Recommended reading: The Vagrants
The novel is a great display of the writer’s craft, as Li introduces a large cast of three-dimensional characters with remarkably few words. The novel is also timely, dealing as it does with the question of how pragmatic parents are to cope with a child who becomes carried away by words or a philosophy and is ready to sacrifice him or herself to a cause. (See Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his father.)
I read The Vagrants last year after it was recommended by a person with deep understanding of China. This book has beautiful passages and an overarching emotional story. I had not connected it with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his father. Thank you.
I recently read “Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party” by Ying Compestine which is also set during the Cultural Revolution. It is suffused with a peculiar feeling which I’ve come to associate with fiction set during this period. Now I’m anxious to read The Vagrants…
http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Dinner-Party-Chang-Compestine/dp/0805082077