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A review by ulanur
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
How do I describe this book? It was so complex, so emotionally draining, so layered. There's no way I can do it justice.
It's a family history told as a story within a story.
It opens in 1989 in Canada, where 10 year old Marie (also called Li-Ling) has just lost her father. Her and her mother welcome Ai-Ming, a friend of the family who has escaped the Tiananmen Square protests, into their lives.
Marie starts to put together the story of her family, which is also a history of the Communist Cultural Revolution in China. She barely knows Chinese, and so much of their story has been buried and forgotten.
The way their history is told feels like an ancient saga being read aloud.
Ai-Ming's father is Sparrow, whose mother is Big Mother Knife and her sister is Swirl, who is married to Wen the Dreamer. Wen is reading and rewriting The Book of Records, a story that brings them all together and that they use to find each other again and again.
Sparrow and Marie's father were musicians and composers. They lived for music, it is the lense they saw the world though and completely interwoven with the material of this book. I don't know anything about classical music but I'll never listen to Bach the same way again.
It's a meditation on the repetition of history and the connection between people across time. I adored this book so deeply and felt completely empty after finishing it. I knew 50 pages in that it would become one of my favourite books, it will stay with me for a very long time 🎶
It's a family history told as a story within a story.
It opens in 1989 in Canada, where 10 year old Marie (also called Li-Ling) has just lost her father. Her and her mother welcome Ai-Ming, a friend of the family who has escaped the Tiananmen Square protests, into their lives.
Marie starts to put together the story of her family, which is also a history of the Communist Cultural Revolution in China. She barely knows Chinese, and so much of their story has been buried and forgotten.
The way their history is told feels like an ancient saga being read aloud.
Ai-Ming's father is Sparrow, whose mother is Big Mother Knife and her sister is Swirl, who is married to Wen the Dreamer. Wen is reading and rewriting The Book of Records, a story that brings them all together and that they use to find each other again and again.
Sparrow and Marie's father were musicians and composers. They lived for music, it is the lense they saw the world though and completely interwoven with the material of this book. I don't know anything about classical music but I'll never listen to Bach the same way again.
It's a meditation on the repetition of history and the connection between people across time. I adored this book so deeply and felt completely empty after finishing it. I knew 50 pages in that it would become one of my favourite books, it will stay with me for a very long time 🎶