Writing from the abyss, she clings resolutely to facts ... A kind of manual on how to write honestly about the death of loved ones. Throughout, Li refreshingly refuses to indulge in the tired metaphorical thinking that death often invites ... Li’s style, honed over decades, has never been more distilled. Appropriately for a book that purports to stenograph only her thoughts, she writes in a simple, pared-back language ... Elicits many difficult feelings. I had to put it down at several places before I found myself able to return to it. Yet Li’s brutal lucidity — her refusal to burnish her thoughts and sentiments to a high sheen — is its own form of ethical commitment.
Li’s Spock-like, calm approach to life’s miseries evokes the stoics ... A more logical, philosophical affair ... What makes Nature so powerful and so frustrating at the same time — radical acceptance means accepting so much cruelty that we inflict on ourselves and others.
