The main problem with this book is that it is hard for me to keep track of who everyone is. To me, a lot of the Chinese names blend together and I find it hard to remember. I think in the future I will need to make graphics with images of the people and how they were involved. Who was in favor, and then exiled and then brought back. Putting a face to the names will make it a lot easier to follow/track.

But it was interesting to get the perspective of Li, the main problem with a lot of the books of this nature is that you are trusting one person's perspective and it's hard to know how much of it really happened and how much of it is him trying to make himself look good in hindsight.

Interesting read - I'd recommend this.
One anecdote that stood out to me is how when Mao traveled by train during the famine, the local governments moved all the crops in the fields and put them near the train tracks so it seemed like they were having a plentiful harvest. In the process, they basically killed the few crops they had left. Overall, pretty crazy reading about how detached from reality he was.
Also, having your personal doctor write a novel about you must be pretty devastating. Definitely a few TMI moments here.

I didn't enjoy this book; it was very tabloidy. Sure, Mao didn't brush his teeth, liked to walk around in the nude, and preferred reading books to doing the hard work of actually being a ruler. Are these things interesting to know? Maybe. Would I want to read a book purely (or even mostly) about them? Certainly not. But maybe some things about Mao’s private life might illuminate our understanding of the public role he came to occupy and decisions he came to make? We can't tell, since Zhisui chooses to concentrate mostly on the disgusting but mundane parts of his private life. Some sections of the book, like when Zhisui focuses on Mao's wife and her role in the party, and the succession battles that followed Mao's death, were interesting. Aside from these however, the book tells us nothing non-superficial about the man. I did feel sort of sorry for Zhisui, and I empathise (as much as I can - which is very little since I have no idea what such a life entails) with the difficulty of having to live in such a totalitarian environment as he did while bearing a responsibility that could see your entire family wiped out due to factors beyond your control (e.g. when Mao died and he feared he would be accused of murdering him). Nevertheless, as a book on Mao, this is in my (unpopular) opinion, a mostly unhelpful depiction.

One image I'll always take from this book is a swimming party with Mao floating down the Yangtze river blissfully unaware of all the corpses of his countrymen drifting along beside him.

This is a must-read book for all those who are curious about Mao, China, socialism, communism et al. The myth is revealed in its fullest, most shocking detail. The myth about Mao's greatness and the utopia that has eluded and will continue to elude all those who sincerely believe in the basic tenets of collective governance.

Mao was a monster, a debauch, a hypocrite and filthy even in the literal sense. For example, he never brushed his teeth (which were covered by green and black plaque) and he never bathed (though he sometimes swam).

Here are a few snapshots:

- Once when Mao fell seriously ill, news about it reached Zhou En Lai while he was in the midst of a party meeting. Zhou literally shat in his pants in front of all those senior party members who were attending the conference - he was so fearful of the factional aftermath.

- The same Zhou En Lai was down with multiple cancers and needed urgent surgery but he could not be operated upon because Mao's prior permission was required. and Mao would not permit. He died not much thereafter.

- The "Great Leap Forward" was a massive failure and led to unprecedented cover ups. 30 million peasants died of starvation due to a combination of famine and dogged mismanagement. And when the "emperor" travelled precious paddy plants were uprooted from wherever they could be found and replanted on the barren lands that lined Mao's route!

- To prove the rapid strides that 'industrialization' was taking (as whimsically ordered by Mao), the most ridiculous subterfuge was indulged in. False steel outputs were reported by melting spoons and knives all over the Chinese country-sides (in the back yards of peasants' dwelling places) to 'manufacture' knives and spoons!!

- The 'Cultural Revolution' was used only to banish and kill dissidents whether true or imagined. Its a wonder to me that that no mayhem followed Mao's ultimate death and China did not balkanize, there was so much factionalism and so many swings in power centers.

- The author fled from China to the U.S. immediately after Mao's death - and he wrote this book there. After its release he announced that he had even more to reveal which he planned to do through his second book. But he died soon after reportedly under mysterious circumstances.

The book is longish but quite unputdownable.

There is discordance between private life and public image of an authoritarian/populist leaders . I believe that masses are prone to mass hysteria in following cult figures whether in politics, war or religion and are willing to die in millions following them. That is human history.

Long but worth reading to get an idea of what happened in China during the reign of Mao. Hard for me to get through with all the different Chinese names and all the intense pettiness in the upper echelons of government. Reminds me of the behavior of the irrational psychopaths in government today. As I write this in 2020 with all the division and the riots with Antifa, I was surprised that young people, students were beating each other on the street and very divided during Mao's time. Good to know your history so that you can make sense of the present.

Such an excellent book about the Chairman Mao if China.

کتاب خوبی به عنوان مقدمه و جزئیاتی از زندگی مائو بود البته پرس زمانی زیاد داشت که به نظرم علتش نگارش خاطرات بعد از زمان وقوع بود اما کتاب خوبی بود هرچند خلاصه

A fascinating memoir of Mao's personal physician- Dr. Li Zhisui. I just finished reading this book for the second time and liked it even more than I did the first time.

This is a truly amazing story of power, corruption and how intrigues, infighting and Byzantine court politics affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people during the 'Great Leap Forward' and 'The Cultural Revolution'.

Anyone interested in understanding how one man gained so much influence and power and held such sway with his cult of personality should read this book. It was particularly tragic to read how the Chinese people became the pawns in Mao's personal political struggles. Scarier yet is how his wife, Jiang Qing (a obviously neurotic and paranoid woman), would gain so much power for herself.

This is a must read for any student of twentieth century politics or modern Chinese history.

zhou enlai shit himself when he found out that mao almost died and that will make its way into my history ia <3

A 4 is a bit generous, but given this sort of work is really the only example of its kind, I think most of the faults (primarily that it’s a bit too in-depth about office politics at times) need to be forgiven. Outside of that, it’s really a great and fascinating book, even if it reads a bit like those memes of “in North Korea…” sometimes (although I guess that makes it an even more depressing memoir given this is all real).