![]() ![]() I love, love, love the narrative style, and how Tao Lin uses or rather translates Mandarin Chinese in such a direct, personal and playful way. Also, not in the mood to write proper reviews recently. Might even compare it to Woolf and/or Moshfegh (to a certain extent) in my future, fuller review. There's so much more that I could go on about the novel, but because I read it very quickly, I want to give it a second reading before writing a proper/full review. 'There’s a Chinese saying – it’s easier to change a dynasty than a personality.' ![]() Calmed by the realisation, Li remembered he’d used the same tone on their parents for most of his life, that he still struggled to avoid it, and that it was the tone their parents usually used on each other.' 'Li recognised the tone from when Mike had said, “We aren’t going to Whole Foods,” and realised he’d inaccurately thought Mike had used it specifically on him. I had very low expectations going in, and am gladly surprised. That one flirts with the autofiction genre very badly a shocking disappointment. ![]() Read Murakami's most recent novel earlier in the year. I don't tend to pick up 'autofiction' as it's not a genre I like enough. I kept thinking about the book long after reading it, and I plan to give it another read in a few months time/more. I finished reading 'Leave Society' a while ago but didn't remember to post a review. It's almost like a more refined, upgraded version of that. I read Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for the first time when I was still in highschool, and it didn't leave much of an impression on me but when I flipped through it again after I found my old copy in my parent's house (like almost a decade later?), I was heart-fucked and grossly emotional. His stuff is an acquired taste, usually lovelier when you give it another shot. It had to be replaced gradually, with emotion-charged information, story-embedded ideas, memorable stories.'Ĥ.5 – and officially my favourite from Tao Lin. ![]() The past was like a biofilm, he though experimentally. It was hard to change his microbiome because the first microbes to colonise his body had formed biofilms – microbial communities protected by self-produced polymer matrices. 'Li stared out his window at the ocean, thinking about his microbiome. Leave Society was ultimately a hopefulīook and often funny and was enjoyable, entertaining and thought-provoking - which is, in my opinion, all you can ask for from a book. Enjoyed the meta aspect of writing about writing and process of writing and editing. Lin employs inventive, playful adverbs and syntax. Great characters / writing about family and pets specifically the main character’s parents and dog Dudu - who might be my favorite character in the novel. There’s an effective juxtaposition of destructive surrealness of modern life via “breaking” news segments and observations and the intuitive power of dreams and imagination. I appreciated learning about, and being reminded of things I knew about but had forgotten, that I’d be interested in reading more about. Leave Society reminded me in a gentle psychedelic-like way to pay attention to my health and diet, care for, and appreciate loved ones, learn more about prehistorical cultures, philosophies and religions, revisit the theories of people like Terence McKenna, try not to worry about death, continue drawing mandalas, making art and writing, read more nonfiction and non-mainstream scholarly articles and books, remember / pay attention to how complex the world is and be in awe of the mysterious nature of the universe and other things. Illuminating and deeply felt, Leave Society is a masterly story about life and art at the end of history. Exploring everyday events and scenes-waiting rooms, dog walks, family meals-while investigatively venturing to the edges of society, where culture dissolves into mystery, Lin spins the ordinary into something monumental, and shows what it is to write a novel in real time. In his most recent work, Tao Lin delivers an engrossing and hopeful novel about life, fiction, and where the two blur together that builds toward a stunning, if unexpected, romance. But how to fit these pieces of his life together? Where to begin? Or should he leave society altogether? He will incite and temper arguments, uncover secrets about nature and history, and try to understand how to live a meaningful life as an artist and a son. As he flies between these two worlds-year by year, over four years-he will flit in and out of optimism, despair, loneliness, sanity, bouts of chronic pain, and drafts of a new book. He doesn't know it yet, but his life will begin to deepen and complexify on this trip. In 2014, a novelist named Li leaves Manhattan to visit his parents in Taipei for ten weeks. A bold portrait of a writer working to balance all his lives-as an artist, a son, and a loner. ![]()
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