Poetry: "And Diving" by Guy Gavriel Kay

Excerpted from Beyond This Dark House by Guy Gavriel Kay [p.85]:


And Diving

Late night
in a cold bed,
far away.

Yesterday I dreamed
that you had died,

arcing from a bridge
to black water.

I arrived too late
and diving,

could only bring
your body back to be
whitened by moonlight.

I was crying, holding
your still hands.

Late night,
cold bed, telling myself
I do not love you,

remembering your voice,
your hands in my hair.

Falling Leaves, by Adeline Yen Mah [and snow!]

No school today due to the snow; I am Happy. Now to catch up on internet-reading, get a good hour or so of clarinet in, read a certain overdue beta manuscript, work on Achaea stuff, and maybe even write some more on the untitled Mongolian-glacier story fragment.


Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter
by Adeline Yen Mah
278 pages (trade paperback) [Googled; I forgot to note it personally]
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir

I had a favorable reaction to Chinese Cinderella, so I started reading this with reasonable expectations. However, it quickly became clear that the beginning of this autobiography is essentially identical in content to the former. Chinese Cinderella is tighter and stronger; I only read the last half of Falling Leaves, but my main impression was whiny. And weak--it's unfair to make such a judgment, I know, but I kept wanting to scream at story-Adeline--when she's grown, a certified doctor, married, and still capitulates before her parents--to grow a spine already. I can understand filial piety, but repeated instances of accepting clear emotional abuse from your parents (when one is clearly an adult, not a helpless child) do not a good book make. Not rec'd; Chinese Cinderella still is recommended, however.