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One shouldn't doubt that Jung Chang has reason to despise Mao, having lived through the effects of his reign. Mao himself certainly left plenty of evidence of his tyranny. The problem is that the vendetta is so obvious that it reaches self-parody after a couple hundred pages. The authors purport to know Mao's actual thoughts at specific times, suggest that he deserves the blame (if that's the proper word) for Stalin's death, and take an obvious relish in describing Mao's incompetence regarding such as language acquisition and management. Don't base all of your knowledge of the subject on this single source.