Where Reasons End: A Novel Hardcover – February 5, 2019

the last two poor reviews were, in my opinion, hilarious, and if you are not a fan of reading plotless experimental literature, you should ignore them.this is a book that makes an attempt to describe to us grief. the conversations are pointless and mundane but in their pointlessness and mundanity the reader can see how painful it is for the author to navigate the grief of losing her son. they are conversations that she cannot have with him again. they are conversations that are reflections or continuations of conversations she must have had before with him before his death. and to some extent, they are imaginary—it is our choice to believe whether or not these conversations took place. i thought it was funny how one person said he would ask “much deeper questions” than what the narrator asked her son and i can’t help but wonder what they may be. baking was what nikolai loved so much in his life and words were the tenuous connection created between mother and son. it is not like everything had 0 purpose. and lol at the person who said they wished those conversations happened in a “supernatural” manner or that there was “development” or a “plot”—how boring! I believe those things would have taken away from li’s work, as it becomes timeless and universal without the adherence to structure. if you want some maudlin piece about reconciling the death of a loved one with your petty plots and character development or whatever go read the lovely bones or something.in any case if you are looking for a relatively easy read with an experimental style, please grab this. it is beautiful and lonely, and if you have enjoyed li’s previous works/essays, you will love this just the same.

The book was too intense for my taste but people who have experienced the loss of somebody very close will relate to the plot really well

This is a novel I purchased after reading a magazine article by the author about the pain of a personal loss. I was so moved by the article I hunted for her novels. I found her fictional handling of the same material amazing as an extended dialogue navigating a rocky coming to grips with a destructive, irrevocable act that alters but does not end a mother/ son relationship.

“Where Reason End,” by Yiyun Li is a short novel (novelette) of only 170 pages. The pages are small, thus making the book a very quick read. Thank goodness for that.The entire novel consists of a fictional conversation between an unnamed narrator and her son, who was sixteen when he committed suicide. Li also lost her son to suicide at the same age of 16, so perhaps this book was a cathartic endeavor for her.The story lacks any plot, and is composed of a series of conversations that take place over a short period of time between mother and her deceased son. Actually, the “conversations” never occur, they are only in the narrator’s mind. Had they actually occurred in a supernatural way, the book would have been improved. As a work of magical realism, it might have been more tolerable. Focusing only on two characters and their alleged development, which never occurs, it appears Li wanted this to be a literary work, but it falls way short and is simply boring and annoying.Nikolai, the son, is as flippant and disrespectful as any typical teenage millennial son can be. His mother is grasping to learn the reason for his suicide, but avoids discussing the issue with him directly in their conversations.The story, had it been well done, would have the reader in empathy with the narrator, coping to struggle with her emotions of grief while searching for answers. Nikolai provides no answers for his actions, nor does his mother inquire. The conversations are laborious and tedious. Thankfully the book is only 170 pages in length. I don’t think I would have made it to the end if it had been a 300 plus page book.Their mundane discussions touch on cooking, baking, poetry and musical talents. How exciting! (Yawn).The only redeeming quality of the book was several memorable quotes. “Memory is like eye color, you always have it” (22) when they were discussing lost memories. Nikolai also scolds his mother with her being too “lazy minded to say you don’t believe in something you don’t understand” (22). On page 66 we read “procrastinating trees that had not shed their leaves, as ordained by the season which made gutter cleaners scratch their heads.” Finally on pag3 114, we have the profound “What do you call a parent who’s lost a child, a sibling who’s lost a sibling, a friend who’s lost a friend?” These quotes were the only redeeming quality of the book. Don’t waste your time. Skip this book.

It's clear that Yiyun Li has a very special, strong and respectful relationship with her son Vincent. While few of us can relate to her heartbreak, she does not seek answers to the usual questions, but connects on a deeper, more profound level. I wish her and her family peace and love in the knowledge that they experienced something incredible in their son and brother

Li writes: "Writing fiction is to eavesdrop on your character's heart." Classified as a work of fiction, Where Reasons End is a peek into a mother's psychological reaction to tragedy. It is a novel without setting, with place being time. It a love story to words.Li speaks to how writing isn't something she does but is something she is: "What I'm trying to explain is this: Some people live by images, some by sounds. It's words for me. Words said to me. Words not meant for me but picked up by me in any case. Words in their written form. Words that make sense. And words that make nonsense."She articulates how words can be limited yet boundless: "Worlds fall short, yes, but sometimes their shadows can reach the unspeakable."Lastly, Where Reasons Ends is the story of a boy who died by suicide and his mother's reckoning with the loss: "Yes he had indulged me in the world of ours, made by words." And for that it is a great novel.

Great story from a unique perspective.

This is an astoundingly beautiful book, heartbreaking but at the same time up-lifting. To say that it is the best I have read in a long time feels trite - it is so way beyond comparison with almost every other book i can think of. It is a true work of art, and like true art it is a work of profound wisdom, where form serves the higher purpose of expressing complex, elusive but deep and universal truths. Why we choose to live, what is the meaning of no longer making that choice, how do we live with profound loss. A book that is like poetry in that every word counts, and layers of meaning are uncovered with every reading.

Lovely book. Inexpensive. Arrived on time.

A gently emotional story , it will stay with you

beautiful and filled with profound quotes but let down by being hard to read/follow due to lack of quotation marks and speach marks (at least in the hardback copy)

Confused by good reviewsImpossible to get past page 3