3.5 stars
Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a beautifully written, sweeping saga of a novel addressing a tumultuous period of Chinese history, from Chairman Mao’s reign to the Tiananmen Square protests in the late 1980s. Marie and her mother are living in Vancouver, and when they take in Ai-ming, who is fleeing from the aftermath of the protests, Marie learns the intricate history of both of their families as well as China.
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Chinese history never fails to grab my attention in a book, especially to do with the cultural revolution. This book opened up a new aspect, following the (fictional!) history of three gifted musicians and how their lives were shaken when suddenly they couldn’t play the music they were passionate about - to do so would land them in jail or worse. Now, they must only play music deemed appropriate by the authorities, their creative expression quashed.
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Although it was a parallel narrative, I felt more weight was given to the past narrative, which was sort of fine because it was interesting but then also why have the dual perspectives if one just falls by the wayside? Either way, characters like Big Mother Knife, Swirl, Kai and Sparrow made up for it, as all were so richly fleshed out that I loved being with them for the majority of the narrative!
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If you already glanced at my rating before reading the review, you may be wondering why I’ve *only* rated it a 3.5 when all I’ve done so far is praise it. Well, I must admit that it was the heavy musical element which I KNOW is ridiculous with a book centred around the joy music can bring... I am just not a very musical person okay! At times I felt like I was wading through all the classical music and wondrous bounty of music and I’d feel lost.
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But I still recommend it for historical fiction lovers, and if you’re a music lover too then this one is a MUST read!