The Vagrants in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 14, 2015 Bogdan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-flavor

There are some books that I cannot imagine whey they are not yet translated into Romanian. If I was a book editor or could influence any of them, I would propose this title to be included in current offer as soon as possible because it is better than most of what it is available to be purchased now, with similar topic of 20th century Chinese society. But I am not a book editor neither can influence one, so I will continue to buy novels not yet translated that I consider can be worthy.

Sometimes f There are some books that I cannot imagine whey they are not yet translated into Romanian. If I was a book editor or could influence any of them, I would propose this title to be included in current offer as soon as possible because it is better than most of what it is available to be purchased now, with similar topic of 20th century Chinese society. But I am not a book editor neither can influence one, so I will continue to buy novels not yet translated that I consider can be worthy.

Sometimes fiction is more powerful than a thousands history books, especially if you are interested in the social condition of the people from the respective era and place. This is the case of this novel. Chinese society at the end of 1970s is the top subject of this novel, focusing on provincial city life. For me, it is a very interesting topic and there are few sources of information about this topic. As a side note, I was struck by the similarities between Romania's 1980s and China's late 1970s. Overall a great topic that it was very well covered, although it was not exhausted. So I'll give it a 5 for premise.

Regarding the form, Yiyun Li chosen to focus on the details of day to day life of several characters in a relatively limited time period. As an example, the first day finishes somewhere around page 90. This focus on details makes the entire reading experience a lot denser and you can sense the tension of a totalitarianism society. It is usually very difficult to keep the reader focused while writing in this way, but Li manages to do it very well. (Side note: It is obvious that she used to write short novels from the fragmentation of the text. It is like reading a series of short stories very closely related one to each other). I wish I could have wrote in a similar fashion, so I'll give it a 5 for form.

In terms of originality, strictly speaking for me, I hardly had any knowledge of the respective period of China's history. All I knew was that there was a Chinese Cultural Revolution that destroyed many things and values in Chinese society and that at some point the Communist Party decided to adopt some free market policy that resulted in almost everything being "Made in China" nowadays. So the late 1970s in China provincial town was a kind of blank page for me. As this makes up the most of the novel, I will give it a 5 for the level of originality.

On the characters, a novel centered on society without believable and strong characters will end up in the garbage can. The Vagrants is one of those few novels where even the side characters are so well developed that the reader ends up caring about most of them. You feel that even the author is very fond of the characters she creates and this is transmitted easily to the reader. Vivid details and deep introspection in the characters that are centered in the several inter-weaved that converge at some point or another are also helping you imagine that such characters might be living some place or another in this world. I have only compliments for Li's skill to create great characters. This are the reasons why I will give it a 5 for characters.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, there are a lot of traditional Chinese values and quite some sayings from popular wisdom or Confucius, but mainly Li tries it to make it accessible to any westerner. It is probably striking for the ones that did not lived under communism or are not accustomed with the terms or their full meaning used by those societies as "counterrevolutionary", "pioneer", "self-criticism" or "denunciation". I consider the author made a good mix between adding just enough of the local and time flavor so that we feel that the characters evolve in a world of their own, not just on a paper constructed world. That's why I will rate it with a 4 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, as a person that lived few years (despite being very young at that time) during a communist country, I found very many similarities between the society described by Yiyun Li and reality. Apart from this, the only other thing worth mentioning is that I had the impression there are a big number of exceptional characters (in terms of their fate mainly) versus what you can find normally in day to day world. But it is not a big harm and my rating for credibility is 4.

The last criteria is edition. I liked the "Reader's Guide" although I just browsed it, but I liked that it is there as it gave me comfort that in case I would not understand a bit from the novel, I could read it. A big issue, in my opinion, is the way the pages are cut, as they don't have the same length. As I boght the book already used, I am unsure if it was originally published with pages uncut and the previous owner cut them or it was like that at the book shop shelf. I also did not liked too much the quality of the paper, that is a little thin and yellowish despite the novel being published just 6 years ago. This is not one of the strong points of this novel so I'll give it a 3.

To summarize, I think this is a gem that should have had a wider circulation (e.g. translated in more languages) as it tells the story of a big chunk of people from a period of time with little other sources than novels. All in all, my final rating for it is 4.43, which I will round it to 4 on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 4.43 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+

For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines. ...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Sam rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2012, reviewed, 1-contemp-literary, setting-china, setting-asia-east, young-person-protag, setting-authoritarian-regime, authors-asian-descent-outside-asia

This is not an easy book to read in the sense that the post-Mao Chinese village in which the characters live is brutal and depressing. The rhythm in Li’s storytelling, however, somehow kept me going. The complex main characters don’t make it easy for readers to love them or hate them. In one scene, they’re acting out a kindness yet in another scene, they’re exacting such cruelty; you feel as if you have them pinned down, and then they do something that astonishes you. The scope is small, focusin ...more

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Nov 08, 2009 Lindsey Z rated it really liked it

This is a beatufilly written book about a horrific time in China's history. The change between characters gives the narrative ease and flow. It is a portrait of an entire culture rather than of particular characters and Li threads the various elements together in a stunning way. I was particularly drawn to Tong and his dog Ear as well as Nini and her search for someone to love her. The outcome is brutal and heartbreaking. I would have given this 5 stars if it was longer and the characters were e ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Ann rated it liked it · review of another edition

Took me a while to finish because
1. Too close to home for comfort
2. The cover blurb gives away the ending
That said, the character development was excellent.

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