Still Life

In my 1968 high-school biology class, we were shown a human fetus floating in formaldehyde inside a glass jar.  On the outside of the glass was a label that named the fetus “Al Most”. It sat on a shelf for any of us to contemplate at any time.

A little gross, a lot tasteless.  And given the today’s contentious political climate I’m not sure that the presentation would pass muster in most public schools.  But it was striking to view something potentially human that never quite got there, but instead was caught in a kind of permanent suspended animation (or de-animation). I couldn’t help but wonder what “Al” might have become.

Something similar occurred to me when reading Yiyun Li’s KinderThan Solitude, a new novel by a talented writer born in China, living in America. Much has been made of the book in terms of the immigrant experience, but for me it there were other more striking elements.  Three main characters are all transformed and suspended by the unsolved poisoning of a Chinese compatriot.  The political and cultural chaos in China at the time also muddy the waters. Two of those characters immigrate to the US, the other stays in China.  The two that leave China live tightly self-circumscribed lives, limited and safe, and at least in part defined by Eastern cultural norms.  Paradoxically the one how remains in China leads a more outwardly Western and outwardly active life, but he too is caught in a kind of suspended animation until current events open a door forward.

This is not a long book, but it is not to be taken lightly.  The voice is serious and the language is compact.  I often had to reread paragraphs that I knew I didn’t get on the first go round.  But the rewards are significant.  In a larger sense I did learn something about Eastern values and a particularly not American approach to life, and that was very rewarding.  This is cross-cultural fiction at a very high level.

Three lives suspended, in a way wasted, or at least in no way living out their full potential.  There is no obvious scapegoat.  But I did appreciate the tremendous loss of what could have been. 

What might “Al” have become?