CBR10Bingo: Dream Vacation (BINGO!) Emily X.R. Pan’s The Astonishing Colour of After begins with teenager Leigh recounting the day her mother died from suicide, leaving a crumpled note in the trash with a crossed out message: “I want you to remember.” Soon after, a mysterious red bird leaves a gift for Leigh: a package filled with mementos of her mother. Leigh convinces her father to take her to Taiwan for the first time to meet her mother’s estranged family, secretly hoping she’ll also be able […]
Same old Sedaris, now with added feels
For several years now, I’ve refused to buy hardcover books. I don’t like the added expense, of course, but mostly, I just don’t like the extra bulk and really don’t like how they feel in my hand: too much like textbooks or hymnals. I don’t need to be reminded of either when I’m trying to read something fun. As a result, I’m consistently a year or two behind everyone else with my reading, a (discount) price I’m willing to pay. David Sedaris has long […]
Spooky and beautiful and unprotected from the raw bloodiness of the world
Yolandi and Elfrieda are sisters raised in an isolated, stifling, patriarchal community of Russian Mennonite immigrants in rural Canada. Their parents buy Elf a forbidden piano to give her an outlet, and she pours everything into her music, leaving home at 17 to study in Oslo, eventually becoming a world-renowned concert pianist. But her life is weighed down by the crippling pain of depression, and she ends up in the hospital after yet another suicide attempt. In All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews, everyone […]
Do you want to kill yourself? Laura will listen!
Laura works at a suicide helpline called End of the Line. They’re supposed to offer comfort and support and listen to people who are depressed and contemplating suicide. They’re not necessarily supposed to talk people out of killing themselves, but they are supposed to offer them some positive options and words. Laura just realllly likes to hear people die. Like to the point where she basically talks people into killing themselves while she’s on the phone with them to hear them die. Laura keeps the […]