There is no good way to say this: words fall short.
-- Li (I paragraph N/A)

Importance: This quote underscores the impossibility of fully conveying the horror of receiving news about her sons’ deaths. It sets the tone for the memoir, emphasizing the limits of language in expressing grief and framing Li’s writing as an effort to confront what is ultimately incommunicable.

Vincent died on the day we put down the deposit for the house. Deposit, death, in that order, four hours apart. I would never have put those two things on the same day in a novel. In writing fiction, one avoids coincidences like that, which offer convenient metaphor, shoddy poignancy, and unearned drama. Life, however, does not follow a novelist’s discipline. Fiction, one suspects, is tamer than life.
-- Li (II paragraph N/A)

Importance: This quote highlights Li’s insistence on the uncontrollable, chaotic nature of real life, contrasting it with the structured causality of fiction. It reflects...