A review by peeled_grape
To Live by Yu Hua

3.0

This is possibly one of the most readable books I've ever read. That being said, I didn't fall deeply in love with this book. It was good! It was really good! But my hot take is that the simplicity of this novel is, at some points, working to its detriment. Maybe it's not the simplicity -- One Hundred Years of Solitude had a certain simplicity, but it carried weight. Maybe it is the lack of interiority and bluntness. The point is that it gave very little room to feel, at times. There is so much tragedy in this novel and it never hit the way I imagined it would.

And also: I felt like we were supposed to like Fugui, but I don't feel like he learned anything from being a bad person? I mean, yes, there was the gambling, at the beginning. But what about his relationship with Youqing? That was horrible? And are we just supposed to overlook that? I don't think I'd call him a thoroughly terrible person, but he's definitely not a good one. I almost felt like his relationship with the ox was the only truly real one he had, and still, the connection between him and the ox is unmistakable.