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Linghun
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May 2023 monthly read: Ai Jiang's Linghun
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I’m in just need time to get the book
Whoo-hoo! Good to go when everyone else is.
Awesome! Just when I didn't know what to read next
I'm going to download the book later today. So I will be ready to start at the weekend, too!
It’s know download and ready I’m in
I'm at about the halfway point. I really like the central concept of HOME, and Wenqi's initial explorations and encounters with her brother. I understand this is about dealing with loss and grief; I found the subsequent social maneuvers at school to be distracting and predictable. Not a fan of the burlesque of the auction, and the extended (and again, not terribly surprising) machinations of the lingerers to acquire a house.The writing is ok, though there are occasional lapses that bother me. We'll see how the gardening develops.
I'm at 45%. I was pretty surprised to see that I had made that much progress so quickly. I ended up having to switch to a different book for the rest of my reading session this morning to make sure I didn't finish the whole thing off in one go.I'm enjoying how the book has been splitting its focus between Wenqi's family and the themes of grief and the social and political commentary about China's housing crisis. I am invested in both aspects of the story. I think the auction would have been a bit more effective if I had more of an investment in Bawkinu.
Vanessa wrote: "I think the auction would have been a bit more effective if I had more of an investment in Bawkinu."I agree. Bawkinu is kind of a cypher.
I'm at 50 % and I am not a huge fan so far. The beginning was very intruiging and I had some high hopes. The premise is interesting and the idea behind the concept of Home is quite promising. But my problem is that I really don't care for the characters. They are either stereotypes or not fleshed out enough to care about them (Bawkinu was already mentioned here and rightfully so). Hopefully this will change a little bit during the second half of the story....
I actually finished the book a few days ago. But I'll refrain from comments until more people have chimed in.
As usual, I seem to be appreciating this more than others. I agree that the characters aren't well fleshed out (no pun intended), but I think that's appropriate for the subject. These are people who have become entirely defined by their grief (or grief adjacency). Outside of waiting for the appearance of their dead, they have few desires and little personality. I suspect that Jiang also made a decision to keep the story short and sharp, and so didn't want to spend time on more character detail.
She said in an interview that the point of the auction was to show how grief wasn't just a quiet, personal thing, but could also express itself in violence. The auction definitely established that, as well as showing how almost entirely self-centered and selfish grieving people can be.
With books like these that are intended to explore a central idea (in this case grief), I ask myself both how well it explored said idea, and also if it worked as a story. A definite A+ on the grief exploration. Still thinking about how well the story stood on its own. If you think of Mrs as the main character, I think it was very successful. Maybe not as much with the children.
This one will definitely benefit from a reread. There are few hints about how HOME came to be, and they are intriguing. I got the idea that Mrs./Linghun/Huijia was there before HOME was HOME, and that the death of her husband was the precipitating event in its transformation. Likely driven by the creepy agent Tania Yemen, who was having an affair with the husband. Yemen struck me as something of a demonic figure. Her name made me think of "taenia" which is a type of tapeworm. No idea if it was deliberate, but it certainly fits.
Whitney wrote: "If you think of Mrs as the main character, I think it was very successful. Maybe not as much with the children. "I can see reading Mrs as the main character. (There's more toward the end, but I won't say more.) But so much of the text in the first half is about the kids, I hardly felt Jiang was trying to keep it "short and sharp".
I understand what she's saying with the auction. But to me it comes across as over-the-top and cartoon-y. The writing also bothered me more and more later, and I was not convinced by (view spoiler) and (view spoiler).
Bill wrote: "I can see reading Mrs as the main character. (There's more toward the end, but I won't say more.) But so much of the text in the first half is about the kids, I hardly felt Jiang was trying to keep it "short and sharp""I'm just going to assume everyone has read the book by now, so skip this post, if not.
I agree, the kids were the part that was maybe a little under reported. On the other hand, these kids have been seriously damaged by their families. All of the them are essentially unwanted, as their parents only seem to acknowledge them when it will serve to help them reconnect with their favored dead child.
They're teenagers in an incredibly fucked up situation, and they literally have no one else. I absolutely believe they would reconcile and cling to each other for dear life.
I can see your point, and it makes sense that there is no room for personality because of the grief. But also I was disappointed that Mrs. turned out to be such a cliche of a woman who defined herself entirely through being her husbands wife. And after his death now life has no more meaning for her. That's not exactly grief, this is about an unhealthy relationship I would say. I feel like I have seen and read about this too many times before in a similar way.
I was pretty into the housing crisis stuff, but that element was pretty much dropped when I left off reading last time.(view spoiler)
The tone was a bit restrained for my preferences, with the exception of the Mrs. chapters.
I noticed the sparseness of detail in the first part of the story and was curious about it until I read Wenqui's definition of HOME later on ("...a place where all times meet, intersect, disconnect from those for whom time still marches on."). HOME is a limbo where little else is important than the connection to the lost one , so there isn't much detail about the environment. The corrosive effects of Wenqi's mother's grief affects the entire family (including, it looks to me, Tianqi, who seems happy Wenqui is moving on (found a way out). Which, by extrapolation, tells me he's unhappy with the connection the mother has created (forced?)). I feel I'm on a limb here about Tenqi so feel free to correct me.
Mrs. is experiencing grief and I agree with Schalka in how she defines herself. But then I wonder if, given the context Jiang is using for the story (or even the larger societal context Jiang draws from), is this an unusual definition? I don't know. Whether it's unusual or not it's been exacerbated by the grief which I think was the point...another angle from which to see the issue.
Chris wrote: "I noticed the sparseness of detail in the first part of the story and was curious about it until I read Wenqui's definition of HOME later on ("...a place where all times meet, intersect, disconnect..."I didn´t pay much attention to this detail, but I think you are absolutely right. Tenqi doesn´t like what his mother is doing and he really seems to be glad that Wenqi leaves the place.
Before we move on, I was thinking about what Chris and Schalka said about Tenqi. I had the same impression about him and how he felt. On reflection, though, I wonder how much of that impression is because Wenqui is narrating. The dead in this book seem to be reflections of whatever the living want to see in them. How would we have interpreted Tenqi's feelings as seen through the mother's eyes? Or his taciturn father's? Tenqi is also six years old, forever. There is a brief mention of this by Wenqui, about how she is now so much older than her older brother. It's another way that HOME keeps people arrested in time, they are attached to people who literally can't grow or change.
It's available on paper and as an ebook. A couple of the many (buzz-y) reviews:
https://www.theskinny.co.uk/books/boo...
https://www.horrordna.com/books/lingh...
I'm ready to start by the weekend. Speak up if you need more time to get a copy.