MAO ZEDONG

The author of many books about China writes a Swiss-cheese biography of Chairman Mao, leaving out WWI entirely and covering WWII with two sentences. Readers wanting a glimpse of one of the most important, and yet naive, leaders of the twentieth century will be satisfied without being overwhelmed. The terror and repression of Mao's Cultural Revolution, so divorced from any reality check, deserve the world's attention. The color lacking in the text finds no remedy from reader Alexander Adams, who speaks no Chinese. A little Asian music and a bilingual reader would have been a "Great Leap Forward" for this otherwise sterile production. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 00]