27 January 2024 Morning Reading

Hello, Goodbye (story) by Yiyun Li (library hardcover and Audible audiobook).

Yesterday I recommended Yiyun Li to my friend Ted. I said that she is a poet of sadness and grief; her sentences are well crafted; and she is writing for people who pay attention to serious books.

I liked this section from the story:

There was a difference between forgetting and not remembering. Nina was not as forgetful as Katie thought; it was just that she did not indulge herself by bringing the past into focus. Nina did not believe in the benefit of seeing the past or the future with too much clarity -- one could lead to undue nostalgia, the other to unwarranted alarm. The present was another matter. She wanted to be as clear-eyed as possible about the present.