evelyn > Recent Status Updates

getting real about the the struggles of working in tech. i'm hooked!

i get it. anna hates working in tech and finds it ridiculous. BUT - when every sentence is drenched with disdain it's hard for me to be on her side. there are many downsides to working in tech, but so far i'm a bit annoyed at how overwhelmingly negative her account has been.

i admire how rooney dissects a complicated emotional situation from multiple perspectives. the way she speaks truth - in ways the characters themselves cannot speak. third person narrator inviting the reader to deeply empathize with opposing perspectives, forgive complex and imperfect characters, and in the process, forgive their complex and imperfect selves.

ok. i understand why the sentences from Peter's POV felt broken now. it's all for this last chapter to make sense - the only way it does. chapter 13 read like payoff for all the previous Peter POVs i suffered through. i didn't know authors could play with their readers like that🥲

ok. we have arrived at the climax. also the scene where syavia reincarnated as marianne - why?!! i hate it but i love it. i have no bandwidth to take notes or pay attention to the craft anymore. need to know what happens next.

ok i'm into it now. a lot has happened. i like Ivan's POV better b/c it's more relatable and easier to read. still feel like i don't know much about peter - it's actually brilliant that the characters are so distinct. how did they get along in childhood? how is their father's passing impacting them diferently? can't wait to find out.

almost DNFed. the chapters from Peter’s perspective are so hard to read. sentences begin with no subject, and i have to carry this huge cognitive load of making sense of what’s going on. not enjoyable. but i was reading reviews and apparently this is how james joyce writes?

constant struggle of reading in a second language: i feel like much of my bandwidth is expended on making sense of the language.

julia is an intimate piece about female friendships, closure, and what it means to grow into adulthood.

i loved how zhang took us through space and time, weaving julia from her past in texas into her present in new york; how her homage to her first NY apartment took us elegantly through the flowering and eventual breakdown of her friendship with julia, in perfect synchrony

not a single word in this story is wasted.

it is rare for me to be so deep in rooney’s book and still not hooked. the main issue i’m having so far is characters show an excessive amount of overthinking, which is relatable, to a point. hopefully there’s more growth in the coming pages

sharp diminishing marginal return after the first 3 chapters. learned a new concept from the chapter about generational trauma: adaptability - the ability to keep functioning even though something might not be right. no info on how to expand adaptability tho

liking zhang’s writing more!

propriety is easily one of my favorite short stories. loved the sensory details of everyday objects. many sentences worth savoring. the ending!!!

silence is a tale of how, well, silence is passed down through generations. not sure if i like the restraint that seems to come every story set in china, but i love stories that decode information between the lines of a conversation.

finished the first 2 stories.

ada zhang is a lot easier to read than duras. but i found there to be less to savor from her words - perhaps it’s because she depicts emotions very literally. one of the greatest joys for me in reading is actively filling in the gaps, and i find less room to do that in zhang’s writing.