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Do Not Say We Have Nothing A Novel Madeleine Thien 9780393609882 Books

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Do Not Say We Have Nothing A Novel Madeleine Thien 9780393609882 Books

I adored this book, having read it for a shadow panel of Man Booker longlist nominees. While I loved it, it may not appeal to everyone. I will try to lay out why I loved it and then will end with my recommendations for what type of reader will enjoy this book. No spoilers.

This perhaps was one of the most dense books from the 2016 Man Booker longlist. It took me quite a while to feel fully immersed in the book and it didn't grab hold of me immediately. Instead, my love for the novel grew slowly over the course of the book. The novel is quite complex and filled with so many characters that initially it is hard to follow. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it, it was just that it required some effort and concentration to figure out who was who and what was happening. However, my perseverance paid off because this was truly a dazzling and heart-wrenching story and one that is well worth the effort. Thien weaves in various narratives that ultimately presents readers with a multifaceted look at how revolution impacts the personal lives of multiple generations.

Both plot and character development were complex and nuanced. Thien tackles historical events from China's civil war up to present day and fictionalizes how these events impacted a wide variety of characters. Throughout the narrative, love of music is front and center (and the books is structured in a similar way to a classical music score). The main families are musicians (Kai a pianist, Sparrow a composer, and Zhuli a violinist). Several key pieces of classical music (Bach's Goldberg Variations) serve as recurring motifs that highlight suffering and sacrifice. The writing is very strong and the book is original. Thien incorporates Chinese characters throughout, explaining the various meanings along with photographs and a variety of musical references.

Once I moved past the initial parts of the novel I found it very compelling and hard to put down. I cried with the characters, astounded at the cruelty people suffered as family and friends turned against each other during the Chinese cultural revolution. I think this book will be a serious contender for the win. I would be astounded if this doesn't make the shortlist. A fantastic book and one that I highly recommend.

Who will enjoy this book? I think this will appeal to those who love historical fiction and who are interested in Chinese history and politics. It is fairly dense and takes some concentration. If you like classical music, you'll probably appreciate this book much more. I recommend reading it while listening to the music referenced in the book. If you are the sort of reader who likes fast-paced, linear narratives you may struggle with this book.


Tags : Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel [Madeleine Thien] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <strong><strong>Winner of the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize<br /> Finalist for the 2016 Man Booker Prize</strong><br /><br /> A vivid,Madeleine Thien,Do Not Say We Have Nothing: A Novel,W. W. Norton & Company,039360988X,Family Life,Historical,Literary,China - Social life and customs,China;Social life and customs;Fiction.,Families - China,Families;China;Fiction.,Intergenerational relations,Intergenerational relations;Fiction.,China,ENGLISH CANADIAN NOVEL AND SHORT STORY,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction-Literary,FictionFamily Life - General,FictionHistorical - General,GENERAL,General Adult,United States

Do Not Say We Have Nothing A Novel Madeleine Thien 9780393609882 Books Reviews

I was both drawn to and repelled by this book Drawn in by the depictions of classical musicians, who truly do live within their music; and repelled by the horror of a whole nation being forced to live through the "cultural revolution" in China.

I am a classical musician and a composer, and Ms Thein's descriptions of how Sparrow's music came to him were very much like what I have experienced with my own writing.

I enjoyed the explanations of how Chinese characters make words. I enjoyed seeing the method of translating music into numbers. I identified with the musicians, all of whom, at least at one time or other, felt unworthy or not good enough to do justice to performing the music of great composers, and I have felt that pain too many times.

At times I found this book confusing due to the story line skipping around to different dates and eras, and different characters speaking. Maybe I'm the only one who had to go back and review every night before I started reading the next new part of the story. I found the family chart in the front of the book helpful, and admit I had to go back and look at it almost every time I started a new chapter.

This book was a lot of work for me to read, partly because of my own unfamiliarity with Chinese language and culture, and partly because it required concentration to stitch together the whole story from the disparate parts. It was worth the effort.
There seems to be a trend in modern fiction for authors to set stories in historically significant periods of conflict or upheaval as a means to add gravity to the work. When well executed, this device can enhance the impact of a strong novel. However, too often the placement of an unremarkable or unlikely story in a dramatic setting only highlights the weakness of the story. Do Not Say We Have Nothing falls in the latter category.

Another modern trend is for stories to occur over periods of decades or more, across generations, across continents and so on. The idea, it seems, is to add weight or grandeur by making the story “epic”. Do Not Say We Have Nothing is also this kind of novel.

Because this novel employs both of these now common techniques, it is not a novel in which nothing happens. In fact many things happen. People appear and disappear. They get arrested and they escape. They move around the world and return. They fall in love and they die. There are tragedies, many tragedies. All about them is history, from the cultural revolution to Tiananmen Square. And, as is also frequently the case these days, there is some element of mysticism or surrealism that acts as yet another device to add moral, spiritual, or intellectual heft to the novel. Indeed, in this swirl of events, sometimes the reader can become confused, which may be intentional.

Yet despite all of these supports and techniques, this novel disappointed me. Ultimately, this book, which wanted to be so weighty, didn’t cause me to think much differently about anything. The characters never seemed particularly real or likely. Stripped away of the book’s devices, the themes didn’t seem particularly original. I was acutely aware of the author at almost all times. Her effort was palpable. Her prose was frequently lyrical but rarely meaningful. She seemed like a competent author attempting to write like she thinks a great author writes, and not quite succeeding.

Finally, the book is long, very long. Length is not necessarily a flaw, but when length doesn’t make the book better, it becomes merely an annoyance. Second, the role of music in the novel is massively overdone. A number of important characters are musicians or composers or both. They talk and think about music constantly and the author continually challenges herself to come up with new ways to describe the sound of Beethoven or Prokofiev or Shostakovich. Mostly these descriptions are ineffective, in part because most readers will not be familiar with many of the pieces.

Madeleine Thein gets high marks for effort, but from a literary perspective she hasn’t accomplished anything that is really noteworthy, in my opinion. I know the prize committees love these kinds of books, and this has all the typical elements of today’s prize-winning novels. This is a very serious book that almost collapses under the weight of its seriousness. For me it was not worth the substantial investment of time.
I adored this book, having read it for a shadow panel of Man Booker longlist nominees. While I loved it, it may not appeal to everyone. I will try to lay out why I loved it and then will end with my recommendations for what type of reader will enjoy this book. No spoilers.

This perhaps was one of the most dense books from the 2016 Man Booker longlist. It took me quite a while to feel fully immersed in the book and it didn't grab hold of me immediately. Instead, my love for the novel grew slowly over the course of the book. The novel is quite complex and filled with so many characters that initially it is hard to follow. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it, it was just that it required some effort and concentration to figure out who was who and what was happening. However, my perseverance paid off because this was truly a dazzling and heart-wrenching story and one that is well worth the effort. Thien weaves in various narratives that ultimately presents readers with a multifaceted look at how revolution impacts the personal lives of multiple generations.

Both plot and character development were complex and nuanced. Thien tackles historical events from China's civil war up to present day and fictionalizes how these events impacted a wide variety of characters. Throughout the narrative, love of music is front and center (and the books is structured in a similar way to a classical music score). The main families are musicians (Kai a pianist, Sparrow a composer, and Zhuli a violinist). Several key pieces of classical music (Bach's Goldberg Variations) serve as recurring motifs that highlight suffering and sacrifice. The writing is very strong and the book is original. Thien incorporates Chinese characters throughout, explaining the various meanings along with photographs and a variety of musical references.

Once I moved past the initial parts of the novel I found it very compelling and hard to put down. I cried with the characters, astounded at the cruelty people suffered as family and friends turned against each other during the Chinese cultural revolution. I think this book will be a serious contender for the win. I would be astounded if this doesn't make the shortlist. A fantastic book and one that I highly recommend.

Who will enjoy this book? I think this will appeal to those who love historical fiction and who are interested in Chinese history and politics. It is fairly dense and takes some concentration. If you like classical music, you'll probably appreciate this book much more. I recommend reading it while listening to the music referenced in the book. If you are the sort of reader who likes fast-paced, linear narratives you may struggle with this book.