1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows pt 1

When looking at the choices of memoirs, the first thing that really stuck out to me about this book was the name. In my experience with memoirs, they usually cover a lifetime or even just a period within one's life. The idea that a memoir could span 1000 years was intriguing to me, so I decided to look further into it. Over the past year, I have been trying to learn more about China in history and modernity. Once I found out that this book would be discussing that heavily, I realized I had found the memoir which I would be reading. More than only hoping to learn about China factually, I was interested to see a personal account of the tumultuous history of the nation in the last century. I hoped to gain a greater perspective into the rapidly evolving culture of the nation and a glimpse into the lives of some of those who live there.

So far I am enjoying the book and the style of writing. The author does a great job at using clear and concise language that makes the book very readable. Not only is it well written, but the content itself is engaging and unique. I don't feel the fatigue that I often get when reading from this book thanks to a combination of its content and style. Learning about the political turmoil within China during both the author's life and his father's life has been very interesting. I appreciate how the author sees his father's life as so intertwined with his own, and feels that it is greatly important to tell his complete story. The choice to use pictures and poems interwoven within the prose gives a more immersive look into the lives that the author is describing. Lastly, the content itself is interesting from a factual standpoint, and I feel like I am definitely gaining both the knowledge and perspective that I was hoping to get from the book.