A Year in Reading: Jianan Qian
I’d like to consider 2021 as a year of convalescence. Worldwide, cities have to regain normalcy and vivacity from lockdowns; people have to recover from the loss of their close ones, jobs, and social connections. Personally, I am trying to live with the loss of my grandma, an ongoing separation from my parents, and a lack of motivation to write.
Once again, I take shelter in literature.
The following three books have offered me the greatest comfort this year.
Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson
Had I not been commissioned to translate her works into Chinese, I wouldn’t have known the domestic horror elements in her stories originate from her real life. As, was a well-known literary critic at the time. He was frank about his philandering and insisted on sharing all the details with Jackson. While she struggled with terrible anxiety and depression, he sat at his desk and chewed over the state of American literature.
