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kappafrog's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Death, Animal death, Death of parent, Medical content, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Excrement, Classism, Grief, Cancer, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Ableism
Minor: Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Vomit
kaneebli's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Racism and Police brutality
koreanlinda's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
At first, I was baffled by the title. Is this a story about gods? I found the structure awkward as well. The book starts with a chapter titled “The End” and makes two rotations of three main characters through their points of view: Zhu Wen > Yongzong > Liya > Zhu Wen > Yongzong > Liya. And in the center of their story stands Su Lan.
What I liked the most was how deeply flawed all the characters are. While pursuing what they want in their lives, they uncontrollably go through obsessions and delusions. Who doesn’t? Su Lan struggles to take care of her little daughter Liya as a single mother and invents games to keep her quiet at work. For example, Liya would sit still and pretend to be a rock or statue. (p.83).
I felt a bit frustrated to follow Liya, a self-centered young adult who is not thinking straightafter her mother's death . She was an epitome of obsessions and delusions; however, I had gotten to understand her better toward the end of the book. I learned how the absence of the past affects an individual's mental stability; how it sets them on a desperate search for their roots and grounds.
While Liya alone moves through spaces, we get to see a lot through Zhu Wen and Yongzong, too. Meng Jin talks about social issues through Zhu Wen’s narratives: “I have never been interested in political matters. For a person like me (poor and unemployed with a disability), it does not matter who holds power—I will always remain outside the hierarchy, in that group of people everyone pities and secretly wishes did not exist because they would rather not bother with pity.” (p.115)
The level of concreteness abruptly changes in the last chapter “The Beginning.” Meng Jin even tries to make the existence of Yongzong murky: the nurse states Su Lan’s husband died when she was at the Beijing hospital but then later witnessed a man rising from death.
What keeps the whole story consistent is the ever-so-present question about time: “how to remember the future and forget the past?” Meng Jin asks. It gets hard to keep track of time and where we are as we travel through multiple characters’ points of view in different years. Without a clear lineage of time, the stories around Su Lan collapse on one another and come into our heads as a big chunk. Maybe that is how Liya felt while chasing and collecting bits of information about her past, and we get to experience it ourselves.
Circling back to the title, I find it quite alienated from the theme or idea of the novel, and here is Meng Jin's explanation in an interview with Rhianna Walton for Powell's:
What I liked the most was how deeply flawed all the characters are. While pursuing what they want in their lives, they uncontrollably go through obsessions and delusions. Who doesn’t? Su Lan struggles to take care of her little daughter Liya as a single mother and invents games to keep her quiet at work. For example, Liya would sit still and pretend to be a rock or statue. (p.83).
I felt a bit frustrated to follow Liya, a self-centered young adult who is not thinking straight
While Liya alone moves through spaces, we get to see a lot through Zhu Wen and Yongzong, too. Meng Jin talks about social issues through Zhu Wen’s narratives: “I have never been interested in political matters. For a person like me (poor and unemployed with a disability), it does not matter who holds power—I will always remain outside the hierarchy, in that group of people everyone pities and secretly wishes did not exist because they would rather not bother with pity.” (p.115)
The level of concreteness abruptly changes in the last chapter “The Beginning.” Meng Jin even tries to make the existence of Yongzong murky: the nurse states Su Lan’s husband died when she was at the Beijing hospital but then later witnessed a man rising from death.
What keeps the whole story consistent is the ever-so-present question about time: “how to remember the future and forget the past?” Meng Jin asks. It gets hard to keep track of time and where we are as we travel through multiple characters’ points of view in different years. Without a clear lineage of time, the stories around Su Lan collapse on one another and come into our heads as a big chunk. Maybe that is how Liya felt while chasing and collecting bits of information about her past, and we get to experience it ourselves.
Circling back to the title, I find it quite alienated from the theme or idea of the novel, and here is Meng Jin's explanation in an interview with Rhianna Walton for Powell's:
Honestly, I didn't think too hard about the title and what it meant on a larger scale. It popped out to me as a phrase on the page. I liked how it came up in this almost inconsequential, side-note way. As a writer, I tend to go towards mystery. I write very much by intuition. The title just felt right to me.
Review by Linda (she/they)
Twitter @KoreanLindaPark
Letter writer at DefinitelyNotOkay.com
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Mental illness, Racism, and Xenophobia
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