To Live by Yu Hua (1993)

My youngest son read this for his World Literature class, and since I am in the habit of reading the books that my offspring read when it is assigned by a professor (it is all in the interest of making up for the fact that it has been a very long time since I have been on the receiving end of formal education), I read it too.

It wasn't until I was about halfway through the book that I realized that the story was familiar because I had seen the movie of the same name.  The director was banned from making movies in China for a couple of years after the film came out and it was banned in China at that time because of perceived disrespect for the government.

There is no love lost between the main character and the powers that be in the story--but those powers change over the years between the Japanese occupation of China during WWII, the Civil War, the Cultural Revolution, and beyond.  One thing does not change.  Fugui had a very long life filled with sadness, hardship, poverty, guilt, and survival.  The story is told to a stranger at the end of Fugui's life, so we are getting it delivered with 20-20 hindsight.  He starts off the story by frittering away his family fortune and almost losing his wife, Jiaxhen, and his family as a result.  Jiazhen comes back to him, which is a turning point for Fugui.  He has something to live for and live he does.  Throughout the whole sorrowful tale he decides to do something for someone dear to him, and it often ends up in disaster.  He goes off to get medicine for his mother and is conscripted in the army.  He scrapes and saves to send his son to school and that ends in disaster.  He finds his daughter a wonderful husband and that ends badly in both their cases.  All the while Fugui works and works and works.  He does not fight those who govern him, but he has thoughts about their methods.  He sees those who rise up above him get knocked down again. He is a Chinese Job, and Fugui's story offers the same lessons to be learned from the Biblical version.