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4.52 AVERAGE
4.52 AVERAGE
I can't imagine what it would be like to have both your sons die by suicide and in this heartbreaking memoir, Yiyun Li says that sometimes there are just no words. Though the memory was written after son James' death, the reader also gets an intimate perspective of son Victor as a natural contrast.
I'm curious to reread WHERE REASONS END to see how Li's perspective may have changed between the two losses. Li's "radical acceptance" may be controversial to some - I know myself to be way too selfish to be the kind of enlightened that can come about from such devastating loss.
I was surprised by the choice of narrator (Suzanne Toren, an expert in European languages), but perhaps it's actually not surprising given Chinese-born Li does not consider herself a "Chinese writer." Given what she experienced from the Chinese media following her sons' deaths, I can see why she'd want to distance herself even further. If anyone needs a "leave Britney alone" meme, it's this woman...
I'm curious to reread WHERE REASONS END to see how Li's perspective may have changed between the two losses. Li's "radical acceptance" may be controversial to some - I know myself to be way too selfish to be the kind of enlightened that can come about from such devastating loss.
I was surprised by the choice of narrator (Suzanne Toren, an expert in European languages), but perhaps it's actually not surprising given Chinese-born Li does not consider herself a "Chinese writer." Given what she experienced from the Chinese media following her sons' deaths, I can see why she'd want to distance herself even further. If anyone needs a "leave Britney alone" meme, it's this woman...
Cliches are not merely flabby words used to express unimaginative thoughts, rather, cliches corrode the mind. Flabby language begetting flabby thinking seems a more alarming prospect than the opposite - flabby thinking finding refuge in flabby language. My garden is not a metaphor for hope or regeneration. The flowers are never tasked to be the heralds for brightness and optimism. Things in nature merely grow.
Sometimes a mother and a child are like two hands placed next to each other, only just touching or else with fingers intertwined. Then the world turns and one hand is left. holding on to everything and nothing that is called now and now and now and now.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
just phenomenal. how do you contend with living after both of your children take their own lives? inspiring to behold. li's ponderings about death, grief, and mortality are so different from anything i have ever considered.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced