Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Why are all the sad idioms about girls? she asks—a fair point, but neither of us knows.
The day-to-day life of the academic scientist is hidden to the public. Our processes are veiled, and our sense of accomplishment and relevance is cultivated via internal criteria that remain more or less obscure to our friends and loved ones. Weike Wang's novel, a spare account of the breaking point of a chemistry graduate student, uses the backdrop of a young woman seeking her professional footing to explore broader questions of her identity: what she owes to her parents, what she owes to her partner, and what it means to be ambitious. I found it to be beautifully written, bittersweet, and extraordinarily true to the points of view of my cohort of young, female scientists, right down to this exchange between our unnamed narrator and her therapist:
The day-to-day life of the academic scientist is hidden to the public. Our processes are veiled, and our sense of accomplishment and relevance is cultivated via internal criteria that remain more or less obscure to our friends and loved ones. Weike Wang's novel, a spare account of the breaking point of a chemistry graduate student, uses the backdrop of a young woman seeking her professional footing to explore broader questions of her identity: what she owes to her parents, what she owes to her partner, and what it means to be ambitious. I found it to be beautifully written, bittersweet, and extraordinarily true to the points of view of my cohort of young, female scientists, right down to this exchange between our unnamed narrator and her therapist:
So why did I leave science again? I ask the shrink. Was it because I didn’t like it or I wasn’t good enough to do it? Does it matter? she says.I anticipate reading it again and again.