20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo

Taken from wikipedia:

The story of Fenfang, a peasant girl from northern China that moves to Beijing at the age of seventeen. She moves through a series of jobs, ending up making a living as a movie extra, and trying her luck as a scriptwriter.

The novel is written as a series of snapshots through her life as well as one of her movie scripts, as she negotiates boyfriends, a changing China, and tries to educate and define herself. The novel is rewritten by the author from her earlier Chinese language novel “Fenfang’s 37.2 Degrees.”
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I finally read this book after buying it last year. It’s a short book to begin with, something that you can finish in 2-3 hours if uninterrupted.

It reminds me of life as young woman or even college student where you are unsure on what to do with life, spending most of your free time sleeping and doing nothing much. It also gives me a clear picture of how Beijing is especially from peasant’s perspective. Life is definitely tough, huh..no matter where you live, be it in sweet potato farm or in a big city like Beijing.

I hope I will be able to read Xiaolu Guo’s other books.

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