M. Thien's Novel DO NOT SAY WE HAVE NOTHING is a Scholarly Saga of China's Cultural Revolution

"How could a person know the difference between what was real and what was merely illusion, or see when a truth transformed into its opposite?  What was theirs and what was something handed down?" asks Madeleine Thien (b Canada 1974) in her epic novel that unravels the hidden & horrific tragedies of China's Cultural Revolution in the 20th C.   Thien's literary/political novel spans over decades & 3 generations of intertwined families in China and Canada.  The dystopian society depiction of life under Chairman Mao's regime is a chilling reminder of this oppressed epoch that is too easily dismissed or distorted.  This historic epic novel gracefully mutes and forcefully recounts the loss of any personal freedom to live, love or do as one chose.  Everything was dictated by the Party.  Any resistance was met with repercussions: prison sentences, torture, public humiliation and executions.  There was only the one regimented line of existence under Mao as under Marx, Engels and Lenin.  Thien's award winning novel was short listed for the Man Booker Prize ('16).  She constructs a novel that is a majestic in structure and crescendos in the Tiananmen Square massacre.  The story is driven by musicians whose creative artistic talents & desires were destroyed.  The reverential references to musical compositions, written legacies and interconnecting relationships tend to overwhelm the reader in their complexities & mournful longings.  "My generation was tossed around by Chairman Mao's campaigns.  Our lives were completely wasted."  All hopes & aspirations were pinned to the next generation.  This is at the pulse of this historic novel.  The books title "Do Not Say We Have Nothing" was the counter revolutionary chant quelled by government tanks in Tiananmen.  "Arise slaves, arise.  Do not say we have nothing.  We will be the master of the world."  This is an English translation via transformations from Russian slogans and the French socialist anthem.