Aging and Loss With Arms Wide Open

One of the most frightening things about growing older is the uncertainty: which terrible ailment(s) will I or my loved ones suffer with in their twilight years? Will my body be ravaged by time or will I lose my mind? Both? Neither, because I’ve planned on going out with a bang a la Secondhand Lions?Continue reading “Aging and Loss With Arms Wide Open”

Let ‘Lotus’ Break Your Heart – and Mend It

Almost from the very beginning of Lotus, a novel by Lijia Zhang that focuses on a Chinese prostitute (or ji) at the turn of the century, I could see a million different ways that the titular character’s heart was going to get shattered. What I didn’t see, and what I could not have anticipated, wasContinue reading “Let ‘Lotus’ Break Your Heart – and Mend It”