Product Description

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, the young, deeply penitent Fugui settles down to do the honest work of a farmer. Forced by the Nationalist Army to leave behind his family, he witnesses the horrors and privations of the Civil War, only to return years later to face a string of hardships brought on by the ravages of the Cultural Revolution. Left with an ox as the companion of his final years, Fugui stands as a model of flinty authenticity, buoyed by his appreciation for life in this narrative of humbling power.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #118104 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-26
• Released on: 2003-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781400031863
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
One man's mythically tragic life encapsulates the horrors of communist China in this nearly overpowering yet vivifying saga. Initially banned in China, internationally acclaimed, made into an award-winning movie, and newly translated into English, Yu Hua's close-to-the-bone tale portrays the reckless son of a wealthy landowner who gambles away the family fortune. Fugui is humbled by the loyalty of his loved ones, and comes to accept the severe hardships of his altered life, but fate has only begun its brutal work. Fugui is forcibly conscripted into the army, then, barely alive upon his release, struggles with so-called land reform and the ensuing famine. As Fugui's family die terrible, often bitterly ironic deaths and this stoic survivor makes do with less and less in an increasingly surreal world, Yu Hua, writing with masterful simplicity about the unfathomable complexities of existence, tells a galvanizing story that is at once a shattering indictment of China's ongoing nightmare and testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit. A translation of Yu Hua's Chronicle of a Blood Merchant is on the way. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
?A work of astounding emotional power.? ?Dai Sijie, author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

?Yu Hua is the most profound voice coming out of China today. To Live reaches not only into the very essence of China and the Chinese people but into the blood and bones core of what it means to be a human being.? ?Lisa See, author of On Gold Mountain

?A Chinese Book of Job, To Live is a heart-wrenching saga, written with beauty, defiance, and hope. Yu Hua?s books deserve a place on the highest shelf.? ?Wang Ping, author of Aching for Beauty and Foreign Devil

?A major contemporary novelist, Yu Hua writes with a cold eye but a warm heart. His novels are ingeniously structured and exude a mythical aura. Though unmistakably Chinese, they are universally resonant.? ?Ha Jin, author of Waiting

?A book of subtle power and poignant drama. You love Yu Hua?s characters because they are flawed, vibrant, soulful, and real: you celebrate with them the small wonders of life, and feel their pain as they overcome tragedy. Ultimately, To Live is a redemptive story of the human spirit, one that is universal in its emotional depth.? ?Terrence Cheng, author of Sons of Heaven -- Review

Review
“A work of astounding emotional power.” —Dai Sijie, author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

“Yu Hua is the most profound voice coming out of China today. To Live reaches not only into the very essence of China and the Chinese people but into the blood and bones core of what it means to be a human being.” —Lisa See, author of On Gold Mountain

“A Chinese Book of Job, To Live is a heart-wrenching saga, written with beauty, defiance, and hope. Yu Hua’s books deserve a place on the highest shelf.” —Wang Ping, author of Aching for Beauty and Foreign Devil

“A major contemporary novelist, Yu Hua writes with a cold eye but a warm heart. His novels are ingeniously structured and exude a mythical aura. Though unmistakably Chinese, they are universally resonant.” —Ha Jin, author of Waiting

“A book of subtle power and poignant drama. You love Yu Hua’s characters because they are flawed, vibrant, soulful, and real: you celebrate with them the small wonders of life, and feel their pain as they overcome tragedy. Ultimately, To Live is a redemptive story of the human spirit, one that is universal in its emotional depth.” –Terrence Cheng, author of Sons of Heaven

Customer Reviews

Even Kugen is working hard
Being that I am living and working in China for the next year or so I've decided that I need to become more familiar with the country's history and literature. Now I am not completely clueless when it comes to Chinese history and literature, but, for the most part, the undergraduate and graduate classes that I have taken that pertain to China concern the centuries before the fall of the Chinese dynastical system of government. While I do enjoy reading the literature and studying the history of this vast time period, I feel that I lack knowledge that pertains to modern Chinese.

Therefore in recent months I've picked up a number of recent Chinese novels and books pertaining to modern China with hope that I can enrich myself during the next several months. Well, Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby and Chun Sue's Beijing Doll, although they are entertaining and give the reader a glimpse of attractive gold diggers and Beijing's underground punk-rock scene, they do not give the reader a foundation on how recent history, Post-1945, or when the Japanese were defeated and driven from China, has affected modern society. However, in their defense, this was not the goal the authors wanted to obtain. Yet, after I picked up and read Yu Hua's To Live, with the desire to read literature with a more historical aspect in mind, my thirst was quenched.

Before I purchased To Live I knew little about its author Yu Hua, but I did know the novel was the basis for Zhang Yimou's movie of the same title. Having been introduced to the novelists Liu Heng, writer of the novella that was the basis of Ju Dou, Su Tong, writer of the novella that was the basis of Raise the Red Lantern, and Mo Yan, writer of the novel that was the basis for Red Sorghum, through Zhang Yimou's films, I believed that I could not go wrong with To Live. I was right. This is a beautiful book.

The novel opens with a nameless first-person narrator telling the reader of his old job that consisted of traveling and collecting folksongs and old stories. The villagers were generally happy to see him and were completely willing to relay stories of their past days. Although he enjoyed their stories, the narrator had yet to find a person who could completely recreate his past. However, after he met an old farmer named Fugui who was busy plowing his fields and kindly coaxing his old ox to work, his desire was satiated.

In his younger days, like his father before him, Fugui had been the epitome of the prodigal son. Spending his days whoring and gambling, Fugui wasted huge amounts of money. However, it seems that he enjoyed himself, doing such things as riding a fat prostitute piggyback and ordering her to take him around town. His father was of course upset, but having been of a similar bent himself during his younger days, he did not protest too much. In the eyes of Jiazhen, his lovely, but pregnant, wife, his mother, and his little girl, Fengxia he could do no wrong. However, when a professional gambler named Long Er made the scene, things truly began to go bad. Fugui had at first been able to pay his debts on the spot, but eventually he had to put everything on credit that eventually resulted in him losing the family's ancestral land to Long Er. The loss of the family's ancestral land was too much for Fugui's father to handle, so he passed away in despair. After Long Er moved into the family home, Fugui moved his family into a ramshackle shack and is forced to rent some land from Long Er. Even though he lost them everything, Fugui's family, now with a son, Youqing, loved him. However, after his mother becomes ill, Fugui goes to town to fetch a doctor, but while he is there, he is forcefully conscripted into the Nationalist Army and is forced to march north to fight the Communists. However, the Communists surround his company, along with many others, and hundreds of soldiers are killed each day. Yet Fugui never fights a Communist. Instead he is too busy fighting his fellow Nationalists for rice and flatbread. Eventually The Communists are victorious and Fugui is allowed to return home. His family is glad to receive him, but he soon learns that his mother has died and Fengxia has gone deaf and mute because of a high fever. Forlorn because he knows if he had been such a Prodigal Son his family would have had money for medicine and doctors, Fugui is shocked when the Communists march into town and execute Long Er as an evil rich landowner. Fugui's life was saved because he had wasted the family's fortune. However, with People's Communes, The Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and many other more personal crises over the horizon, maybe it would have been better for Fugui to die as a rich landowner instead of a poor peasant. The last statement might be true for some, but not Fugui. This is where the magic of Yu Hua's novel truly shines. Fuqui's determination "to live" is astounding. It might not be a great life, but he is alive and is determined to make the most of it.

Sad and humorous, Yu Hua's first novel stands as both a testament to life and as an outline that shows how millions suffered from 1945-76. While not pointing blame at anything particular, Yu Hua's novel is definitely a critical piece of literature. To Live depicts the lives of poor peasants whose only desire was to survive, however, in a world in which the old, a geomancer, and the new, a sixteen-year-old female member of the Red Guard, could destroy their lives, even this simple but vital desire was put in danger. The novel is quite gripping and should be read by those interested in modern Chinese history or just fine literature in general..

A Beautiful and Cathartic Book
Having decided to make a conscious effort to read modern Chinese literature, this is the first novel I picked up because I had liked the movie. I was not disappointed. Yu Hua tells the story of a Chinese peasant, Fugui, and his struggles beginning during the Chinese Civil War and ending sometime after the Cultural Revolution. The horror and tragedy that Fugui and his family endures is horrific, and through it all, Fugui knows he has one goal...To Live.

I am not sure if it is Yu Hua's writing style or the translation, but the text can be choppy, which is both a positive and a negative. On one hand, it allows passages, thoughts, and emotions to sneak up on you, completely surprising you. One sentence you feel everything is okay, and the next Yu knocks the breath out of you with a blithe mention of tragedy. On the other hand, it seems at times the Chinese should not have been translated so literally, and it can be a hindrance on the rhythm of the novel. For example, where Chinese says "kids", we would say "children", and vice versa. This happens throughout the novel enough to make it clear that this is not written in the language it is intended to be...hence the fifth star is missing.

Before I scare you away from this book with all the talk of tragedy, this story in the end is a hopeful and optimistic one. Fugui's indomitable spirit carries through this theme.

I also found it interesting from a political and hisotorical point of view, as the reader gets to witness, albeit peripherally, a peasants reactions to the chaos surrounding him.

Highly recommended.

A book that deserves a worldwide readership
This marvelous and touching novel is a timeless family epic that, while written originally for a Chinese-reading audience, is slowly reaching out around the world to readers in English, French and German. It's a book about life, love, family, dreams, the very stuff of what propels all of us, and Yu Hua's magic touch with words is something to behold. You won't forget this kind of book for a long, long time, once you've finished and the publisher deserves some nice kudos for bringing it out in English, finally.
You will see yourself in Fugui and his family, since they are
familiar to all of us in their own way, and it just goes to show how it really is a Global Village after all. All in all, a book for the ages, and especially, for now!