I am glad that the second book we are reading for class, To Live by Yu Hua, is fiction. Not because I dislike non-fiction, but because in my personal reading (which I do all the time, I’m a huge bookworm) I like to switch off between fiction and non-fiction. I think that fiction books can often teach us almost as much about a subject as non-fiction can. Honestly, I had never heard of To Live before this class, but so far I am enjoying it. The book is easy to read, and I can see reading the whole thing in one sitting, if you had the time to do so.
I like the way the book is set up, in terms of narration style, although at halfway through I’m still not sure who the narrator is. It took me a little while to figure out that Fugui, the main character, had named his ox after himself. I feel like there should be some sort of deeper meaning/symbolism to that, but at this point I’m not sure what it is. As far as Fugui’s character goes, I’m having a lot of trouble relating to him. Honestly, a lot of what he says and does thoroughly annoys me. For example, in the beginning of the story Fugui describes his pregnant wife by saying “because she was six months pregnant, Jiazhen was naturally no treat for the eyes. When she walked it looked like she had a pair of steamed buns stuffed down her pants” (12). Then Fugui goes on to describe the prostitute that he is cheating on his wife with by saying “I would often have her carry me piggyback to go shopping – riding on her back was just like riding on the back of a horse” (14). I know that the author is trying to make Fugui out to be a horrible person here, and he succeeds.
The problem with Yu Hua making Fugui out to be so pompous in the beginning of the book is that when bad things to befall him it’s hard for me to care. I feel worse for his family, especially the women. When he gets conscripted I don’t feel bad for him, in fact I feel like he deserves it. Even after he gets out and goes back to his family I still felt like he was doing/saying things that I disagreed with. Living in poverty, he and his wife decide that only one of their two children can go to school, so they choose their son Youqing. “…[O]nly if we let him go to school would he have a good future… At least one of them should be able to have a better life one day” (88). To be fair, I understand that this is still the norm in many cultures today. I was able to take a step back (so to speak) and realize that as a feminist who has grown up in America, it is extremely frustrating for me to read about situations where women’s futures are sacrificed so that men can have better opportunities. That is exactly what happened here.
One of my favorite parts of the book so far has been from the narrator, when he is describing Fugui: “He was the kind of person who could see his entire past. He could clearly see himself walking as a young man, and he could even see himself growing old” (44). There is something so beautiful about this passage. Maybe it’s because I just had my birthday, and I always get contemplative when I think about another year passing, but being able to look back at your life and really see it is something many of us don’t do. It’s hard to see the bigger picture of your life when you’re just trying to make it through the day, and the fact that Fugui can do that is impressive.
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