The subtitle is "From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations." The translation is much smoother than the translation of the Iceland book that I just read. Of course, the translation this time is from the French and the translator is American.
It is beautifully written and/or translated. Zhu is a survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution and the story is as much about that as it is about the music. And I do mean that the story is about her survival rather than the torture and humiliation of the camps; they are there, of course, but that isn't what the story is about. The title does refer to that period though, and how she smuggled her piano into one of the camps and hid it to practice.
There is quite a lot of technical information about music, but it doesn't seem to me to interfere with the flow. The music is the truth that saves her, or perhaps salvages her would be a better description. She does not claim that music saved her from falling victim to Mao's brain-washing, but when she has survived physically, it is the means by which recovers her humanity.
Between the music and the philosophy, particularly that of Laozi - (I believe he was once spelled Lao-tse - or something like that), she eventually begins to accept what happened to her, what she became during those years. To say that she forgives herself would be a little strong, acceptance is more accurate. And I have ordered her recording of the Goldberg Variations.
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