Scan barcode
A review by codexmendoza
Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li
5.0
I guess you could say I am really into books that center around a death. In this case, Kinder Than Solitude hinges on the slow death by poisoning of a young woman and the lives before and after of the three childhood playmates who were involved in it. If this sounds familiar, it's because it references the 1995 thalium poisoning of college student Zhu Ling. I didn't realize this until I described this book to my cousin—Actual Chinese Person—and she said "oh, this was a really famous case."
And to a certain extent, a lot of what the novel references (people being excited about powered orange juice and being happy about Communist rule) are maybe not totally acessible in the same way. After all, Li has described this novel as also being, in part, her love letter to Beijing where she grew up. And, as the title implies, this is a book about three adults who chose to remove themselves from family ties to be alone, which isn't really odd in America (to where two of them move) but is unusual for Chinese families where extended family is close—even across the Pacific. However, like most of Li's writing, this is also a book that refuses to be precious and strips away illusions and drama. It takes a central event from a long unsolved mystery and says "the interesting question isn't really why did this happen."
Other thoughts:
- still think the grenade throwing thing is a joke
- Shanghai > Beijing tho
And to a certain extent, a lot of what the novel references (people being excited about powered orange juice and being happy about Communist rule) are maybe not totally acessible in the same way. After all, Li has described this novel as also being, in part, her love letter to Beijing where she grew up. And, as the title implies, this is a book about three adults who chose to remove themselves from family ties to be alone, which isn't really odd in America (to where two of them move) but is unusual for Chinese families where extended family is close—even across the Pacific. However, like most of Li's writing, this is also a book that refuses to be precious and strips away illusions and drama. It takes a central event from a long unsolved mystery and says "the interesting question isn't really why did this happen."
Other thoughts:
- still think the grenade throwing thing is a joke
- Shanghai > Beijing tho