Erin Bode > Recent Status Updates

The stories can be broken up into questions for me so far:
1. What is communicated and lost through silence between parent and child?
2. Does it “matter” if we label abuse? Who does this serve when attempting to repair a relationship?
3. How many sacrifices can a mother’s love take? Is it endless like many mothers would want us to believe?

In the first story, Cohen explores the casual nature of sexual violence in our modern world and the ways in which young women cope with this. The way in which she pairs the trauma with the first light of a lesbian romance is heart wrenching, and the stream of consciousness writing style makes the reader experience Sarah’s inner-voice in a unique and powerful way.

So far it’s engaging enough for me to return to but not a book that I feel passionately about. There’s something about Ann and Evelyn’s age dynamic that and the mention of Ann being like Evelyn’s child she never had that takes me out of it & brings discomfort.

A bit disorienting at times transitions to and from the various stories — remembering the details and matching it to the right protagonist is difficult at times. However, the ways in which the stories are woven together creates an extremely rich portrait of queer life and the AIDS crisis is incredible and evokes strong emotions. It forces us to reflect on family, community, and loss.

“There’s nothing on earth that could kill us more efficiently than parental indifference.” Succinctly summarizes Dave’s experiences with his family in the second part. His experiences as a person with AIDS show the trauma and eventually desensitized grieving processes that the continual loss caused. Knowing that he had the same fate further complicates and darkens his perspective.

The shift in narration between parts confused me at first, but with the relationships between characters makes the transition between sections fairly seamless. Dave’s friendship with Rita in the first part and his desire to be remembered is actualized in a way in the second part, which gives the heavy subject matter a bit of lightness and hope for remembrance.

Rita fucks up rats but it’s like… also allegorical? Lots of cool stuff happening and some parallel plots are emerging. The writing style is difficult to follow at times with flashbacks and returns to reality, but it just requires close reading at those transitions.

At the end of the second section, you start forming a full vision of the way that Morimi is toying with fate throughout these alternate “realities”. It takes on a special weight as one reflects on what they perceive as the more idle or mundane times of their life.

As someone who watched the show, the novel adds something that the subbed anime lacks, likely because of the language barrier. Enjoyable and immersive!

A mixture of prose and poetry, with an interesting focus on linguistics and the meaning behind words in different languages/cultures & their impact. She vaguely alludes to events in her life but rarely spells them out, and it clouds the readers’ vision at times— trying to piece everything together.

Yeah, so… strong start. But then I read her Wikipedia page and found out she was an antisemite and racist, so that kind of… yeah. I think I’m shelving this for now.

It was difficult to stop reading last night before bed. The resolution is a-comin’!

Oh no. Where’s Lan Yu???

The political backdrop came to the forefront and has rescinded again. Now, they attempt to maintain tranquility in their relationship (and as a country). The two stories mirror each other in an interesting way.

At times, Handong is an annoyingly sharp departure from his earlier self. Empathy? Doesn’t seem like the Handong I know…