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6th out of 41 books
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31 voters
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To Live
by
Yu Hua,
Michael Berry
An award-winning, internationally acclaimed Chinese bestseller, originally banned in China but recently named one of the last decade’s ten most influential books there, To Live tells the epic story of one man’s transformation from the spoiled son of a rich landlord to an honorable and kindhearted peasant.
After squandering his family’s fortune in gambling dens and brothels,...more
After squandering his family’s fortune in gambling dens and brothels,...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
August 26th 2003
by Anchor
(first published 1993)
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I was surprised to see that Yu Hua wrote this. My first and most lasting impression of Yu Hua is The Past and the Punishments, an excruciatingly gruesome novel with poignant political commentary. Though set against the backdrop of Nationalist and then Communist takeover of China, To Live isn't surreal nor is its narrative misty and shaded like in Punishments. Rather, the tone of To Live is a strange mix of slapstick funny mingled with sorrow. The writing style was also more casual and blunt....more
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This novel follows the everyday struggles in a Chinese man’s life during the 20th century. For me, this book was great because it introduced me to the life and culture of Chinese people. A second reason why I liked it was because it taught me a lot about Chinese history without being overt about it. I know some Chinese history, but I also know that reading it and feeling it through the characters of this book will make me actually remember it in years to come. Finally, I enjoyed how the main cha...more
I read the original Chinese version by the way, so it might have had a different effect on me.
It's so touching. ^^ Feels like I just lived a whole life after reading this. I also really love that philosophy at the end of it all--you've gotta keep living no matter how much miserable your life is,lol. The important thing is that you're still alive, you're still living on.
*SPOILER*
The sole fault that struck this down to 4 stars, was how exasperatingly r...more
It's so touching. ^^ Feels like I just lived a whole life after reading this. I also really love that philosophy at the end of it all--you've gotta keep living no matter how much miserable your life is,lol. The important thing is that you're still alive, you're still living on.
*SPOILER*
The sole fault that struck this down to 4 stars, was how exasperatingly r...more
I’ve heard this was made into a decent film by Zhang Yi Mou; unfortunately the actual book did nothing for me. Set in post-war China, during the civil war and the rise of the Communists, there is little in the way of character development or narrative that gives a feel of what was actually going on, although historically momentous things were happening.
The characters are strangely two-dimensional, dialogues are sketchy and seem superficial (I know these are uneducated peasants, but s...more
The characters are strangely two-dimensional, dialogues are sketchy and seem superficial (I know these are uneducated peasants, but s...more
I should start this review by stating that I have been an expatriate living inChina for 5 years. I was not a Chinese culture expert before nor have I become one since moving here. However, I have Chinese friends who have experienced some of the situations that are included in Yu Hua's story. I must admit that i was originally off-put by the "rhythm" of the book, but adapted my reading after a bit. The biggest distraction for me was the translation's usage of the terms "dad" w...more
Yu Hua's novel, To Live, is truly a great piece. As great writing should do, Yu does a nice job of helping the reader get a bit of a feel of what it was like to live in rural China around the time of the cultural revolution. But this is just part of what makes the story compelling. Fugui, the main character, experiences significant character transformation as goes from being the son and heir of a wealthy landowner to a poor, struggling farmer who seems to continually suffer great losses. Despite...more
This is normally not the type of book I would pick up, but it was highly recommended by a friend whose opinions I respect. I've a weak stomach for realistic, harsh, and unflinching political commentary couched in fiction - I suppose I prefer escapist fiction. However, I did admire the author's brusque, straightforward writing style, which made me wish I could read this in Chinese. The narrative, which takes you from the second Sino-Japanese war all the way to the reform era of the 1970's, enable...more
To Live is the story of Fugui, an old man whom the unnamed narrator encounters while travelling around the countryside studying the folk songs and tales of the area. As a young man, Fugui came from a relatively wealthy family, but he managed to lose all of his family's property through gambling and carousing. Having brought his family down, he decides to devote himself to being a good husband and father. However, fate intervenes, first in the case of the war between the Communists and the Nation...more
I picked up this book because I loved the movie, which is surely one of the best Mandarin language movies ever.
The book is quite good, in many ways matching the spare, matter of fact style that Zhang Yimo used so effectively for the film. The movie wisely did away with the pointless framing device.
After losing the family farm, Fugui is helpless to stop the tragedies all around him, and simply watches as his life seesaws between little triumphs and great tragedies. This takes us on a journey th...more
The book is quite good, in many ways matching the spare, matter of fact style that Zhang Yimo used so effectively for the film. The movie wisely did away with the pointless framing device.
After losing the family farm, Fugui is helpless to stop the tragedies all around him, and simply watches as his life seesaws between little triumphs and great tragedies. This takes us on a journey th...more
If I could, I'd give this book 3.5 stars. It's definitely a good book, though I would by no means put it among the greats. This is a translation of a Chinese novel that was written about 20 years ago. It's about the ups and downs that a man and his family face over some 60 years or so from the 1920s to the 1980s. After gambling away his family fortune he and his family are reduced to an extreme state of penury. As he lives out the years of his life he faces war, the Cultural Revolution, the...more
It's a compelling story--how one man lives through a civil war, natural disasters, the rise of Communism in China and all he suffers. It's grim. There is no real spiritual dimension to the book--what makes this guy get out of bed after losing his father, mother, son, his daughter, wife, and grandson... I don't know. The book doesn't say, but he is a survivor. Two narrators--a guy sent out to collect folk songs and a peasant that he meets tell the story. Sad, sad, sad...
I distinctly remember feeling very moved on the top of page 98. Definitely worth reading, and even re-reading. Some people might find the story to be depressing overall, but the message is a good one. The last couple of deaths are covered a little too quickly, almost as if Yu Hua just wanted to get the damned thing over with, I would have appreciated a little more feeling at that point in the story. Then again, maybe the main character was simply jaded at that point.
I refer myself a lot to moments from this book when trying to put things in the context of modern China--much more so than Waiting. I think K-- got the movie originally thinking it was a romance or comedy or something that it was definitely not. It's a really compelling story (the movie is less depressing than the book), but it's just keeps getting sadder and sadder. But I find it funny that whenever I'm doing the references to the moments, my sense isn't of how put upon the family/main chara...more
I'll go ahead and spoil the ending to Yu Hua's excellent novel To Live: any character who is not narrating the story ends up dying. This is a sometimes uncomfortable, often moving, very simple, and expertly written novel that does a fantastic (and damning) job of demonstrating the atrocities of the Chinese government on simple peasants during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Its bleakness is its curse, though; although written in the 1990s, To Live contains no hint of the econom...more
so like mo yan's "red sorghum." perhaps it's the subject matter, and maybe it's just the translation. but this one was dripping with the gorgeous vernacular landscapes and life-giving profanity i've come to expect of china's banned books. i think gabriel garcia marquez has a little competition in the boys that survived china's civil war and cultural revolution. beautiful fucking work.
I found this book in a small used book shop in Bend, OR. Translated from Chinese, it's well written. It's the story of Fugui, a man who squanders his family fortune early on, then settles into the life of a humble farmer only to fall into hardships and misfortunes over the next several years. It's got a bit of wry humor weaved into what is a sad life of one bad event after another.
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Dai Sijie quote on cover and Lisa See quote on back cover
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This book was quite amazing. It is simple but very beautifully written. It doesn't give such a "stereotypical" historical view of China's past. It gives a simple view of a rich man who lost it all and how his life went from there. It's a very tragic story - at times I wanted to scream at Fugui and othertimes I felt sorry for him. It's not a fast pace novel by any means - but a very simple enjoyable novel.
A brutally realistic account of a Chinese peasant in the 20th century. This book could act as a good outline to introduce students to the basic outline of modern Chinese history. It begins with the Japanese occupation of China before WWII and continues through all the changes the country went through under the leadership of Chairman Mao.
The narrative is deceptively simple, but very poignantly told. The nested storytelling sometimes falls flat on its face elsewhere, but Hua uses it well. The life and plight of Fugui and his family was many times heartbreaking, but I very much enjoyed it while it left me quite pensive.
quite frankly, one of my favorite historical fiction books of all time. I had the fortunate opportunity of meeting the author in Beijing this summer. What a wonderful human being. This book changed my life and helped me to recognize what is important-to live.
for some reason, the morning i finished this, i was flipping through channels on tv and a show called 'fugui' which is basically this novel expanded into what seems like dozens of episodes (quite impressive for a short book) was on its like 3rd episode. i bet my dad would like this book. i'm attracted to the detachment of the storyteller in all this, or at least in the particular narrative style which is strikingly personal but hauntingly distant, in that i feel that it begs for us to think ab...more
a bit of a tearjerker, but I liked how broad and sort of "shoulder-shruggy" it was about the span of our lives and the content within. I get the impression that that's a sort Chinese way of thought and I relate to it.
This is such a humble, sad and hopeful tale. It is informative with regards to a variety of Chinese historical events while descriptive of the human experience.
Life doesn't need to have purpose. Life is not full of happy endings. What we have is one life and one ending and it is important to see things through.
The writing in this book, even in translation, is so compelling that I could not put it down. There's a story in the back of the book about how a film producer read it in a single sitting, ending at 4 a.m. If I had started it on a weekend, I would have done the same. Simply beautiful.
i loved this book. he lived a reckless life, dragged his whole family down with him and only at the end came towards a sort of resolution and peace.
Blunt, straight to the point as characteristic of Yu Hua. Beautiful story, makes you realize taking simple and ordinary life for granted.
Stunning, absorbing novel of the life of a peasant and his family in China in the mid 20th Century. Unforgettable.
A lovely book full of life despite desperate circumstances. Interesting to read Chinese literature translated as well.
Sarina
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I don't quite understand why I loved this so much, but I did. Thre's a pace, a rhythm that just captivates.
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“Your life is given to you by your parents. If you don't want to live, you have to ask them first.”
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