wild Swans by Jung Chang.
There's also another story, that of the apocryphal and fragmentary Book of Records, incomplete and copied by hand and curated mostly by Wen the Dreamer, who uses the repeated copies to encode hints as to what happened to him and others during the purges of the cultural revolution. This Book, and Sparrow's music, symbolise both the fragility and endurance of art.
There's also a theme about systems of coding (primarily linguistic and musical, but also mathematical) and their ambiguities (Chinese characters can, it seems, be interpreted in a number of ways). It's about recording histories in the face of the destruction of records and the distortions of truth implemented by governments.
It is a complicated novel and quite long-winded; I had to break it into small chunks and read it over an extended period of time to manage it. The principal characters (Swallow, Zhuli, and Jiang Kai) are complex and real; others such as Big Mother and Ba Lute are Dickensian in that they are larger than life but quite one-dimensional. It paints a compelling picture of a very alien society and its upheaval. But it's hard work and a more straightforward narrative with a simpler structure and a smaller cast would have been more entertaining. Nevertheless, I suspect that poor Swallow and conflicted Jiang Kai will stay with me long after characters from lesser novels are forgotten.
bethebluebook's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
prettypious's review against another edition
5.0
This book took a super long time to read cause I ain’t have the range. I had to keep stopping and researching China history. That the book motivated me to do so speaks to just how good it truly is. Highly recommend