A review by kdaigh
Braised Pork by An Yu
3.0
This was such a beautiful novel. It begins with a loss that is more disorienting than it is devastating. We follow Jia Jia as she tries to make sense of herself and her situation in the aftermath. There is a captivating melancholy throughout, balanced by a persistently hopeful cast of characters.
"Making your mother live the way I wanted us to be together was no less cruel than keeping a fish in a bowl."
An Yu's exploration of love through the various relationships in this novel was of particular interest to me. Sometimes we conform, or ask others to conform, to rigid structures of love and, in time, our relationships become more about control and containment than about love.
"Making your mother live the way I wanted us to be together was no less cruel than keeping a fish in a bowl."
An Yu's exploration of love through the various relationships in this novel was of particular interest to me. Sometimes we conform, or ask others to conform, to rigid structures of love and, in time, our relationships become more about control and containment than about love.