Life and Death are Wearing Me Out: A Novel
by Mo Yan
published
March 19th 2008
by Arcade Publishing
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binding
Hardcover, 480 pages
isbn
1559708530
(isbn13: 9781559708531)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 130)
Read in August, 2008
Up until the last third or so of this book, I was ready to call it my favorite fiction book I've read this year. It still gets there, but the lukewarm finish makes it a closer call.
Still, this was a great book.
I've read a few reviews calling it the Chinese One Hundred Years of Solitude, and that isn't a bad comparison - it's got the same emphasis on one small town and one REALLY big family, lovers being torn apart by revolution, technology, the disappointment and betrayal of pa...more
Still, this was a great book.
I've read a few reviews calling it the Chinese One Hundred Years of Solitude, and that isn't a bad comparison - it's got the same emphasis on one small town and one REALLY big family, lovers being torn apart by revolution, technology, the disappointment and betrayal of pa...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Sarah by:
New York Times
I am still in shock from finishing this book--I really felt for awhile that I was never going to finish it. Not in a despairing way, but in the sort of way where I imagined it would remain my reading companion for at least another month or two.
Any which way, Life and Death is an amazing feat of story telling. It lends itself to a long read, dipping in and out of the stories Mo Yan tells variously through the characters of Mo Yan, Ximen Nao (as both Ximen Donkey and Ximen Dog, in addition to...more
Any which way, Life and Death is an amazing feat of story telling. It lends itself to a long read, dipping in and out of the stories Mo Yan tells variously through the characters of Mo Yan, Ximen Nao (as both Ximen Donkey and Ximen Dog, in addition to...more
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Read in August, 2008
This is the first Mo Yan book I've read. The premise is kind of wacky: a tour through 50 years of Chinese history through the eyes of an executed landlord who is reincarnated first as a donkey, then an ox, then a pig, then a dox, then a monkey and finally as a boy.
But Mo Yan pulls it off through lively writing that keeps things from being predictable or trite. The book deals with a lot of sadness but does so with a sense of humor that for the most part humanizes the tragic situations it des...more
But Mo Yan pulls it off through lively writing that keeps things from being predictable or trite. The book deals with a lot of sadness but does so with a sense of humor that for the most part humanizes the tragic situations it des...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2008
amazing. haven't read a book about "communist china" since college when i burned out on this genre, but this was well worth the diversion in fiction subjects. mo yan's writing is balls-to-the-wall entertaining and honest. he impressively weaves the story of a landlord who is reincarnated as an donkey, an ox, a pig and a dog into a family history that rivals the otherworldliness of any south american yarn of the same fabric. the characters were all individually loveable and tragic as w...more
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Had to return this to the library but I did read the first several pages which intrigued me enough that I requested it again. I'll have to choose a good time for it - it doesn't appear dense but definitely serious reading as it's a political farce from China.
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Read in May, 2008
Yan is innovative. His plot is original and his narrative style is so colloquial yet holds so much sharpness and intelligence. This book is anchoring my Chinese fetish that I've been harboring and hopefully will lead me to more Chinese literature.
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I must be a literary sadist. One half of my brain hates this author, the other loves him. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to continue reading.
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recommends it for:
Marisa
Set in the 20th century, against the backdrop of the Chinese communist revolution, this book is fascinating reading.
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