Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

I got this book as a gift, and it checks a lot of boxes for me: it's about two boys exiled to the countryside during China's cultural revolution who come across some Western literature that changes their lives. It was a little clunky, but had a lot to like.

Pros:
A quick, breezy read. It's easy to sympathize with and cheer for the main characters in their ordeal. It's also pretty funny at times, like a scene in the middle where they find themselves to be impromptu dentists. The magic of reading is also handled quite well, like a long scene in the middle where a boy tells the story of the Count of Monte Cristo over many nights. The romance is sweet, if a bit uncomfortable at times, and I thought a plot point towards the end about women's health issues was handled well and provided a real lens into the era.

I also learned a lot more about the Cultural Revolution, which I didn't know very much about besides the scenes in Three-Body Problem. I also thought that, similarly to Jojo Rabbit and The Death of Stalin, this book did a pretty good job of 1) revealing the fundamental absurdity and arbitrariness of draconian, authoritarian governments, and 2) still having a serious enough tone at times to point out the real consequences of such regimes.

Cons:
Aesthetically, I think this is one of those books that loses something in translation. Some of the phrasing is a little clunky, and there's a bit in the middle where the narration style switches abruptly to an interview format, which really confused me. I'm sure it's much more cohesive and prettier in the original language.