Young Babylon

This book offers a slice of life viewpoint of living in rural China in the early 90s. Lu Xiaolu is a man who didn't really apply himself in school so he goes to work in the nearby saccharin factory. We get to hear his stories about the people he works with and his relationship with Bai Lan.

The narrative feels like if you're sitting there listening to someone tell stories about their life. Each chapter felt like it was another evening of stories from Lu Xiaolu. It's not in the perfect order and sometimes it goes off on other tangents before getting back on track.

Without knowing intimate details of factory life in China I cannot say if some of these stories are embellished or not. However, I wouldn't be surprised to hear if the various teams did have inside jokes and nicknames for one another, and rules not always being followed.

I found the book enjoyable and something fun to read, though I felt it got a bit more abrupt at the end. We also don't really get a sense of what happened in the years when Lu decides to leave his town and go to Shanghai. There was so much of a buildup in showing how he was different and factory life didn't really suit him, yet we really don't get to find out how he finally finds his success. At least we did get to see him grow up a bit.