A richly detailed portrait of a strange place, a provincial city force-planted in the rural landscape; just outside the city lie the mountain and the domain of villagers and peasants who remained behind while others were transplanted to inaugurate the new faux-urban grid. The falsity of the setting and its inherently conflicted nature both feed and underscore the everyday treacheries that go on there. The book's characters are all so miserable that even the smallest acts of kindness are rare, as well as dangerous and fleeting. Most of the characters, even those who earn some degree of sympathy, are casually and often unknowingly cruel. It's often a hard book to take. Yet it is so well made that we are carried along, hoping against hope for some reprieve. A story that is both so difficult to read, yet so brilliant in its telling is an amazing work of art by Li. The Vagrants is set in the year 1979 in a tiny village in China. The characters in this village are woven together to depict a cautionary tale regarding communism. Li uses her characters to show human rights violations, corruption, perversion, and the beauty of the human spirit as it finds its way to survive with dignity. The story is brutal and ugly, but at the same time delicate and gorgeous.
What do You think about Kulkurit (2013)?
Great read! It was so well written and engaging I couldn't put it down.
—alexismarie
