After posting my downbeat comment on politically-connected health insurance (below), I happened to read
Tom Ricks’s always interesting blog. It seems he is a great fan of
The Vagrants
, by the Chinese writer Yiyun Li, recently published in this country:
... it is a great story, beautifully written. It begins in March 21, 1979, with the execution of a young woman who had been a fanatical Red Guard but had lost her faith in Communism and become a determined counterrevolutionary. As she is paraded before being killed, it becomes clear that her vocal cords have been cut, to prevent her from making a final statement. We also learn that one possible reason for her being sentenced to death is that a Party official needs new kidneys, and hers are extracted before she is put to death. It ends about five weeks later, on May Day.
Ouch. Well, never fear! That couldn’t happen here, could it? Blue skies! – Dan Ford
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