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Product Description
The much-anticipated first novel from the Guardian First Book Award-winning Chinese writer acclaimed by Michel Faber as having ‘the talent, the vision and the respect for life's insoluble mysteries to be a truly fine writer.’
In the provincial town of Muddy Waters in China, a young woman named Gu Shan is sentenced to death for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old and has already spent ten years in prison. The citizens stage a protest after her death and, over the following six weeks, the town goes through uncertainty, hope, and fear until eventually the rebellion is brutally suppressed.
We follow the pain of Gu Shan's parents, the hope and fear of the leaders of the protest and their families. Even those who seem unconnected to the tragedy – an eleven-year-old boy seeking fame and glory, a nineteen-year-old village idiot in love with a young and deformed girl, and old couple making a living by scavenging the town's garbage cans – are caught up in remorseless turn of events.
Yiyun Li's novel is based on the true story which took place in China in 1979.
From the Inside Flap
One day in the spring of 1979, Gu Shan is executed for her loss of faith in Communism. She is twenty-eight years old, and has already spent ten years in prison. Her father, an intellectual, is unable to accept what his rebellious daughter has become; her mother is devastated by the loss of her only child. The citizens of her town - including seven-year-old Tong, crippled Nini, the idler Bashi, and beautiful Kai - stage a protest after her death. Over the following six weeks, they go through uncertainty, hope and fear, until eventually the rebellion is brutally suppressed.
In this brilliant first novel, based on a true story, Yiyun Li weaves together these lives, and devastatingly illuminates the reality of oppression and pain.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Gosh this was a bleak book!
It kicks off with the good folk of Muddy River, a concrete Chinese town in the middle of nowhere, in the snow, looking forward to the execution of Gu Shan, a 28 year old woman who has been convicted of counter-revolutionary activity. We visit Shan's parents on the morning of the execution; we meet the bill poster who is advertising the public denunciation, and we see some of the schoolchildren eagerly looking forward to the ceremony. Trust me, this is the happy part of the novel.
The year is 1979 - Mao is gone and China is at a crossroads. The rewards for playing politics and winning were high, but the price for making the wrong call - making a mistake - were high. Most of the citizens of Muddy River choose to avoid politics, but some of the Muddy River folk see opportunities to escape the grinding poverty, drudgery and drear.
In amongst the misery, Yiyun Li offers some compelling portraits of the townspeople. These aren't simple, black and white portraits - the characters have good and bad sides. They change from situation to situation. They develop over the course of the few days in which the novel is set. It is interesting to see the varying levels of acceptance of their place in a demonstrably unfair society; interesting to see some very non-Western philosophy at work. For all the misery, the story is compelling, especially when focused on personal lives. If the novel loses its grip occasionally, it is in the central sections when some of the high politics is rehearsed, some of the generalizations made. And for a 340 page novel, there is an intricate web of plotlines which do interweave without having any tacky coincidence joining them all up at the end. Each of the plotlines is well done, and each leaves the reader guessing exactly where it will go next. That is no mean achievement when set in such a fatalistic community, bound by such strong laws and social expectations.
The Vagrants is terribly unsentimental, and at times the bleakness and desperation can seem a bit overpowering. But this is the strength and power of the novel. It describes a dark time - reinforced by a casual mention of the Chinese support for the Khmer Rouge at the time - and makes the reader wonder whether, for all the apparent progress in the major cities, life has changed much in the smaller towns.
Will any or all of the plotlines have a happy ending in spite of the circumstances? You'll have to read and see.
It kicks off with the good folk of Muddy River, a concrete Chinese town in the middle of nowhere, in the snow, looking forward to the execution of Gu Shan, a 28 year old woman who has been convicted of counter-revolutionary activity. We visit Shan's parents on the morning of the execution; we meet the bill poster who is advertising the public denunciation, and we see some of the schoolchildren eagerly looking forward to the ceremony. Trust me, this is the happy part of the novel.
The year is 1979 - Mao is gone and China is at a crossroads. The rewards for playing politics and winning were high, but the price for making the wrong call - making a mistake - were high. Most of the citizens of Muddy River choose to avoid politics, but some of the Muddy River folk see opportunities to escape the grinding poverty, drudgery and drear.
In amongst the misery, Yiyun Li offers some compelling portraits of the townspeople. These aren't simple, black and white portraits - the characters have good and bad sides. They change from situation to situation. They develop over the course of the few days in which the novel is set. It is interesting to see the varying levels of acceptance of their place in a demonstrably unfair society; interesting to see some very non-Western philosophy at work. For all the misery, the story is compelling, especially when focused on personal lives. If the novel loses its grip occasionally, it is in the central sections when some of the high politics is rehearsed, some of the generalizations made. And for a 340 page novel, there is an intricate web of plotlines which do interweave without having any tacky coincidence joining them all up at the end. Each of the plotlines is well done, and each leaves the reader guessing exactly where it will go next. That is no mean achievement when set in such a fatalistic community, bound by such strong laws and social expectations.
The Vagrants is terribly unsentimental, and at times the bleakness and desperation can seem a bit overpowering. But this is the strength and power of the novel. It describes a dark time - reinforced by a casual mention of the Chinese support for the Khmer Rouge at the time - and makes the reader wonder whether, for all the apparent progress in the major cities, life has changed much in the smaller towns.
Will any or all of the plotlines have a happy ending in spite of the circumstances? You'll have to read and see.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is an engrossing tale a sleepy town called Muddy River in post Mao China and the events leading up a demonstration ending on the crack down on its inhabitants. Written through the eyes of several protagonists, it charts how their lives are entwined with each other to the final conclusion. It is a book about cause and effect, and the smallest act, causes tragic consequences.
It is superbly written, recounting the lives of different families around the town; from the litter collecting Hua's who have collected a number of abandoned daughters during ther lives. To the Gu couple, whose daughter's execution was the catalyst for the demonstration. There is Nini, the twelve year old girl, born with a deformed hand, who is treated like a servant by her family and is befriended by a simple seventeen year old teenager called Bashi, an orphan, living with his grandmother. Then there is Kai, who is the same age as the Gu's daughter, but married to a man whose political ideology she finds herself disagreeing with, and passionate about a cause that will tear her family apart. Finally there is Tong, a young boy who wants to be studious and wants to be a hero, but a single small act which he is too young to understand leads to devastating consequences to his family. This book explores the nature of parent child relationships, facets of human nature and of self preservation.
This is an engrossing book and gently horrific as to what people can do to each other. It makes unconfortable and uneasy reading at times, but it is superbly written with the character well defined.
It is superbly written, recounting the lives of different families around the town; from the litter collecting Hua's who have collected a number of abandoned daughters during ther lives. To the Gu couple, whose daughter's execution was the catalyst for the demonstration. There is Nini, the twelve year old girl, born with a deformed hand, who is treated like a servant by her family and is befriended by a simple seventeen year old teenager called Bashi, an orphan, living with his grandmother. Then there is Kai, who is the same age as the Gu's daughter, but married to a man whose political ideology she finds herself disagreeing with, and passionate about a cause that will tear her family apart. Finally there is Tong, a young boy who wants to be studious and wants to be a hero, but a single small act which he is too young to understand leads to devastating consequences to his family. This book explores the nature of parent child relationships, facets of human nature and of self preservation.
This is an engrossing book and gently horrific as to what people can do to each other. It makes unconfortable and uneasy reading at times, but it is superbly written with the character well defined.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Gu Shan is a young counterrevolutionary to be imminently executed for crimes against the Government in the town of Muddy River, and her death is the backdrop of this tale of life under communist rule at the end of the Cultural Revolution.
An assortment of characters, young and old, fills the narrative, some more believable than others. Most interesting is the State news announcer, Kai, with her distinctive voice, harbouring her own sympathies for the soon to be executed counterrevolutionary. Intentionally marrying into a privileged family of high social status, Kai is unable and unwilling to ignore the injustice suffered by those questioning communism; her own part in an anti-government rally eventually leads to tragic consequences for all connected to her.
The persecution and reprisals following the rally are reminiscent of Jung Chang's 'Wild Swans' which depicts in great detail, the fear gripping ordinary Chinese under the rule of Chairman Mao.
The fate of all the characters, from the long suffering Teacher and Mrs Gu to the deformed Nini, is brought to a conclusion in the final chapter. This book gives an excellent insight into the lives of ordinary Chinese suffering at the hands of communist rule.
An assortment of characters, young and old, fills the narrative, some more believable than others. Most interesting is the State news announcer, Kai, with her distinctive voice, harbouring her own sympathies for the soon to be executed counterrevolutionary. Intentionally marrying into a privileged family of high social status, Kai is unable and unwilling to ignore the injustice suffered by those questioning communism; her own part in an anti-government rally eventually leads to tragic consequences for all connected to her.
The persecution and reprisals following the rally are reminiscent of Jung Chang's 'Wild Swans' which depicts in great detail, the fear gripping ordinary Chinese under the rule of Chairman Mao.
The fate of all the characters, from the long suffering Teacher and Mrs Gu to the deformed Nini, is brought to a conclusion in the final chapter. This book gives an excellent insight into the lives of ordinary Chinese suffering at the hands of communist rule.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
HOLOCAUST
This book is one of the most moving I have ever read, it is relentless in its description of one woman's opinion of Chinese communism.
Published 5 months ago by d avery
A Powerful Read
This is not usually the type of book that I would go for and it's most certainly not a light read but instead, it is one that is harrowing, bleak but written in such a manner that... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mayumiwinn
A Little Gem Of A Book
I must be honest that this didn't set my anticipation on fire when I got it. The premise - a woman in a small town in China who has criticised the government is scheduled for... Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2010 by pjr
Totalitarianism rules, OK?
Although Gu Shan, the passive protagonist of the narrative, is sentenced for her loss of faith in Maoist orthodoxy, this isn't a simplistic anti-Communist screed. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2009 by Alan Hansen
A terrific read
Based on true events, 'The Vagrants' tells the story of an uprising in the Chinese town of Muddy River in 1979. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2009 by Andrew Langdon
An exceptional, illuminating book
It may seem odd to describe this book as beautifully written when it is about the execution of a young woman as a "counterrevolutionary" and the dire political consequences... Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2009 by Parvati P.
A skewed picture of Chinese society?
The book is about life in a provincial town in China. Several people, their lives, their social settings, their connections are described in detail. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2009 by Nish Pfister
Raw and powerful
This is definitely an author to watch - she writes in a sparse style that is both raw and powerful. Her characters are varied and strong, interacting with one another in constantly... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2009 by DubaiReader
Vagrants = Deadly Enemies of the State, apparently
The Vagrants provides a short nasty chaotic glimpse into a harsh and unforgiving life deep in communist China. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2009 by Clive Carter
Undecided
I found myself yearning to get to the end of this book for some reason and I'm not sure why. It's well written with an interesting story based on real events and people that lived... Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2009 by Jr Lorrimer
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