I and you

Author: Han Dong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Passion, Sex, Hurt, Fate, Disillusionment, Art, Friendship, Qigong, Guqin, Speculation
This ordinary yet bizarre love story is woven from these elements that are both real and illusory. With meticulous brushstrokes and recurring impressions, it ends attachments or transcends pain. Only with honesty and excessive sensitivity can one examine the relationship between people and the essence of love from the humblest places of humanity and the ignorant places of love—I and You is such an honest book about love, it is simply desperate. — Junlichuan
An outstanding writer must be one who constantly creates misreadings among readers and breaks prejudices among peers, and Han Dong is undoubtedly such a writer. In Rooted, he directs his thoughts against the myth of "history," and in I and You, he targets the myth of "love," which is rampant in contemporary times. — Yi Sha
The power of I and You lies in its "closeness," close to every detail of the relationship between men and women, both reality and psychology. — He Xiaozhu
Han Dong questions love and exposes it—the greatest myth in secular life. I and You tells the story of love without roots, the death of love, and the suffering of separation in life. Perhaps it is not a love story, but I would say it is an anti-love story. — Ma Cè
Han Dong creates a new literary style for the language of the novel, which feels like a magical blend of Chinese Zhang Henshui and American Hemingway. It is both delicate and concise. Moreover, the writing of the novel is never biased, always cutting between the protagonists Xu Chen and Miao Miao, as if in a film shot with a close-up and reverse shot. — Li Feng
In this love-themed novel, Han Dong does not, like second- or third-rate writers, merely focus on the desires and anxieties of the characters, but instead directs his critique straight at human faith anxieties. — Lu Li
A sensitive spine is the most useful thing in reading, especially for a writer like Han Dong who sees truth in details. Readers must concentrate, using their spinal nerves to read. — Bo Huai
The nearly 200,000-word novel I and You focuses on the exploration of love, covering topics such as sex, love between men and women, jealousy, hurt, separation, and disillusionment, and is written with great detail, making it more readable. The main material of the novel comes from Han Dong's own emotional experience. Han Dong hopes to "seek possible shared experiences and their understanding through personal experience." I and You narrates the entire process of a simple love story from beginning to end. Ninety-five percent of the novel revolves around the love between "me" and Miao Miao. "I" gives all my love, enduring Miao Miao's stubbornness, indifference, malicious sarcasm, and betrayal, but ultimately loses her. After the breakup, "I" repeatedly ruminates on every detail of the love with Miao Miao, hoping to find evidence of the love she once had. After almost cruelly analyzing the characters, Han Dong says in the novel: "Looking around the world, only the desire to sacrifice and die is truly sincere."