What a great biography. Jung Chang, who lived in China as a girl under Mao's dictatorship, has done years and years of research, culminating in this masterful work on the life of Mao Tse Tung.
One thing you should know before picking up this book is that Jung Chang does not like Mao. That is evident from the very beginning and it does taint some of the analysis. There is very little "benefit of the doubt" for Mao. This actually makes for much more entertaining reading. It is the difference between a dry, scholarly work, and an Op-ed piece trying to get under someone's skin. I don't think every biography should be written this way, but the style certainly works with the subject in this case.
If you think about it though, who else is going to write an in-depth biography of Mao? Usually biographies are written by people who really admire a particular individual in history. I can't imagine anyone really admires Mao. Often times biographies are written about very influential people or people for whom there is a wealth of information. Mao was only influential in dragging China down and because he clamped down, there is not a lot of knowledge about him. So, really Jung Chang was fueled by her passionate dislike of Mao, and that really makes the biography work.
Mao has to be one of the worst leaders of the 20th century. Right up there with Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, Mao is a power-hungry tyrant that grinds his country into the ground to build up his own personal fiefdom. What is most amazing to me is that Mao had such a clamp over his people, that the West had no idea what was going on there for a very long time. Much like North Korea right now.
This book really made me appreciate the United States. For all our problems and shortcoming, living in the good old USA sounds 100 times better than living in Communist China under Mao. Things are looking up in China now, with annual growth rates of about 10%. But they are starting from a very low point, and it will take several decades of 10% per annum growth to get it healthy again.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in history or China. It is a bit lengthy, but the chapters are short and focused.
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