A review by serendipitysbooks
Activities of Daily Living by Lisa Hsiao Chen

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 Activities of Daily Living is a book that’s grown on me the more I’ve thought about it. Which is good because I initially wasn’t sure if it was going to be a book for me. There are two main strands to the novel, both involving Alice, and they intertwine and interrelate with each other. The first is a loosely defined project that she’s working on, involving the work of performance artist Tehching Hsieh. The second involves her relationship with her father who has developed dementia. As I read I struggled with the art storyline. It was quite cerebral and abstract, I’m not familiar with the art world and don’t really understand the concepts involved in more contemporary art. The second storyline, involving her father and his dementia was fine intellectually, but challenged me emotionally since I have a close family member with dementia. As I read more and began to comprehend the connections between the two storylines, particularly when it came to time - what it means and how we use and value it - my appreciation of this book began to grow. It’s abstract and philosophical, and not for every reader. Readers need to be okay with idiosyncratic stylistic choices, such as the terms “the Father” and “the Artist”. I do think art lovers would enjoy this book and probably get more out of it that I did. But it left me with plenty to think about, and I keep returning to thoughts that it prompted. I’m very glad I stuck with it.

“Wasting time only has a negative connotation when we accept the narrow idea that time is money…What if wasting time were not negative at all, but the very essence of what it means to be creative and live a life? The production of such a life would have nothing to do with commodity.” 
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