Mao: The Real Story
IfMao: The Real Storyconveys anything about Mao Zedong, it's that there is no single real story of him to be had through biography or history. Despite Pantsov and Levine's efforts, the Great Helmsman is an indigestible figure. The obdurate Maoness is the chief reason thatMao: The Real Storycan never  quite find a comfortable perspective on its subject. The reliance on Soviet and Chinese archives means that much of the biography focuses on the turbulent bureaucracies space around Mao, where allies and rivals and foreign emissaries tried to make sense of contradictory and incoherent information ... The details bounce around so much that it becomes harder and harder to remember what they are supposed to be details of. —Tom Scocca