The Vagrants

At the end of her first novel, Yiyun Li provides a note about her childhood in China. During the late 1970's and early 1980's, execution announcements were frequently hung in the marketplace, providing Yiyun Li with an opportunity to practice her reading. The announcements often included a short description of the crime, and as she notes, "it was an awareness that the life and story of a real person could not be summarized in one paragraph on an execution announcement, along with other memories, that began my journey to the writing of The Vagrants" (p. 349).

If her goal was to give voice to a life, Yiyun Li has succeeded beautifully. The Vagrants begins with the execution announcement of Yu Shan, the daughter of a teacher and his wife show more who avidly supported the Communist regime and then become a counterrevolutionary in the small village of Muddy River. Yiyun Li weaves together the stories of several residents of Muddy River who are impacted by the execution. She provides a richly detailed account of several weeks in this small town, and at the same time provides insight into the broader political upheaval during this period in Chinese history.

The characters in this novel are richly textured. At times, the small decisions that they make after Gu Shan's execution have far-reaching implications. At other times, I felt that any decision that they made was futile, given the tight control maintained by the government. They exhibit vastly different loyalties - some remaining loyal to the government, others joining the counterrevolutionaries, and others just trying to survive and support their families. Li makes it clear that there are no easy decisions in Muddy River and in the end, there is no sense of resolution, just the continuation of the lives of very real people.

I highly recommend this book. And, I wouldn't be a proud resident of Iowa City if I didn't note that Yiyun Li is another of the talented graduates of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. show less

This novel is set in 1979 provincial China, at a time when the Democratic Wall Movement in Beijing was gaining momentum in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. As the book open the residents of Muddy River are preparing for the denunciation rally and execution of local counter-revolutionary Gu Shan. Several different family units are connected by this one woman: Teacher Gu and Mrs Gu (Gu Shan’s parents), the Huas (vagrant beggars who have taken in orphaned girls in the past), Bashi (a sociopathic outcast), Nini (a 12-year-old girl who was born with a deformed hand and foot), Tong (a young boy who is eager to learn), Jailin (the tubercular leader of the underground movement), Wu Kai (the state’s beautiful and charismatic radio show more announcer) and her husband Wu Han (son of politically connected parents).

Li has crafted a work that is both disturbing and luminous. She weaves the threads of these individuals into a fabric of a nation in turmoil. Whom to trust? When to lie? How to survive – spiritually, emotionally, and physically? The stories of these residents of Muddy River depict courage, sacrifice, cunning, fear, survival, and love. There are some truly horrific scenes of depravity and violence here. But there are also scenes of tenderness and caring.

I can’t say that I “liked” the book – it’s too disturbing for that. But I’m glad I read it, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. show less

In the late 1970's in Muddy River, China, a young woman, Shan, is executed for being a counter-revolutionary. The Vagrants portrays the effect her execution has on a diverse cast of vividly drawn, mostly sympathetic characters.

For Shan's parents, Teacher Gu and Mrs. Gu, their daughter's execution results in a reversal of their roles, as Mrs. Gu takes a more activist role to try to make sense of their daughter's senseless death. The unwitting actions of Tong, a lonely and bewildered seven year old boy searching for his missing dog, cause his father to be beaten into a vegetative state by the state authorities. Kai, a celebrity radio announcer who lives a privileged life, risks everything, including her infant son, to expose the injustice show more of Shan's death; Kai's husband Han is the party official who arranged for the removal of Shan's kidneys while she was still alive for transplant to an elderly dignatary. The vagrants of the title are Mr. and Mrs. Hua who have settled in Muddy River to earn their living as street sweepers and trash collectors for recycle. Over the years, they rescued seven unwanted female babies who had been abandoned to die, and raised them as their own daughters, until one day the state decided they were unsuitable parents and removed the girls from the Hua's home.

This may sound like just a soap opera with an exotic setting. It's not. These, and the many other characters we meet, are deeply and truly drawn. Their stories are very real and the conditions of daily life in China at the time appear to be authentically drawn. This is a beautiful, but sad, book. show less

It's 1979, Chairman Mao has been dead for a few years, and a counter-revolution is bubbling up. In the provincial city of Muddy River, the citizens are called to a ceremony to denounce one of their own, a young woman named Gu Shan, prior to her execution, for counter-revolutionary activities. Shan had already been tried once and sentenced to jail time, but her retrial several years later ended with a death sentence. Dragged onstage by two guards, she appears frail and almost catatonic, her throat covered with bloody bandages. We learn that her vocal cords have been cut to prevent her from making a public statement. Later we learn that this is not the only horror she experiences: her kidneys were harvested for transplant into a party show more leader (the actual reason for her retrial and death sentence), and her body is brutally desecrated after her execution.

Shan's life and death stand at the center of this novel as the author reveals the effect on the people of Muddy River. There are her parents, Teacher Gu and his wife; the Huas, a childless vagrant couple who has taken in abandoned girls, only to have them snatched away by government plans; Nini, a 12-year old born with a deformed face, hand, and leg, the unloved third daughter in a family of six girls; Bashi, a spoiled, socially awkward outcast teenager with a history of pestering little girls; Tong, a young boy who dreams of winning the red scarf and becoming a party hero; Wu Kai, beautiful former actress, now a news reader who is assigned to speak at the denunciation ceremony; and her adoring husband, Wu Han, a rising government official who has gotten a boost from his parents, prominent party members. All of these people are in some way touched by Gu Shan and her tragic ending, their individual stories all in some way overlapping. Her parents, of course, suffer the greatest loss, and their marriage is tested as Teacher Gu tries to get on with life and follow the rules while his wife's grief propels her towards reckless decisions. Others whose crimes may be as slight as having been in the wrong place at the wrong time suffer the same (or worse) consequences as those organizing a protest denouncing Gu Shan's fate.

This is not an easy read. Yijun Li does an incredible job of depicting the constant state of paranoia in which citizens of Communist China lived, never quite sure who to trust or what they could or could not say. It's a cruel reminder of the dehumanization of totalitarian regimes, and a reminder to us all of how lucky we are to live in a democracy and that we must be vigilant to preserve it in the face of radical political ideologies. show less

This story takes place back in the seventies. A time when China was dealing with the Tiananmen Square uprising.

The Gu family was like any other family. They lived good quiet lives in the town of Muddy River. That all changed ten years ago. The Gu’s daughter, Gu Shan, a free spirit was raised like anyone else in the beliefs of Communism and China’s leader, Chairman Mao. Shan started thinking for herself and renounced her beliefs in communism. Shan was taken away. That was ten years ago. During that time Shan sat in a cell never backing down from what she believed in. Shan’s arrest tore Mr. and Mrs. Gu apart. Mrs. Gu loved her daughter and never gave up hope that she would see here again some day. This was the complete opposite for show more Mr. Gu. He had already committed himself in coming to the reality that he no longer had a daughter.

Having never read anything by Mrs. Li, I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down to read The Vagrants. Let me tell you if you thought the cover was gorgeous then you are in for a great surprise. Yiyun Li incorporates her life experiences with enduring, heart-felt characters to end up with a finished product that is so spectacular that it is almost had to describe. I was honestly and truly spellbound by the simplicity of what we take for granted…our freedom. Shan fights for the same thing, only she is prosecuted for her efforts but was willing to die for them if the need arised. The Vagrants is one of the best books I have read thus far in 2009. show less

Harsh beginning. On the first page we learn that a young woman charged with being a counterrevolutionary in Communist china will die that day. "Everybody dies" is the refrain of a father too afraid of the consequences to mourn in the traditional manner. The execution of 28-year-old Gu Shan is the center around which the inhabitants of Muddy River go about their joyless existence.

This desolate cast of characters starts out being a jumble of names, but personalities emerge and become real people. Like anywhere else in time or place, individuals can be ignorant, depraved, and sometimes courageous. Author Yiyun Li introduces the reader to all these types and more in this look into China's political history.

There is great intensity in this show more grim book. Just don't expect relief from the tragedy of a dark story of fear and repression. show less

The Vagrants is the story of a small village in China, in 1979, shortly after the cultural revolution. It's the story specifically of a few characters, all wrapped up in one way or another in an attempted rebellion. The book begins with the execution of an enemy of the state, someone who was brutally put to death, after years of imprisonment, because she dared write something against the government. The people of this sleepy little town, after hearing about the Democratic Wall Movement are inspired to speak up about the conditions they live under, knowing that going against the omnipresent government could result in death.

We follow a mouthpiece for the government who begins to question the iron arm of communism; a small, lonely child show more who just moved to town and is just trying to survive with his dog; a 12 year old girl, deformed from birth, and hated and abused by her parents; a very strange 17 year old boy living with his grandmother, surviving on money the government gives to surviving members of heroes; an older couple whose daughter is the aforementioned counter-revolutionary. The husband a cranky school teacher who just wants to be left alone, the wife slowly realizing that authoritarianism isn't all it's cracked up to be; and another older couple, nomads who have lost multiple adopted daughters because the state capriciously decided they would be better off with other adults. Li brings all of these people to life, diving deep into their thoughts and lives, making them real, in only 300+ pages.

I imagine this book would have been even better and more fulfilling if I had additional knowledge about the history of China. I know the country has been ruled by a serious of viscous communist governments, but don't really know about who led when and what order events happened in. Still, even if I knew less, I can't imagine reading this wouldn't have at least been entertaining. show less