Becker succeeds in establishing the famine as one of the worst atrocities of all time ( Richard Bernstein , the New York Times ) . He does this despite the Chinese government 's continued effort to cover up the incident , and by way of interviews with survivors [ that ] provide us with a chilling view of the famine as it was experienced by ordinary villagers ( Paul Pickowicz , the Wall Street Journal ) .
The Chinese government openly admits that the famine was bad .