Books set in the cultural revolution are not likely to be lighthearted. But heft and weight are not the same thing as bleak, and here Li spins a story, or a set of stories, so packed with humanity that although you know this will not end well for anyone, the journey is nourishing.  Yis cast of characters are far from saints. The book begins with a complex martyr, a young woman facing execution for defying a regime when she was 18. However, s a 16 year old, she led her peers in tormenting and denoucing villagers as a fervent Red Guard, likely causing the deformity of a now 12 year girl who makes one of the main cast of the novel. Along with the 12 year old, Yi presents us with a young child, a often frighteningly callous social misfit, two warmhearted vagrants, the martyr's parents and a wealthy singer as focal characters. 
Li's characters are generally lost  - seeking love and comfort, food and sex, and most of all a sense of human connection. But in this most fraught of worlds, thier interior lives can't be straightforward. The martyr's father emotions are eroded beyond grief, leaving him unable to see his daughter's passion as anything but destructive. The singer, playing an imitation of perfect womanhood, is consumed by a quiet desperation that becomes unbearable. The children pantomime lives distorted by fear, want and pretence.
All must decide how much to risk for what they want, or who they want to be.  But rarely do those choices turn out the way they expect. Li has a great capacity for suprise - a kind of sad, bitter-tinged, surprise mostly, but also in the way characters find their humanity in the most surprising places, even to them.  I was slightly dreading this read, noting that it was likely to be grim, but in reality I looked forward to picking it up, checking in with the characters and how they forged their way.  We are more than our worst moments, and more than the worst things we experience. It is in the act of living that this book finds its song, and in this, it is an indictment of those things which would rob us of that.