Where Reasons End

Laura sent me a link to an Instagram review someone had written for this book. The person who penned this reflection captures my emotions and frustrations so beautifuly that I can't help but just share it here:

[Where Reasons End] is a book of imagined conversations between a mother and her recently-deceased son. I can best describe this book as autobiographical fiction as the author, #YiyunLi wrote this novella in the aftermath of her own son's suicide. Which is perhaps why it doesn't make sense; it comes from a place of incredible pain, and oftentimes with grief, try as much as one can, the world doesn't make sense. In the case of this book, the words don't make sense.

With a verbose mess of sentences debating the use of nouns, adjectives and adverbs, and basically, writing in general, this book does its best to keep you out of touch with any kind of emotion. Every other character, I don't know if I can call them that, as no one features for more than two sentences here, even the younger brother and the father. It's just mom and son meeting up in a world devoid of time or tense, made up of words only. Through this made-up conversation, Li seems to have one purpose - criticising her parenting prowess and her writing skills. And the critique comes in the voice of her son. Why?

So basically, I don't understand this book. Sentence after sentence, relentlessly, one philosophical rumination leads to another. It's just too much, especially when they lead nowhere. Also, it is not entirely believable when you make a 16-year old sound like Socrates.

However, all said and done, I cannot contest that Li is a magnificent writer, and I'll definitely pick up some of her earlier works of fiction someday, but I do contest the purpose of this book. 2 stars!