Linda’s Reviews > Kinder Than Solitude > Status Update

I didn't think this book would actually give someone a motive. Money's still on Moran though, isn't the point of the murder mystery that it's the person you least expect? But then this isn't that kind of novel.

Petition to rename this book: Sad Chinese Spinsters, One Of Whom May Have Killed Someone

Ruyu wished she had had a stronger mind than a foolishly impressionable one: everyone she met in Beijing seemed keen to change her somehow, as though what mattered was not what she was but the possibilities she offered for others to imagine another person.

man I just keep wanting the narrative to flip back to Boyang already. dude at least knows how to party

I actually went and checked with my mother and she said tossing grenades was not a school PE class activity for her so there are a few possibilities: (1) Yiyun Li is messing with our willingness to believe anything of Communist era China, (2) Boyang has a crazily unreliable memory a la an Ishiguro protagonist, or (3) Beijing people are just fucking weird

Ambivalent spinster is my aesthetic

Oh man, she really gets it and I can't deal.