Mao The Untold Story: a review

I have just finished what is a first for me. Ithink I have read a best seller -- at least it ought to be. The release of: Mao the Untold Story by Jung Chang and her husband historian Jon Halliday, in the USA edition -- for the first time before it became a best seller. Also before Time Magazine gave a full page review of the book in this week's edition. However the reviewer does a very poor job and probably did not read the book. Please read the review and "destroy" it on your blog. The review is a farce. He covers very little of what the book is about and obviously has doubts about the main proposition of the book, that Mao was motivated by his desire for personal power and ruthlessly put to death anyone in his way, no matter how close they were to him; and he had no care for the Chinese people or their future. Which of course can be historically documented.

The almost endless list of murdered friends relatives and associates that he used and then destroyed for simple statements of opposition to his policies are documented facts of history in this book. The reviewer omits any mention of this tyranny.

The reviewer, Adi Ignatius betrays his doubts about the book's conclusions which cast a shadow over the whole of the extensive research, that he seems to acknowledge, by one statement re: the above mentioned proposition of the book : "Who could characterize even their own feelings with such certitude." I would say someone read the book for him and he got paid for the review

Anyway the book is a mammoth read and has taken me many hours stretched over almost 3 weeks. The documentation is unique in that it is incredibly extensive but there are no footnote numbers inserted in the text but almost every page is documented in the notes at the end of the book. The reviewer mentions that there are about 817 pages in the book; there are actually 877 including many unnumbered pages of maps and 36 full pages of photos with extensive text. He does not know evidently that the text is 630 pages long and almost 300 pages are given to documentation and lists of sources that seem endless. What an incredible accomplishment. What ever else may be said about the authors, they are literary geniuses.

If you have not read Wild Swans by Jung Chang you have missed out. Read it before you read Mao the Untold Story. They are Must reading for anyone who wants to be a breast of events in the near and mid century future led by China.