Scan barcode
sweetbeetle's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
!!! Abuser torments abuse victim with suicide letters after the victim has gone no-contact !!!
70% verbal abuse, 10% immature ideas, 10% poor writing and 10% extremely sincere thoughts.
Normally, I don't write reviews as loaded as this one, but this book was a special case.
Be aware that this book is essentially a suicide note written by the author weeks before her death.
It is hard to say how autobiographical this book is, but from the text the following is clear:
70% verbal abuse, 10% immature ideas, 10% poor writing and 10% extremely sincere thoughts.
Normally, I don't write reviews as loaded as this one, but this book was a special case.
Be aware that this book is essentially a suicide note written by the author weeks before her death.
It is hard to say how autobiographical this book is, but from the text the following is clear:
- The narrator has physically abused her partner in the past.
- The victim has since gone no-contact.
- The abuser does not accept the no-contact and insists the victim still loves her.
- The mental abuse continues through:
- Constant phone calling
- Letters dissecting the victim's 'flaws' which constantly mentions suicide as a solution to the pain the victim has 'caused' the abuser.
5. The abuser is unable to take responsibility for her actions and believe she should have constant
access to her victim.
I think it is important for all future readers to be aware of these facts before reading. (These are not spoilers, they are quickly revealed.)
It is a painful read because the book most likely served the purpose of further abusing the author's past partner. The lack of remorse, the complete lack of self-awareness expressed by the narrator is impressive and most doubtfully not the result of a purposeful unlikeable protagonist. It is most likely the result of the severe mental state the author was in while writing this, and should be read as such.
That being said, after I started thinking about the book in this way, I could enjoy the good parts. As mentioned above, the verbal abuse in these letters is relentless and I could only 'enjoy' them in an anthropological way; How does the mind of abusers operate? How do they justify their actions?
(If you read this review after reading the book and you think this way of talking to another person is normal or excusable, please know it is not and I will personally pray that no one will ever abuse you like this again.)
What is to be said besides the abuse? Well, the narrator is very immature, a lot of people point this out, and certain parts are hard to read. Ideally an editor should have removed these parts.
There is also quite a lot of poor writing. Ideally an editor should also have removed these parts.
But the parts of the book that were not tainted by these things were so sincere that I was very touched. Much more touched than I had anticipated, despite the awful abuse. Maybe because the whole book was so unedited and raw, the parts that did work worked really well. The narrator's voice was so real and clear, and so when it was not entitled and awful, it was very powerful and moving.
I weirdly don't regret reading this book. Somehow the good parts moved me more than most of the books I read recently. Somehow such a small percentage of worthy lines managed to outweigh the awful parts. Impressive. Impressive what literature can do to you.
access to her victim.
I think it is important for all future readers to be aware of these facts before reading. (These are not spoilers, they are quickly revealed.)
It is a painful read because the book most likely served the purpose of further abusing the author's past partner. The lack of remorse, the complete lack of self-awareness expressed by the narrator is impressive and most doubtfully not the result of a purposeful unlikeable protagonist. It is most likely the result of the severe mental state the author was in while writing this, and should be read as such.
That being said, after I started thinking about the book in this way, I could enjoy the good parts. As mentioned above, the verbal abuse in these letters is relentless and I could only 'enjoy' them in an anthropological way; How does the mind of abusers operate? How do they justify their actions?
(If you read this review after reading the book and you think this way of talking to another person is normal or excusable, please know it is not and I will personally pray that no one will ever abuse you like this again.)
What is to be said besides the abuse? Well, the narrator is very immature, a lot of people point this out, and certain parts are hard to read. Ideally an editor should have removed these parts.
There is also quite a lot of poor writing. Ideally an editor should also have removed these parts.
But the parts of the book that were not tainted by these things were so sincere that I was very touched. Much more touched than I had anticipated, despite the awful abuse. Maybe because the whole book was so unedited and raw, the parts that did work worked really well. The narrator's voice was so real and clear, and so when it was not entitled and awful, it was very powerful and moving.
I weirdly don't regret reading this book. Somehow the good parts moved me more than most of the books I read recently. Somehow such a small percentage of worthy lines managed to outweigh the awful parts. Impressive. Impressive what literature can do to you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, and Stalking
citlalialvrod's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Infidelity
rosie_valadez's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia
enjaromirjagr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Infidelity and Abandonment
Minor: Domestic abuse
robinks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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
4.5
The afterword really helped to contextualize this novel, which made me appreciate it more. I read it cover-to-cover, though Miaojin suggests reading in any order, but I still found it very challenging to follow the emotions of the protagonist and the narrative (though I suppose that might be the point).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Sexual content
james1star's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
2.5
This book is really hard to review… but I’ll give it a try. In essence, Last Words doesn’t have any real plot - intentionally so - but we’re given twenty letters bookended by two ‘witness’ sections, most are from the POV of an unnamed (or are they?) narrator and I believe there are other narrators too - it’s all rather confusing and experimental. The prominent story (if you can call it that) deals with the breakdown of an intense love between two women, the narrator and Xu, but there’s also elements of: coming of age, politics, gender discussions, love and other emotions, platonic and romantic relationships, and a dive into this concept of ‘human nature’ or the ‘human condition’ too. Another major topic is the narrator’s deteriorating mental health as the book progresses with her thoughts of suicide.
I don’t particularly think of this as a spoiler as it’s mentioned on the blurb and the first page of the English translation edition (I cannot speak for other translations and to my knowledge the New York Review Books is the only edition available) but the author Qiu Miaojin did die by suicide shortly after completing Last Words and it’s near impossible to separate this fact from the reading experience, and hence my review. There is speculation surrounding her suicide with questions about her motive, if this book can be read as her suicide note?; is it entirely fictional?; non-fictional?; a combination of both?; who were her lovers, and were they those depicted in this book?; and many more. The translator Ari Heinrich, in his/their afterword, stated how suicide can be and is viewed differently in East Asian cultures then in the ‘West’ and how Miaojin might’ve intended for her suicide to be a merging with her art in this final masterpiece. That being said - and I don’t want to sound ignorant - I feel the fact Miaojin classified herself as more of an international voice then purely Taiwanese and having been exposed to many ‘Western’ works, you have to take into account her mental health problems too, I can’t confidently say it was purely out of artistic expression. And unlike another author who died by suicide after completing a work, Mishima, she didn’t leave a note confirming this and requesting it’s publication so the reason will forever be a mystery. From my reading, I definitely got a sense of the realness and rawness and honestly that is portrayed and so I think a part of Miaojin’s personal life was injected in the story, how much I cannot say and again we won’t really know.
There are parts of this book I liked… sort of. The narrator does bring attention to many things, the writing was okay and there are some noteworthy quotes. My main problem would have to be with the experimental aspects that certainly confused me a lot. I’m not the most well read but have experienced many types of books and have for the most part been able to understand them. It was possible to interpret what was happening mostly but it was the narrator-change that I found most frustrating. I believe there is the main narrator, Xu, Yong, and Zoë (but she(?) might be the main one) and maybe more and all of them aren’t the most distinct in their letters (/journal entries/whatever it is that’s being presented to the reader) and aren’t that fleshed out so it’s hard to decipher who’s talking at times. The only ‘real’ character is Laurence whom we meet for only one or two chapters and it’s this part where’s the narrator is admiring her swimming in the Seine and their equal passion brewing which I thought was written very tastefully. Another thing I liked to a point was discussions on one’s mental health, thoughts of self harm and suicide which I think were again insightful and done well. As someone’s who’s struggled (that’s all I feel comfortable saying here), I could relate to parts and I understand people’s experiences are all different and I haven’t reached a point where the thought of ending my life seems the preferred option to continuing with living… BUT (and it’s a big one) I found some parts very unhelpful. I think around the 50% mark I was close to DNFing this rather short book because I was getting so infuriated with her outlook on things and it became a trudge to get to the end. Moving on from this topic to another I felt really irked me as the book progressed was how the narrator(s) spoke about their relationship in a rather immature way, a little like a recently broken-up-with teenager moping that their relationship really did mean something and they’ll never love anyone else like that again. I don’t know what to say? It did impact me to start but the repetition became far too much with convoluted and meandering passages that all rehashed the exact same thing. And finally for what I feel didn’t quite hit the mark was how the apparent insights Miaojin (via the narrator) was supposed to give us about her experience with language and culture being a lesbian/queer Taiwanese women living in Paris and having spent time in Tokyo too - there’s really nothing about this I could pick up on.
My final point I’d like to make concerns the translation. I think Heinrich certainly did a good job, it was readable (take into account my previous notes on the confusing nature but I mean the actual grammatical elements) and to my knowledge he put across what Miaojin wanted in the original Chinese. He makes a note about how translating will always lose some essence of the original with a point about how most readers who read it in Chinese did what the epitaph suggests and reading each letter in any order, but I chose to read it linearly so I might’ve missed something. Again other parts might have, and probably was, lost in translation.
Overall, I don’t think I really enjoyed reading this book. There were parts that were good and insightful but more weren’t to my personal liking. Would I recommend it? Not particularly… but for those who’s battled/is battening with mental illness and potential suicidal thoughts there might be more relatability but again I can’t exactly do so in confidence. I believe I might give this book a reread in the future (mostly because I’ve written in my copy so can’t really give it away) where it’s possible I’d get more out of it but for now it was more a sad non-realised masterpiece of a potential global literary talent in Qui Miaojin’s death by suicide.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Lesbophobia
talonsontypewriters's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Racial slurs, Rape, Vomit, and Alcohol