This is a highly detailed biography, and may be heavy going at times. Nevertheless, it is worth reading, if only to get a glimpse into the mind of a monster who did what he did because he wanted power and riches, not because he truly believed in his own ideology.

Jung’s “Mao” is a chilling expose of the life of Mao Zedong, paramount dictator of China whose vicious policies were reponsible for the wholesale decimation of the Chinese people, culture, and nation. Authoritatively based on hundreds of interviews and first-hand documents, some of which never before have been written about, Jung’s work truly is revisionist in the sense it rewrites the already critical historical perception of Mao Zedong. Jung reveals Mao’s tendency, talent, even, to shift blame for hugely unpopular policies onto other cronies, so that readers understand that many destructive policies history has come to assign to others (like the Gang of Four) actually are his personally responsibility. On the other hand, many of the Mao’s achievements, be they military victories or economic successes, turn out to be merely the result of Mao’s ability to ingratiate powers greater than he, primarily Soviet Russia.

This excellent book certainly is a must read for anyone interested in China, as it gives a unique perspective into the era of suffering that most Chinese endured during Mao’s reign; the author included. My only criticism is that Jung, as a victim herself of Mao’s policies, has a personal vendetta against Mao and at times it is difficult to sort historical fact from subjective criticism, and in reading this it is easy to get the perception that Mao wasn’t responsible one bit for his own rise to power, and that he was just a lucky man that bounced from one fortunate coincidence to another and somehow managed to get superiors who lavished benefits on him and dumb cronies who did whatever he said. I must insist that there is an element in leadership that cannot be denied to Mao, a leadership talent that aided him to his rise to becoming leader of the world’s most populous nation. However, I totally agree with Jung in that his quest there is littered with the corpses of millions.

Mao was a monster, responsible for the deaths of millions.