This one is often regarded as Liu's best. The writer's famously known for being wordy, but he did it in a quite humous way in the orignal language. You can safely skip to the screenplay he wrote for the movie to savor the good and bad of humanity.
People nowadays still get stereotype about people from Henan(where the story starts), because what happened in the past. Even to this day, the place is still linked to 'vulgar' and 'human traffickers' to a not small number groups of people.
It reminds me how quick China has developed.
People of my generation find femine,sacifice humantiy and dignity to just get food(what happened in this book) unimaginable.
And I bet Generation Alpha will find a childhood without flusable toilet at home (what happended to my generation) unimaginable.
Therefore, I think this is why this book matters.