First we follow Teacher Gu. His daughter Shan has been sentenced to die. Gu seeks help from the Huas to give her a proper burial.
The Huas, having lost their own adopted daughters, cannot help Shan, but they try to help the crippled girl Nini when they can.
Nini, twelve, eats wall paste to ward off hunger. She is being courted by nineteen -year-old Bashi.
Bashi woos Nini with a roasted hedgehog and poisons a dog called Ear just to see if he can.
Ear's master, Tong, attends a memorial rally for Shan coordinated by Kai. Tong signs his father's name to a petition.
Kai is the voice of Muddy River's radio station. She is married to Han, the son of a well-connected political family.
Han moves out with their son Ming-Ming.
Ming-Ming doesn't attend the denunciation ceremony of his mother Kai.
Yiyun Li's The Vagrants will not lift your spirits. It will not serve to pass the time waiting in the dentist's office. Instead, the novel demands constant vigilance. Your first seemingly watertight impression of either place or character will soon be found flawed. And therein lies the humanity of Li's characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment