Red Sorghum by Mo Yan

What an interesting book.

Red Sorghum tells the story of a rural Chinese family, centered on the devastating period of the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s.

It brings to life the brutal reality of that war, sometimes in gruesome detail.  Before Red Sorghum I had never read a detailed account of the skinning of a living man.

The book uses the sorghum plants that are ubiquitous in this region as a metaphor for human perseverance through the most unimaginable horrors.  The village in which the story takes place is surrounded by sorghum, using it in endless ways, as food, fuel, medicine, disinfectant, shelter and more.

The sorghum endures the brutality of the war just as do the humans in the story, getting mowed down by gunfire, absorbing the blood and entrails of humans and animals.  But the sorghum always comes back, just as the people do, no matter the devastation.

Red Sorghum also depicts the moral ambiguity of humans in warfare, with few pure heroes in the story.  Perhaps exaggerating for effect, it tells a very real story of both the fragility, and the endurance of humanity.