Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li : Stories that carry love, loss, longing and belonging – Book Review

Book: Wednesday’s Child
Author: Yiyun Li
Genre: Short Stories
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Pages: 256

Wednesday’s Child by Yuyan Li is a collection of stories that revolve around the themes of love, loss, longing, and belonging. With the stories that were written over a span of fourteen years, Li shows how people want their lives to be in equilibrium, sustained, and ordinary, until something turbulent, unsustained, and out-of-ordinary happens.

This book was like calmness amidst chaos for me, the chaos of thoughts, longings, homesickness, and nostalgia, and the calmness of time, of the moment, and solitude. For me, most of the stories were like this, where I started a chain of thoughts because of any particular line or a sentence and after being tired from it, came back to it, just like we do when we get to a new city, with the new sense of longing and belonging, and finding a home outside home! And these stories carry that feeling with them thoroughly.

Also, I felt that many of the stories carry the characters of the teachers very strongly and make us realise how important and impacting they are in our lives! They are someone apart from our guardians to whom we give our trust without boundaries in our formative years, and that leaves a lifelong imprint. And Li showed that astonishingly.

No matter who we are and which culture, ethnicity, and region we belong to, what makes us all common is our human nature, tendencies, and emotions. Though the stories depict the lives of Chinese immigrants, the core themes of migration, sustainability, and survival remain the same, making the stories relatable.

I read this book for around two months and took my time. The author’s writing style is evocative and although some stories might not be the best, they evoke emotions, and thus, I highly recommend this book. I’ll give it 4/5 stars.

I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

You can buy the book from Amazon or any bookstore near you!

If you liked the review or have any feedback, don’t forget to let me know in the comments! Also, if you haven’t followed my blog till now, what are you waiting for?

You might also like:

Shurjo’s Clan by Iffat Nawaz: Why it is one of my favourite reads and why you should read it as well!