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A review by sofreely
Severance by Ling Ma
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Reading this was a wonderful experience.
As far as I interpreted this, Ma gently asks us to interrogate how living in and for nostalgia costs us valuable time with ourselves and our loved ones as living breathing people.
We are surrounded by nostalgia and the past, exacerbated by social media, so much so that it's easy to forget how time marches onwards without our explicit consent.
We are routinely offered compilations of years gone by on Facebook and Google Photos that aggregate and feed our own memories back to us as we claw at the present for a semblance of the joy we seem to remember experiencing at some abstracted point in time.
Beautifully and sensitively written, this is a pandemic story with the sincerity of a memoir.
As far as I interpreted this, Ma gently asks us to interrogate how living in and for nostalgia costs us valuable time with ourselves and our loved ones as living breathing people.
We are surrounded by nostalgia and the past, exacerbated by social media, so much so that it's easy to forget how time marches onwards without our explicit consent.
We are routinely offered compilations of years gone by on Facebook and Google Photos that aggregate and feed our own memories back to us as we claw at the present for a semblance of the joy we seem to remember experiencing at some abstracted point in time.
Beautifully and sensitively written, this is a pandemic story with the sincerity of a memoir.