SPOILER ALERT
Huózhe (To Live) — Yu Hua
Summary
Yu Hua’s Huózhe (活着, To Live) follows the tragic life of Xu Fugui, once a wealthy young man who squanders his fortune gambling and is reduced to poverty. After losing his land and wealth, Fugui is conscripted into the Nationalist army, later captured by the Communists, and finally returns home years later only to find his father dead and his family destitute.
From then on, Fugui’s life becomes a series of losses: his mother dies, his son Youqing is accidentally killed during a blood transfusion intended for a local official’s wife, his daughter Fengxia (mute from childhood illness) dies giving birth, and his wife Jiazhen passes away quietly not long after. Fugui’s son-in-law also dies in a construction accident, leaving Fugui to raise his grandson Kugen, who later dies from overeating sweet potatoes.
By the novel’s end, Fugui lives alone with an old ox named after himself, recounting his story to a wandering narrator. Despite unbearable grief, he endures.
> “人是为了活着本身而活着的，不是为了活着之外的任何事物而活着。”
“People live for the sake of living itself, not for anything beyond that.”
This quote captures the moral essence of the novel, existence as resistance.
Character Focus
Xu Fugui: Once selfish and hedonistic, he becomes a symbol of endurance and humility.
Jiazhen: Embodies patience, forgiveness, and the quiet strength of women during turbulent times.
Youqing & Fengxia: Represent innocence crushed by forces beyond control: politics, fate, or chance.
The Narrator: A detached listener who records Fugui’s oral story, giving it a folkloric and historical weight.
Historical and Political Context
The novel’s backdrop covers four major historical periods in China:
Puan vermedi
Antik Yunan mitolojisinde adını duymuş olabileceğiniz Klytaimestra, genellikle Agamemnon’un eşi ve kocasını öldüren kraliçe olarak anılır. Ancak bu roman, onu yalnızca “kocasını öldüren kadın” kalıbına hapsetmiyor; aksine, onu bir anne, savaşçı, kurban ve kraliçe olarak yeniden tanımlıyor.
Yazar, Klytaimestra’nın ağzından anlatılan bu hikâyede, onun yaşadıklarını, kırılma noktalarını ve güç arayışını derin bir psikolojik çözümlemeyle sunuyor. Daha en başta, bir kralın kızı olarak doğup politik çıkarlar uğruna bir zorbayla evlendirilmesi, ardından çocuğunu tanrılara kurban vermek zorunda bırakılması, okuru sert bir duygusal zemine çekiyor. Klytaimestra’nın öfkesi ve intikam arzusu, salt kişisel hırs değil; adalet arayışının acımasız bir formu.
Anlatım dili hem destansı hem de akıcı; tarihsel atmosfer ile karakterin iç sesi arasında iyi bir denge kurulmuş. Özellikle Klytaimestra’nın monologları, hem dönemin acımasız politik ortamını hem de tanrılarla insanlar arasındaki güç oyunlarını çok etkileyici biçimde yansıtıyor.
Bu roman, Klytaimestra’yı sadece “kral katili” olarak değil, yaşadığı tüm trajedilere rağmen iradesini koruyan, kendi gücünü yaratmayı seçen bir kadın olarak yeniden tanımlıyor. İntikam hikâyesi olarak başladığı noktada, aslında bir özgürleşme ve kendi kaderini yazma destanına dönüşüyor.
While reading Clytemnestra, I felt deeply connected to both the harsh atmosphere of the ancient world and to Clytemnestra’s powerful, angry, yet fragile spirit. You have brought her to life not merely as a “mythical figure,” but as a flesh-and-blood woman who does not hide her justified anger and chooses to write her own destiny.
The historical depth in your storytelling, the way you convey the character’s inner voice so vividly that it resonates in the present day,
“Kötü bir anıyı unutmanın en iyi yolu güzel bir tanesiyle değişmektir.”
FİNALLY
I think I can say it’s one of the rare English books I finished in one sitting. While listening and reading, I knew many things were waiting for me, but not all of them. Some things shocked me, and with some, I found myself saying, "How is this possible?" Is everyone living a completely different life behind the camera? Is no one aware of what others are going through? But it ended well, didn’t it? The bad ones were punished, and the good ones, despite the harm they suffered, managed to survive. This was like a very realistic fairy tale, with the only bad part being that everything was real. One of the beautiful aspects of the book was how easy it was to read, and while listening, feeling like Shari, becoming her, I thought many times, "How could she endure all this?" Because after living through these things, writing about them as well... I hope more people, especially children in similar situations, are saved from such circumstances. And throughout the book, I think the part I loved most was the dedication.
"To anybody who has been silenced, gaslit, abused, or lonely.
You are stronger than you know.
May earthly and heavenly angels lift you up."
And as Shari said, "Finally, it ends here."
The Forgotten Boys adlı serinin ilk kitabı devamı gelecek yazarı zaten seviyorum arada iniş çıkışı olsa bile en azından büyük felaket yaşatmıyor .
Burada bazı ilk kitaplar için olabilen en büyük sıkıntı var aşırı karakter ve mafya grubu doluşmuş oda boğuntu yaratıyor .
Miami'deki Pakhan Nikolai ve bir operasyon sırasında denk gelip kurtardığı Cassie'nin hikayesi anlatılıyor . Cassi'nin Persephone ve Nikolai'nin de Hades göndermeleri var konuda orası çok hoştu .
Update: Apparently this author is transphobic!! BYE HON :) ps: everything I wrote here was before I've learned that.
We should all be feminists. Why? Adichie responds to this question impressively in her book which is a 30-maximum 40 minutes read. I really enjoyed reading this book, it was quite easy to read and the author was straightforward whilst bringing together her thoughts on the argument and stereotypical views on feminism.
“[...]his advice to me was that I should never call myself a feminist, since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands. So I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist.”
There are many quotes that I absolutely loved, and you will not believe how many quotes I have underlined in this book which has about 30 pages, but I had to narrow them down to add some to my review.
“[...]we say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, pretend that you are not, especially in public, otherwise you will emasculate him.’ But what if we question the premise itself? Why should a woman’s success be a threat to a man?”
Gender expectations have become a great obstacle that prevents us from pursuing our interests. As Adichi said, women are not born with the cooking gene, and it is ridiculous how men rely on women for the act of cooking, for the act of nourishing oneself just because it is "uncanny" or "feminine" for a man to cook. This is how society views men who cook, hence it is now normalised that women should be the one cooking dinner instead of men.
“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much
