Book of the Month May 2020 (or whenever!) - 《草鞋湾》 by 曹文轩

[PerpetualChange]

Finished it up today. I really enjoyed it especially the comments others have left in this group. For a children's book I thought it was remarkably mature, and the questions that the main characters are left to deal with are indeed very grown-up ones. While still feeling like a complete work, I thought the novel left a lot on the table in terms of ideas that could have been explored even further, which I generally think is a good thing. 

 

Having not much else to add, the least I can do is share my Pleco deck. 

 

Text: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iaUgjEdf7ya435q7kLkQIco9WZlRBtHA/view?usp=sharing

XML: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iXe-7w8HxrmH0Qn4OtVwCepeMrFRcDKE/view?usp=sharing

[Dahuzi]

It took me all of the fall and most of the summer, but I finally finished it! It's definitely at my challenge level, but it's a great book. Thanks to Lu for the great summaries and word lists. It was great to be able to double check that I understood what happened.

[ZhuoMing]

A bit late to the party but I just finished this book. This was the third chinese novel I have read, following 活着 and 许三观卖血记. 

 

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It is fairly fast paced, and something interesting happens in every chapter which definitely helped to keep me turning the pages. Although it is a children's book, I felt that it was fairly mature, and plenty enjoyable to read as an adult. The father/son relationship is definitely the highlight of the book. Their relationship is beautiful yet believable. There are plenty of twists that I never expected, which was always a pleasant surprise. The ending was satisfying enough, though I would have preferred if it continued for 1 additional chapter after the current ending.

 

Overall I think this book is a terrific choice for one of someone's first few Chinese novels, as it was mine.