There's a lot to unpack here about Mao's Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward and all the terrible repercussions it had on the ordinary people of China. That said, this book was not without its own hilarity. Upon interviewing a migrant worker in Chengdu:

LIAO: If you were so poor, why did you keep having children?

ZHAO: I am penniless. I have no luck with money at all. That's my fate. But my dick is not willing to accept fate.

Review to come.