ngominh's review against another edition
5.0
Ký ức là loài kỵ đà bằng xương bằng thịt. Chúng biến chuyển, hiển hình và thay đổi tùy theo ngoại cảnh. Nó là máu nóng nuôi dưỡng sắc da, nhưng cũng đồng thời là liều thuốc độc khi thịt bắt đầu thối rữa. Ký ức và quá khứ là đao phủ và máy chém, là dịch hạch và là đậu mùa không thể đẩy lùi. Nó nhớp nháp, tàn bạo và phương phi; nó ám suốt, bảng lảng và trách cứ như những nhát đâm tuy nhỏ mà sâu hoắm như vạn con đĩa vẫn đang say máu bám chặt. Yiyun Li như người lữ hành nhìn cuộc hành quyết với vẻ dửng dưng, để từ đó một chốn cô độc dần dần hiển hình, phát tác, biến tướng và rồi vỡ toang.
Dựa trên vụ đầu độc có thật vào năm 1994 bằng thallium như sau này Yiyun Li từng thừa nhận - là một trong những sự kiện quan trọng của thế hệ cô - Chốn cô độc của linh hồn là hành trình đồng hành, chịu đựng và trưởng thành cùng với quá khứ của nhiều con người trong một thời đoạn Trung Quốc rất nhiều biến động. Đặt ký ức tàn suy ở đây như trọng tâm của một tam giác, 3 nhân vật chính của tiểu thuyết này soi chiếu nhau, gắn kết nhau và hướng về nhau ở cái tâm ấy. Ở họ là sự đồng dạng về mặt phá hủy, nhưng cũng khác nhau từ trong bản chất về mức độ tàn bạo lên cuộc sống của mỗi một người.
Có thể nói điều thành công nhất của Chốn cô độc của linh hồn là Yiyun Li đã tìm ra được một giọng kể phù hợp. Xuyên suốt cuốn sách, tính trung tính trong cách nhìn nhận, đưa ra nhận xét hay đúc kết những điều hiển nhiên là cách tốt nhất để vươn đến gần được sự tàn bạo. Dựa trên nền móng của tính trung tính, sự suy tàn này mặt khác còn được cho thấy bằng lối mỉa mai, châm biếm, lạnh lùng và xa cách. Đó có thể là giọng văn giễu nhại khinh thường sự đời, mà cũng có thể là một kiểu dark comedy cho một vở kịch đậm tính đương đại.
Có thể nói với Chốn cô độc của linh hồn, Yiyun Li đã đặt lên chính bàn cân về sự cô độc và vòng kìm tỏa lan xa của nó. Ký ức cùng với quá khứ luôn luôn hiểm nguy, nó có thể phá hủy cuộc đời chỉ trong chớp mắt, biến con người ta trở thành tĩnh tại và không sắc diện nhợt nhạt như màu pastel đầy vẻ trung tính. Không có khởi đầu hay là kết thúc. Một khi bắt đầu nó đã ghi dấu vào một thời gian không thể xóa bỏ.
Dựa trên vụ đầu độc có thật vào năm 1994 bằng thallium như sau này Yiyun Li từng thừa nhận - là một trong những sự kiện quan trọng của thế hệ cô - Chốn cô độc của linh hồn là hành trình đồng hành, chịu đựng và trưởng thành cùng với quá khứ của nhiều con người trong một thời đoạn Trung Quốc rất nhiều biến động. Đặt ký ức tàn suy ở đây như trọng tâm của một tam giác, 3 nhân vật chính của tiểu thuyết này soi chiếu nhau, gắn kết nhau và hướng về nhau ở cái tâm ấy. Ở họ là sự đồng dạng về mặt phá hủy, nhưng cũng khác nhau từ trong bản chất về mức độ tàn bạo lên cuộc sống của mỗi một người.
Có thể nói điều thành công nhất của Chốn cô độc của linh hồn là Yiyun Li đã tìm ra được một giọng kể phù hợp. Xuyên suốt cuốn sách, tính trung tính trong cách nhìn nhận, đưa ra nhận xét hay đúc kết những điều hiển nhiên là cách tốt nhất để vươn đến gần được sự tàn bạo. Dựa trên nền móng của tính trung tính, sự suy tàn này mặt khác còn được cho thấy bằng lối mỉa mai, châm biếm, lạnh lùng và xa cách. Đó có thể là giọng văn giễu nhại khinh thường sự đời, mà cũng có thể là một kiểu dark comedy cho một vở kịch đậm tính đương đại.
Có thể nói với Chốn cô độc của linh hồn, Yiyun Li đã đặt lên chính bàn cân về sự cô độc và vòng kìm tỏa lan xa của nó. Ký ức cùng với quá khứ luôn luôn hiểm nguy, nó có thể phá hủy cuộc đời chỉ trong chớp mắt, biến con người ta trở thành tĩnh tại và không sắc diện nhợt nhạt như màu pastel đầy vẻ trung tính. Không có khởi đầu hay là kết thúc. Một khi bắt đầu nó đã ghi dấu vào một thời gian không thể xóa bỏ.
margaretefg's review against another edition
3.0
This book starts with the death of Shaoi (sp?) and then runs the parallel stories of 3 characters leading up to her poisoning, 20 years before, and what those characters are doing around the time of her death, and after. Boyang and Moran grew up in the same quadrangle in Beijing as Shaoi, and Ruyu arrived to stay with Shaoi and her family while they are in high school. All 3, although technically friends, seem very isolated (with the possible exception of Moran who wants connection, or at least her younger self does.) Their adult selves are if anything more isolated than their teenage selves, maybe shaped by the poisoning of Shaoi, but they seem very solitary and not very kind. There's sort of a mystery about Shaoi's poisoning, but the focus is more the lonely trajectories of their lives. It's a beautiful book in some ways but hard to read, very bleak and spare.
staticdisplay's review against another edition
3.0
it's taken me quite a while to finish this. as others have pointed out, the writing is lovely in many ways, and has lots of beautiful and memorable phrases. at the same time, the characters are so cold, and the text is so dense with existential questions and conversations, it was very difficult for me to "get into" this. I found the characters unrelatable, and so it was also hard for me to care about their lives or questions or the absence of a search for meaning. I really dragged through the first 50% and then finished the second half in about 3 days, I'm not sure why. I'm glad I've made it through this one; glad I read it, but also glad I'm done reading it.
vdarcangelo's review against another edition
4.0
http://ensuingchapters.com/2014/03/20/review-kinder-than-solitude/
This is a book that will break your heart. From the uncomfortable opening scene at the crematorium, across continents and decades, this is a longitudinal gut-punch of a novel dealing with loss, guilt, terror and fragility.
The person being burned to ashes in the beginning is Shaoai, a childhood friend of the three main characters who was poisoned (perhaps deliberately, perhaps not) in her youth. She has finally passed after two decades in a coma, and her death brings together our lead trio—Moran, Ruyu and Boyang.
From here, the journey turns inward.
Li pens exquisite prose, with beautifully crafted sentences as philosophical as they are proficient. If I have one critique it is that the language, however beautiful, can sometimes stand in the way of the storytelling. Li is able to meditate on moments, which can subsume the reader into the novel, but at times can also push them out.
This is literary mystery, so of course there’s more to it than solving the crime. This is as much about Shaoai’s poisoner as Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer is about catching a serial killer. What matters isn’t revealing what happened, but exploring the intersection of the lives touched by Shaoai’s coma and death—inhabiting the grief and guilt harbored by the three survivors.
We all have childhood regrets, and we’ve all known someone who never made it to adulthood (though not necessarily linked the way they are here). There are things we would like to change. There are times we wonder why we’re still here and someone else isn’t.
How do we go on with this knowledge? Li doesn’t necessarily answer that question, but she gives us a disarming portrait of three childhood friends coming to terms with a past they can’t quite shake and a mystery that will both intertwine them and isolate them forever.
This is a book that will break your heart. From the uncomfortable opening scene at the crematorium, across continents and decades, this is a longitudinal gut-punch of a novel dealing with loss, guilt, terror and fragility.
The person being burned to ashes in the beginning is Shaoai, a childhood friend of the three main characters who was poisoned (perhaps deliberately, perhaps not) in her youth. She has finally passed after two decades in a coma, and her death brings together our lead trio—Moran, Ruyu and Boyang.
From here, the journey turns inward.
Li pens exquisite prose, with beautifully crafted sentences as philosophical as they are proficient. If I have one critique it is that the language, however beautiful, can sometimes stand in the way of the storytelling. Li is able to meditate on moments, which can subsume the reader into the novel, but at times can also push them out.
This is literary mystery, so of course there’s more to it than solving the crime. This is as much about Shaoai’s poisoner as Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer is about catching a serial killer. What matters isn’t revealing what happened, but exploring the intersection of the lives touched by Shaoai’s coma and death—inhabiting the grief and guilt harbored by the three survivors.
We all have childhood regrets, and we’ve all known someone who never made it to adulthood (though not necessarily linked the way they are here). There are things we would like to change. There are times we wonder why we’re still here and someone else isn’t.
How do we go on with this knowledge? Li doesn’t necessarily answer that question, but she gives us a disarming portrait of three childhood friends coming to terms with a past they can’t quite shake and a mystery that will both intertwine them and isolate them forever.
joek226's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
A unique read from Yiyun Li, I’ve heard high praise for her writing from both my sister as well as online, unfortunately this book really wasn’t for me, but I won’t judge her entire body of work negatively due to one book I didn’t agree with. This book, in my opinion, has its high points when it’s expanding on the relationship between the three main characters, unfortunately that’s about it. Almost every character in this book is an abhorrent human being that views emotions or attachments of any kind as a sign of weakness/stupidity. They all believe themselves to be far superior to all those around them due to the fact that they’ve killed off all human aspects of their being. Any time the author would delve into what the characters thought process was at a given time, I would immediately get pulled out of the book due to an inability to relate to any of the main characters (and about 90% of the side characters as well) as I could not see myself feeling this cold towards the world.
knkoch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I chose this book for a small buddy reads group based on my experience with Where Reasons End, and this was quite different in style and tone. While Reasons was incisive, pared down, timeless, and almost austere, Kinder than Solitude was nearly its opposite; unbearably heavy with the weight of the past, and deeply interwoven with the city and context of Beijing. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but I preferred the former.
I liked the way I eventually got clear portraits of the three main characters, both in childhood and vastly changed as adults. My empathy for them, though, was rather dampened by their excessive introspection and grim views of humanity. They were all prone to many generalized pronouncements on life, which someone in my buddy read pointed out early on and was thereafter hard to ignore. Overall, not my favorite, but an interesting one to get multiple viewpoints on. I still look forward to other works by Yiyun Li soon!
I liked the way I eventually got clear portraits of the three main characters, both in childhood and vastly changed as adults. My empathy for them, though, was rather dampened by their excessive introspection and grim views of humanity. They were all prone to many generalized pronouncements on life, which someone in my buddy read pointed out early on and was thereafter hard to ignore. Overall, not my favorite, but an interesting one to get multiple viewpoints on. I still look forward to other works by Yiyun Li soon!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Rape
tiffany_lishan's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
novemah's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a big fan of Yiyun Li and read all of her books, so I know that she tends to write about the less happy aspects of life. This one is probably the darkest one yet and left me feeling really unsettled. Even though it's fiction, all of the characters and situations felt very real, which is disconcerting because one particular character was very cold and detached but was still completely relatable even though she essentially ruins multiple people's lives. I have mixed feelings because it's well-written, but I just couldn't get over the fact that the ending felt so bleak. A part of me is always sad to read fiction where good people do not find happy endings and bad people do. It's too much like real life for my tastes.
fscolli93's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
purplemuskogee's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Stunning book.
"Boyang thought that grief would make people less commonplace. The waiting room at the crematory, however, did not differentiate itself from elsewhere: the eagerness to be served first and the suspicion that others had snatched a better deal were reminiscent of the marketplace or stock exchange".
It follows childhood friends Moran, Boyang and Ruyu - and Shaoai, who is the slightly older rebellious girl whose family accepted to host and foster Ruyu, an orphan who was previously raised by the strict and religious "grandaunts" who found her on their doorstep one winter. We alternate between their childhood in Beijing and their adulthood, Boyang very successful and still in Beijing, Ruyu and Moran both in the US but not in contact and living separate lives. Shaoai has just died after 20 years in a coma, having been poisoned when she was younger. Whether it was an accident, a suicide or a murder is unclear - for most of the book - as we follow her former friends who are all wondering what happened exactly.
"Even the most innocent person, when cornered, is capable of a heartless crime".
Plot-wise it is slow and at times weak - but in terms of character study... this was an incredible novel, with characters all interesting and mysterious and really wonderful to read about. I regretted that once they are adults, Moran and Ruyu become very similar, at times it made it difficult to follow - although Ruyu's mystery existed already in her childhood, a little girl raised by two austere women who taught her never to show emotion, while Moran's cool demeanour as an adult seems acquired. Shaoai exists mostly as a memory - and in a few chapters as a rebellious student in China, uncertain of her fate as she awaits expulsion from her university following a protest.
"Certain things come unannounced, like crickets, like the darkness of the season: by the time one notices them, one has already fallen victim to their wicked charm".
The writing really was wonderful - smooth, clean, poetic but without the pathos. It was slow and beautifully written, and such a surprise of a book. Really, really recommend this one.
"Boyang thought that grief would make people less commonplace. The waiting room at the crematory, however, did not differentiate itself from elsewhere: the eagerness to be served first and the suspicion that others had snatched a better deal were reminiscent of the marketplace or stock exchange".
It follows childhood friends Moran, Boyang and Ruyu - and Shaoai, who is the slightly older rebellious girl whose family accepted to host and foster Ruyu, an orphan who was previously raised by the strict and religious "grandaunts" who found her on their doorstep one winter. We alternate between their childhood in Beijing and their adulthood, Boyang very successful and still in Beijing, Ruyu and Moran both in the US but not in contact and living separate lives. Shaoai has just died after 20 years in a coma, having been poisoned when she was younger. Whether it was an accident, a suicide or a murder is unclear - for most of the book - as we follow her former friends who are all wondering what happened exactly.
"Even the most innocent person, when cornered, is capable of a heartless crime".
Plot-wise it is slow and at times weak - but in terms of character study... this was an incredible novel, with characters all interesting and mysterious and really wonderful to read about. I regretted that once they are adults, Moran and Ruyu become very similar, at times it made it difficult to follow - although Ruyu's mystery existed already in her childhood, a little girl raised by two austere women who taught her never to show emotion, while Moran's cool demeanour as an adult seems acquired. Shaoai exists mostly as a memory - and in a few chapters as a rebellious student in China, uncertain of her fate as she awaits expulsion from her university following a protest.
"Certain things come unannounced, like crickets, like the darkness of the season: by the time one notices them, one has already fallen victim to their wicked charm".
The writing really was wonderful - smooth, clean, poetic but without the pathos. It was slow and beautifully written, and such a surprise of a book. Really, really recommend this one.