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Jan 15, 2018sgcf rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This is a brilliantly written epic of a heart-wrenching era in China’s history, from the repressive Great Leap Forward of the 1950s, through Mao’s cultural revolution, through Tiananmen Square to the present. The characters are achingly real, so fully fleshed that I wanted to believe it was nonfiction. But a family tree diagram would have been helpful. Strong themes of music throughout, and the re-writing of stories over decades (like history re-written over centuries). It’s full of mysterious unknowns and is seemingly unfinished …the way time itself is unfinished. A marvel, though I wish it had been condensed by about 100 pages.