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Preparation for the Next Life
Zou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.
417 pages, Paperback
First published November 11, 2014
104 people are currently reading
2,978 people want to read
About the author
Atticus Lish
10Ìýbooks139ÌýfollowersAtticus Lish (born 1972) is an American novelist. His debut, Preparation for the Next Life, caught its independent publisher “off guardâ€� by becoming a surprise success, winning a number of awards including the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Lish lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn with his wife. He is the son of influential literary editor Gordon Lish.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 749 reviews
February 9, 2015
Having read a couple glowing reviews, my expectations were high. I would say they were met in most ways. But there is a disturbing and painful core to this book, it permeates the whole of it really; that makes it a hard book to love. It's a book you accept. A novel you realize reflects far too much of the reality of American life in the 21st century. It's sad and makes you want to puke. But you keep reading because the prose is kinetic and the landscapes... it hinges in some respects on the landscape swallowing up the characters and spitting them back out. A dark and nefarious landscape full of characters that are blind to personal desires, such as those of our main characters.
The humming, throbbing beat of life, in New York and wherever down and out folks may find themselves, doesn't pause for anyone. If you can't tread above water, like the damaged war veteran Skinner, or if you have too many chips stacked against you like the incredibly fleshed out protagonist, Zou Lei, the tide will oversweep you.
I will probably carry this book in my mind for many years but I will not be cheerful about the prospect. I will acknowledge it as a necessary burden of being honest to ourselves about what America is. And we have always known that it's not a gentle and nurturing place. It is a place where you have to fight to make it out of the muck.
The humming, throbbing beat of life, in New York and wherever down and out folks may find themselves, doesn't pause for anyone. If you can't tread above water, like the damaged war veteran Skinner, or if you have too many chips stacked against you like the incredibly fleshed out protagonist, Zou Lei, the tide will oversweep you.
I will probably carry this book in my mind for many years but I will not be cheerful about the prospect. I will acknowledge it as a necessary burden of being honest to ourselves about what America is. And we have always known that it's not a gentle and nurturing place. It is a place where you have to fight to make it out of the muck.
June 21, 2015
Really powerful novel that shows us people who we don't see a lot of in literature, an undocumented woman, a vet suffering from PTSD, living in NYC, trying to be together, trying to make it from one day to the next. Really interesting prose style. Some moments were overlong, the kind where the writer is clearly caught up in the writing and not thinking about the book as a whole. Nonetheless, this is one hell of a novel. I've not read anything like it.
January 18, 2015
I am much harder on my son, who is very intelligent, when he doesn't work and get's C's in school. For the same reason, I am rating this book a 2. With some good editing, this book could have been superb, but instead I am left feeling frustrated and disappointed.
The first part of the book was very strong and powerful. Zou Lei's childhood as a Muslim minority in China and her life as an illegal immigrant in small towns in America was very compelling and filled with harrowing details. Similarly, Brad Skinner's experiences in Iraq were described in a chaotic, strobe-like fashion that matched the emotional, and cognitive, impact of his war experiences. Their relationship was well portrayed in a realistic, non-sentimental manner. I could feel the mutual need, empathy and, ultimately, damaged love between them.
However, even with all this promise, the novel really lost me during the last half. A violent character, Jimmy, is introduced and is immediately on a trajectory with Zou Lei and Skinner. The innate, sociopathic violence of Jimmy is juxtaposed with the damaged, ill, unintentioned violence of Skinner, and they are bound to collide. This is where the book bogs down and could have used some professional editing.
First of all, the narrative gets lost in descriptions. Rather than using details of the urban environment to portray a mood or further the theme, Lish seemed to catalogue everything visible on a typical street in Queens. The details of what the characters saw and smelled while walking to a gym or McDonalds became very distracting. So, too, did the periodic switch between third person and second person perspective during these descriptions. He also had some real clunkers of sentences that should have been removed. 'When they made up, she experienced powerful well-being.' 'Because Zou Lei will have found that you can literally buy a pair of shorts on 103rd Street for a dollar ninety-nine and all the girls of every flag will wear shorts, including her.' Finally, he has Zou Lei visit a Mosque where she reads the title of the book above the door. This was very tantalizing and I expected this concept to reappear later in the book, but it never did. Throughout the book, there were missed opportunities such as this to tighten up the narrative, develop symbols and really define the theme.
I understand that this was published by Tyrant Books, a small publishing house. The story about Lish and Tyrant in the Wall Street Journal is uplifting and it is nice to see small publishing houses can still have a success. In this case, though, the impact could have been even greater if someone had put a little more work and effort into what was a very promising novel.
The first part of the book was very strong and powerful. Zou Lei's childhood as a Muslim minority in China and her life as an illegal immigrant in small towns in America was very compelling and filled with harrowing details. Similarly, Brad Skinner's experiences in Iraq were described in a chaotic, strobe-like fashion that matched the emotional, and cognitive, impact of his war experiences. Their relationship was well portrayed in a realistic, non-sentimental manner. I could feel the mutual need, empathy and, ultimately, damaged love between them.
However, even with all this promise, the novel really lost me during the last half. A violent character, Jimmy, is introduced and is immediately on a trajectory with Zou Lei and Skinner. The innate, sociopathic violence of Jimmy is juxtaposed with the damaged, ill, unintentioned violence of Skinner, and they are bound to collide. This is where the book bogs down and could have used some professional editing.
First of all, the narrative gets lost in descriptions. Rather than using details of the urban environment to portray a mood or further the theme, Lish seemed to catalogue everything visible on a typical street in Queens. The details of what the characters saw and smelled while walking to a gym or McDonalds became very distracting. So, too, did the periodic switch between third person and second person perspective during these descriptions. He also had some real clunkers of sentences that should have been removed. 'When they made up, she experienced powerful well-being.' 'Because Zou Lei will have found that you can literally buy a pair of shorts on 103rd Street for a dollar ninety-nine and all the girls of every flag will wear shorts, including her.' Finally, he has Zou Lei visit a Mosque where she reads the title of the book above the door. This was very tantalizing and I expected this concept to reappear later in the book, but it never did. Throughout the book, there were missed opportunities such as this to tighten up the narrative, develop symbols and really define the theme.
I understand that this was published by Tyrant Books, a small publishing house. The story about Lish and Tyrant in the Wall Street Journal is uplifting and it is nice to see small publishing houses can still have a success. In this case, though, the impact could have been even greater if someone had put a little more work and effort into what was a very promising novel.
November 2, 2018
This book is like its main characters: brilliant, brave, and flawed.
The brilliant: thick, evocative descriptions of the seedy underbelly of New York, of the desperate and the damned, the hustlers and the high--the human tragicomedy that exists and persists beyond the bright glaring surface of the place.
The brave: an unsparing, unsentimental look at the cruel ironies of life as an American soldier returned from war, and as an "illegal" immigrant scrabbling for a future, both people driven and derided by an evanescent American Dream, their hopes keeping them barely afloat, hopes that soon taunt them with their impossibility.
The flawed: descriptions that are overly thick, overly drawn out, to the point where they lose force and exist in a sort of numbed sameness. Perhaps this was part of the point, but I found myself skimming at times, just to get to something that actually happens. And yes, the plot is slow to develop. Overall it felt overly long.
In the end, these flaws did not detract too much, and the rewards were great, though grim, and the book stands as a timely reminder that pain and suffering are not simply ennobling, not simply stages people get through in order to become better people. Sometimes they are all that people have, and somehow, somehow we make a life nonetheless.
The brilliant: thick, evocative descriptions of the seedy underbelly of New York, of the desperate and the damned, the hustlers and the high--the human tragicomedy that exists and persists beyond the bright glaring surface of the place.
The brave: an unsparing, unsentimental look at the cruel ironies of life as an American soldier returned from war, and as an "illegal" immigrant scrabbling for a future, both people driven and derided by an evanescent American Dream, their hopes keeping them barely afloat, hopes that soon taunt them with their impossibility.
The flawed: descriptions that are overly thick, overly drawn out, to the point where they lose force and exist in a sort of numbed sameness. Perhaps this was part of the point, but I found myself skimming at times, just to get to something that actually happens. And yes, the plot is slow to develop. Overall it felt overly long.
In the end, these flaws did not detract too much, and the rewards were great, though grim, and the book stands as a timely reminder that pain and suffering are not simply ennobling, not simply stages people get through in order to become better people. Sometimes they are all that people have, and somehow, somehow we make a life nonetheless.
February 20, 2017
Esta novela es tan salvaje y descarnada como la realidad, que escapa a nuestros ojos. Es la metralla que se filtra sin compasión en el cuerpo del soldado o la precariedad que rodea a una ilegal, en la tierra donde todos los sueños son permitidos; aunque sean robados, ultrajados o violentados.
Decir que estamos ante una novela dura, es quedarse corto; anémico, dirÃa. Es un estilo narrativo seco, sin adornos, cortante como el filo de un cuchillo. Es la vida de dos almas perdidas que se encontraron y sucumbieron a la locura, al miedo y a la violencia...
Decir que estamos ante una novela dura, es quedarse corto; anémico, dirÃa. Es un estilo narrativo seco, sin adornos, cortante como el filo de un cuchillo. Es la vida de dos almas perdidas que se encontraron y sucumbieron a la locura, al miedo y a la violencia...
March 29, 2015
After she had showered, dressed, and brushed her wet hair, he took her to Fratelli's for pizza. While they ate, he reached across the orange table, trying to reach for something of hers. It felt like a particularly dark night. He settled for her elbow. She was using both hands to hold up the triangular pizza slice, which kept buckling in the middle, like a corpse being carried to a helicopter.
February 13, 2015
This was an amazing and incredible book. I could not put it down. I can't think of any book which describes the lives of marginalized people as fully or as well as this one. Grimy bodegas, dark smoky bars that serve 40 ouncers to alcoholics, a Chinese restaurant kitchen at the end of the subway line in a broken down strip mall, basement apartments and immigration law offices and one utterly mundane but fascinating neighborhood mosque. This book reminded me of a documentary film (Only nobody would make a documentary about the characters in this book.) Millions of people live and die like this in the US unseen and unchronicled.
The ugliness and irreparable damage of war is one of the main themes of the book. Skinner cannot and will not recover from what he has seen and done, what his body and mind have endured. Zou Lei is a deeply strong woman, marginalized by her minority Uighur status within even the marginalized illegal Chinese community, she has a fierce intelligence and sense of hope--but it isn't enough.
Others have complained that the book is too descriptive. I disagree. The places and things Lish describes have not been described anywhere before because the people who live there are just trying to survive, and nobody visits those places, nobody cares. They are the grimy blur on the far stops of the subway lines where the writers and the poets don't go. But describing these vast expanses of unvisited unchronicled space is nonetheless important because it adds to our understanding of the human condition. Also, the description is important because Skinner is unable to think about his environment, to process it, so it all washes over him, barely sensed except as a the background to the misery he feels inside. Skinner IS his environment, trashy, weedy lots and McDonald's restrooms and his dirty purple walled apartment. To know his environment is to know him, one of the "garbage people" as Zou Lei puts it. The descriptions are essential because there would be no Skinner without them.
The last part of the book is very violent and contains triggers. Still, I know that this book will be impossible for me to forget.
The ugliness and irreparable damage of war is one of the main themes of the book. Skinner cannot and will not recover from what he has seen and done, what his body and mind have endured. Zou Lei is a deeply strong woman, marginalized by her minority Uighur status within even the marginalized illegal Chinese community, she has a fierce intelligence and sense of hope--but it isn't enough.
Others have complained that the book is too descriptive. I disagree. The places and things Lish describes have not been described anywhere before because the people who live there are just trying to survive, and nobody visits those places, nobody cares. They are the grimy blur on the far stops of the subway lines where the writers and the poets don't go. But describing these vast expanses of unvisited unchronicled space is nonetheless important because it adds to our understanding of the human condition. Also, the description is important because Skinner is unable to think about his environment, to process it, so it all washes over him, barely sensed except as a the background to the misery he feels inside. Skinner IS his environment, trashy, weedy lots and McDonald's restrooms and his dirty purple walled apartment. To know his environment is to know him, one of the "garbage people" as Zou Lei puts it. The descriptions are essential because there would be no Skinner without them.
The last part of the book is very violent and contains triggers. Still, I know that this book will be impossible for me to forget.
June 26, 2015
In his novel Closing Time, which is a sequel to Catch-22, Joseph Heller whimsically wrote that the ice rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City is the bottom level of Dante's Inferno. Atticus Lish in Preparation for the Next Life not so whimsically widens hell to include the entire city, especially Queens. In fact, the characters come from other regions of hell to this level of gore and pain where we find them. Not only does Lish create the atmosphere in scenes like the butchers of Queens and Chinatown destroying slabs of meat with saws and cleavers, for instance, or by writing about displayed photos of women beaten or savaged by disease, but the novel rides on an undercurrent of vulnerability, madness, violent behavior, and self-destructive impulses. Those who live there who aren't mad are spiritually empty.
It's the story of 3 characters. Zou Lei is a Uighur from the western reaches of China who entered the U. S. illegally and was swept up and jailed in the southwest. Inexplicably released, she makes her way to New York where she struggles to earn a living and stay out of the way of authority. She befriends Skinner, a PTSD-haunted soldier who served 3 tours of duty in Iraq. Now he's left the Army, or perhaps was discharged on disability because he's psychologically damaged by his combat experiences. Jimmy Turner is the 3d character. He's a recently-released con who has known nothing but petty crime and is now angrily watching his life tilting askew because he can't find a job. These 3 gears, the working parts of Lish's novel, meet to gnash and grind against each other in this dream-like surreal America where Northern Road, Queens runs directly into the Silk Road.
There is a 4th character, a Berretta. We remember what Chekhov said about a pistol appearing early in a story.
If I've made it sound grim, it's because it is. The city they move in is waste. It's smoky and dangerous. The dead hang around the corners or are eating at the food court in the mall. Anger and fear are only 2 of the elements of the modern American periodic table combined here to make this menacing, violent place. Yet the heart of Preparation for the Next Life is a love story. It's Skinner and Zou Lei who struggle toward the flickering emotions that count for love here. They need each other, and they work to save each other. Zou Lei is the novel's softest character. It's she who props up Skinner when his mind flies apart under the stress of memory. Skinner can give Zou Lei love and the security of legal status in the U. S. Together they are like Eurydice and Orpheus, struggling toward the surface and the light. One of the most impressive sections of the novel is Chapter 53 describing a long nighttime walk from the Bronx to Queens, a walk through underworld New York toward morning. It reminded me of Yossarian's wanderings through Rome in Catch-22.
This is a compelling novel of those who inhabit America's margins. I think the characterizations an achievement. Lish keeps them gloriously and richly distinctive through voice and trait so that they stand clearly themselves even while sharing the same psychological space. It's tragedy, though, and you know it. There can only be tragedy in the broken, littered, and depressed streets of Lish's New York. But perhaps only a writer of Lish's power could paint tragedy with such abundant and colorful affirmation.
It's the story of 3 characters. Zou Lei is a Uighur from the western reaches of China who entered the U. S. illegally and was swept up and jailed in the southwest. Inexplicably released, she makes her way to New York where she struggles to earn a living and stay out of the way of authority. She befriends Skinner, a PTSD-haunted soldier who served 3 tours of duty in Iraq. Now he's left the Army, or perhaps was discharged on disability because he's psychologically damaged by his combat experiences. Jimmy Turner is the 3d character. He's a recently-released con who has known nothing but petty crime and is now angrily watching his life tilting askew because he can't find a job. These 3 gears, the working parts of Lish's novel, meet to gnash and grind against each other in this dream-like surreal America where Northern Road, Queens runs directly into the Silk Road.
There is a 4th character, a Berretta. We remember what Chekhov said about a pistol appearing early in a story.
If I've made it sound grim, it's because it is. The city they move in is waste. It's smoky and dangerous. The dead hang around the corners or are eating at the food court in the mall. Anger and fear are only 2 of the elements of the modern American periodic table combined here to make this menacing, violent place. Yet the heart of Preparation for the Next Life is a love story. It's Skinner and Zou Lei who struggle toward the flickering emotions that count for love here. They need each other, and they work to save each other. Zou Lei is the novel's softest character. It's she who props up Skinner when his mind flies apart under the stress of memory. Skinner can give Zou Lei love and the security of legal status in the U. S. Together they are like Eurydice and Orpheus, struggling toward the surface and the light. One of the most impressive sections of the novel is Chapter 53 describing a long nighttime walk from the Bronx to Queens, a walk through underworld New York toward morning. It reminded me of Yossarian's wanderings through Rome in Catch-22.
This is a compelling novel of those who inhabit America's margins. I think the characterizations an achievement. Lish keeps them gloriously and richly distinctive through voice and trait so that they stand clearly themselves even while sharing the same psychological space. It's tragedy, though, and you know it. There can only be tragedy in the broken, littered, and depressed streets of Lish's New York. But perhaps only a writer of Lish's power could paint tragedy with such abundant and colorful affirmation.
February 4, 2015
My love for American literature is no secret. I have tattooed images of Old West iconography on my body. Speak to me about Manifest Destiny or the Old West and i listen with rapt attention. I've consumed Hawthorne and Melville and Faulkner and Twain and McCarthy and a smattering of Appalachian and Western authors. I've read Delillo and Pynchon and Wallace, authors writing about the postmodern american/capitalist condition.
And yet Preparation feels like the most quintessentially American novel I've read. Like a marriage between McCarthy's Suttree and Spike Lee's 25th Hour folding in on itself again and again creating a paranoiac, dense panorama of the failed american experiment.
And yet Preparation feels like the most quintessentially American novel I've read. Like a marriage between McCarthy's Suttree and Spike Lee's 25th Hour folding in on itself again and again creating a paranoiac, dense panorama of the failed american experiment.
April 20, 2015
Reading this book was like being spun around three times and pushed over the edge of a depthless urban rabbit hole. The novel swerves and veers, from one POV to another, and it’s clear that none of the characters have any idea what they will do next. The whole arrangement has a cinematic effect; reading the book is like sitting on a fast, loud train where the lights flash on and off, and trying to process the images that flash by in the brief illuminations of the darkness, or, like riding a roller coaster blindfolded. There's a menacing energy throughout the book that kept me breathless, and the author's use of language in so very many forms from the desert dialects of nomadic tribes in Asia, to the outer borough ghetto slang of Mexican immigrants (and everything in between), is astounding.
The characters who populate Atticus Lish’s novel belong to groups so marginalized they are practically invisible. They reside behind unmarked doors, in the darkened corners of hidden alleys, in grimy basement apartments, and along the edges of secondary highways. They are the homeless, the broken, the drunk, the undocumented, the incarcerated, the nomadic, the war torn; as they walk through the dark night, steaming cups of McDonald’s coffee their only warmth at 3:00 a.m., they find compassion, hope, and, miraculously, love.
Zou Lei is an undocumented Uiger immigrant, who leaves her nomadic life in the Taklamakan desert, and lands in New York. Skinner is an Iraq vet, wounded inside and out, who's tossed away after three tours with a few bucks and a handful of prescriptions. He is lost, and literally gets lost, in Queens, where, at the end of an alley behind an underground food court, he meets Zou Lei.
The backdrop of their love story is the pulsing, throbbing city, edged in darkness, littered with the detritus of poverty and broken dreams, fenced in, and overgrown:
‘A penetrable wall of houses and stores, whose copings and parapets cut shadows against the sky. A giant supermarket by the freeway. At the other end, a railroad bridge and the projects. The dark spaces behind the tracks. Black ferns grew between the houses to eat the hot exhaust from the expressway.�
Through this decaying landscape, Zou Lei and Skinner walk together, for months and miles, until they have to run for their lives. _Preparation for the Next Life_ is a gripping page turner, a heartbreaking love story, and a remarkable piece of writing.
The characters who populate Atticus Lish’s novel belong to groups so marginalized they are practically invisible. They reside behind unmarked doors, in the darkened corners of hidden alleys, in grimy basement apartments, and along the edges of secondary highways. They are the homeless, the broken, the drunk, the undocumented, the incarcerated, the nomadic, the war torn; as they walk through the dark night, steaming cups of McDonald’s coffee their only warmth at 3:00 a.m., they find compassion, hope, and, miraculously, love.
Zou Lei is an undocumented Uiger immigrant, who leaves her nomadic life in the Taklamakan desert, and lands in New York. Skinner is an Iraq vet, wounded inside and out, who's tossed away after three tours with a few bucks and a handful of prescriptions. He is lost, and literally gets lost, in Queens, where, at the end of an alley behind an underground food court, he meets Zou Lei.
The backdrop of their love story is the pulsing, throbbing city, edged in darkness, littered with the detritus of poverty and broken dreams, fenced in, and overgrown:
‘A penetrable wall of houses and stores, whose copings and parapets cut shadows against the sky. A giant supermarket by the freeway. At the other end, a railroad bridge and the projects. The dark spaces behind the tracks. Black ferns grew between the houses to eat the hot exhaust from the expressway.�
Through this decaying landscape, Zou Lei and Skinner walk together, for months and miles, until they have to run for their lives. _Preparation for the Next Life_ is a gripping page turner, a heartbreaking love story, and a remarkable piece of writing.
December 31, 2015
(Nearly 4.5) Like West Side Story, this debut novel (by the son of writer/editor Gordon Lish), is an updated Romeo and Juliet narrative � a tragedy-bound love story with a gritty contemporary setting and a sobering message about racism and the failure of the American dream. Lish’s post-9/11 New York City is less melting pot than Boschian hell, a violent abyss lubricated with the sweat of illegal immigrants. The matter-of-fact style somehow manages to elevate the everyday and urban into an art form. In the most remarkable single chapter, Zou Lei wanders the urban wasteland from night until dawn. There is an echo here of T.S. Eliot or of the ash heaps in The Great Gatsby: a reminder that all human achievement erodes to dust and ashes in the end.
(Full review in August 2015 issue of Third Way magazine.)
(Full review in August 2015 issue of Third Way magazine.)
August 23, 2021
Some novels make you reconsider why you read fiction. For me, this was one of those. Zou Lei, a Uygher from China, is an illegal immigrant in the US. She is arrested and jailed in the Western US but then released and migrates to NYC to become more invisible. Zou Lei doesn’t even fit in when working among other Chinese immigrants at a Chinese restaurant; she is a minority in this situation as well; she finds it difficult to communicate with her co-workers. She works hard and tries to take on more responsibility but is unable to make a positive impression with her bosses. She loves to stay fit, to run and exercise, and frequently stands outside of stores staring at running shoes that she cannot afford.
Skinner is a three-tour vet of the Iraqi War, suffering from PTSD and heavily dependent on prescribed drugs, alcohol and marijuana to deal with everyday life. When he is capable, he likes to lift weights. He and Zou Lei meet and fill an emptiness in each other. They support and care for each other. Perhaps together they can survive, and even provide the stability and security that they each need.
With extremely detailed description, at times too much, Atticus Lish creates a very real world that Zou Lei and Skinner inhabit. It is so real that at times if feels like non-fiction or a documentary. It is grim. It is America at the margins. The story is engaging, but not uplifting. There are occasions for hope, and you want to reach out and help Zou Lei and Skinner. This novel is a view into an America of which I am aware but have no direct experience and am unlikely to experience. Recommended for those who would find this insight valuable.
Skinner is a three-tour vet of the Iraqi War, suffering from PTSD and heavily dependent on prescribed drugs, alcohol and marijuana to deal with everyday life. When he is capable, he likes to lift weights. He and Zou Lei meet and fill an emptiness in each other. They support and care for each other. Perhaps together they can survive, and even provide the stability and security that they each need.
With extremely detailed description, at times too much, Atticus Lish creates a very real world that Zou Lei and Skinner inhabit. It is so real that at times if feels like non-fiction or a documentary. It is grim. It is America at the margins. The story is engaging, but not uplifting. There are occasions for hope, and you want to reach out and help Zou Lei and Skinner. This novel is a view into an America of which I am aware but have no direct experience and am unlikely to experience. Recommended for those who would find this insight valuable.
April 3, 2017
Preparación para la próxima vida es un puñetazo de realidad de la que no se habla, máxime cuando tenemos el complaciente cine de Hollywood, con su gente blanca que vive en bonitas zonas residenciales y con ese ejército que es el orgullo de la nación...
No hay treguas para los protagonistas, salvo las que se conceden cuando están juntos. Todo es caos, desesperanza, desazón y situaciones de desigualdad evidente.
Creo que es una novela de las que te quitan la venda, que hay que leer para entender mejor lo que ocurre en la sociedad americana, pero también en cualquiera otra donde los inmigrantes están en una clara situación de desventaja. Y el estilo de Atticus... me ha encantado.
Muy recomendable.
No hay treguas para los protagonistas, salvo las que se conceden cuando están juntos. Todo es caos, desesperanza, desazón y situaciones de desigualdad evidente.
Creo que es una novela de las que te quitan la venda, que hay que leer para entender mejor lo que ocurre en la sociedad americana, pero también en cualquiera otra donde los inmigrantes están en una clara situación de desventaja. Y el estilo de Atticus... me ha encantado.
Muy recomendable.
March 28, 2016
This was an interesting read because I went into it blind, and I was pleasantly surprised several times. Some of the plot and writing was bland, but all in all I think this debut novel is very promising.
Basically, this book deals with a Chinese immigrant who comes to America illegally as well as an American soldier who has just finished his service in Iraq. The two of them meet and fall in love, but there is a reason why this book has been called 'an unsentimental love story'.
I noticed a few things while reading: The writing style is very staccato-like with short and fragmented sentences throughout. While it worked for some of the story, I felt like Lish's use of it throughout was a bit too overwhelming. Some chapters even ended in the middle of a dialogue which was very frustrating to me. I guess Lish wanted to create a chaotic kind of world in the reader's mind, and he certainly did.
Lish also writes dialogues with no quotation marks, making the dialogues a part of the descriptions and with questionable passages as to who is speaking. I think I liked this idea of writing, but once again it did frustrate me a bit at times. It felt like the author was trying to do too much with his writing when, in my humble opinion, less would've been better.
The story in itself was good, but not great. I missed a stronger plot, and I missed a greater variety of characters. That being said, I really think this is a good novel because it put me into a totally different frame of mind. It deals with poverty, insecurity and traumas - things that I don't normally deal with or read about in my life, and it was very educating and interesting to read about both characters and their development in the American society.
Basically, this book deals with a Chinese immigrant who comes to America illegally as well as an American soldier who has just finished his service in Iraq. The two of them meet and fall in love, but there is a reason why this book has been called 'an unsentimental love story'.
I noticed a few things while reading: The writing style is very staccato-like with short and fragmented sentences throughout. While it worked for some of the story, I felt like Lish's use of it throughout was a bit too overwhelming. Some chapters even ended in the middle of a dialogue which was very frustrating to me. I guess Lish wanted to create a chaotic kind of world in the reader's mind, and he certainly did.
Lish also writes dialogues with no quotation marks, making the dialogues a part of the descriptions and with questionable passages as to who is speaking. I think I liked this idea of writing, but once again it did frustrate me a bit at times. It felt like the author was trying to do too much with his writing when, in my humble opinion, less would've been better.
The story in itself was good, but not great. I missed a stronger plot, and I missed a greater variety of characters. That being said, I really think this is a good novel because it put me into a totally different frame of mind. It deals with poverty, insecurity and traumas - things that I don't normally deal with or read about in my life, and it was very educating and interesting to read about both characters and their development in the American society.
November 15, 2014
Just got off a 3400 hr. flight from Taipei made actually enjoyable by reading this book in its entirety. One amazing sentence after another. Described as a love story. But it's not about love. More about need between Chinese Muslim immigrant and PSTD war vet who meet in NYC. The one that's lived on subway cars at 4am or in apartments with no addresses, inhabited by undocumented, unhealthy, uncompensated yet undeterred dreamers of the American dream. Writer is Atticus Lish. Yes, *that* Lish.
May 1, 2024
A primeira constatação a fazer é relativa à s competências de observação e descrição de Atticus Lish que parece dotado de memória fotográfica. Não falo daquelas descrições do século XIX, dos edifÃcios e das flores, mas de algo bem mais complexo, da vida em movimento. Lish não nos dá apenas a ver onde os seus personagens estão, dá-nos a ver o modo como se movem, como se comportam, como falam, assim como pensam. A verossimilidade das descrições é de tal ordem que ao fim de algumas páginas tive de ir à procura da história de vida do autor para confirmar que ele tinha mesmo vivido na China e que se tinha alistado nos US Marines. É daqui que vem toda a força de “Preparação para a Próxima Vidaâ€� (2014) que é o primeiro livro do autor, publicado nos seus 42 anos, mas também do foco nos invisÃveis das sociedades desenvolvidas, aqueles que fazem o trabalho que ninguém quer e conseguem ser pagos abaixo do salário mÃnimo porque não têm papéis.
4.5/5
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4.5/5
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July 31, 2017
a metà libro (e tre mesi e almeno altri 4 romanzi letti nel frattempo) si sta rivelando sfiancante come un viaggio con rallentamenti per maltempo nel tratto fornovo-borgotaro-berceto, in una giornata da bollino nero. del panorama fuori dal tergicristalli non si vede un tubo, e anche se so perfettamente che affrontare almeno una volta nella vita la cisa in condizioni disagevoli forgia l'animo e vale 5 crediti per l'attestato di guidatrice provetta, resta il fatto che allo stato mi pesa enormemente non potermi distrarre per prendere fiato. dall'interminabile fila di auto davanti, dall'adolescente che sbuffa nello specchietto retrovisore e da questa nuova raccolta degli smiths che per carità mi piace, ma sta nutrendo la mia prostrazione psicofisica già da 1h 52' 23''.
atticus lish - studi ad harvard, capello rasato da marine (lui è. un ex marine), moltissimi lavori alle spalle tra cui guardia privata, cassiere, insegnante di cinese - è figlio del mitico editor gordon lish (raymond carver e richard ford, tra gli altri). con questo romanzo d'esordio ha fatto il botto di vendite e ha vinto il pen/faulkner award.
ora. il libro tratta temi importanti e senza concessione alcuna all'alleggerimento. fin troppo, direi. si procede in modo francamente faticoso, tra situazioni grevi e disagio ineludibile. più che leggere a volte sembra di fare una penitenza.
considerando che non si tratta di un'inchiesta verità nella new york di flushing e del queens più degradato, mi chiedo se la qualità narrativa di questo romanzo sia davvero bastevole per l'eco che ha avuto in america. o se essere il figlio di, cresciuto in quegli ambienti e col beneficio di un'attenzione editoriale sicuramente particolare, un ruolo non secondario tutto sommato l'abbia avuto.
atticus lish - studi ad harvard, capello rasato da marine (lui è. un ex marine), moltissimi lavori alle spalle tra cui guardia privata, cassiere, insegnante di cinese - è figlio del mitico editor gordon lish (raymond carver e richard ford, tra gli altri). con questo romanzo d'esordio ha fatto il botto di vendite e ha vinto il pen/faulkner award.
ora. il libro tratta temi importanti e senza concessione alcuna all'alleggerimento. fin troppo, direi. si procede in modo francamente faticoso, tra situazioni grevi e disagio ineludibile. più che leggere a volte sembra di fare una penitenza.
considerando che non si tratta di un'inchiesta verità nella new york di flushing e del queens più degradato, mi chiedo se la qualità narrativa di questo romanzo sia davvero bastevole per l'eco che ha avuto in america. o se essere il figlio di, cresciuto in quegli ambienti e col beneficio di un'attenzione editoriale sicuramente particolare, un ruolo non secondario tutto sommato l'abbia avuto.
December 8, 2014
This book presents an extraordinarily vivid glimpse into the invisible immigrant world that surrounds the wealthy core of NYC. That world is dirty, dangerous, patchwork, and bursting at the seams with life. The main characters are drawn finely and we are offered a heartbreaking window into the thoughts of the marginalized. There are no rose-colored glasses of poverty here, as we see the faults, desperation, and addictions that constantly sabotage efforts to rise above all of the things that keep the poor fearful and locked out of the promise of the American Dream. Parts of the prose in this work are incredible, and the story develops a propulsive energy over time. Despite all of its charms, I vacillated in my enjoyment of the book. While the style fitted the story very well, it became a chore to read at times and I occasionally grew bored. I respected it more than I enjoyed it. However, in the final analysis, I was so impressed by Lish's ability to describe the world of his characters that I could forgive a lot of faults on pacing. Heartbreaking and revelatory of a dark reality that many of us will never know, this is a true work of the moral imagination and definitely worth checking out.
September 6, 2015
Zou Lei is a young woman from western China, the area with the Muslim Uighur population (Uyghurs). Her father is not Uighur, but a soldier and her mother is. Zou, however, doesn’t practice Islam. After being left an orphan, she is smuggled to the United States where she begins a very precarious life. Zou is physically strong, and this is the source of the ex-soldier, Skinner’s attraction to her. He is a body builder, perhaps to build physical strenth to compensate for his lack of psychological strength. He is back in New York after three tours of Iraq and is tortured by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This unlikely pair become a couple which in part helps each of them to survive, but ultimately leads to disaster.
Lish’s novel is the story of an “underclass� that exists in America, right under our noses, but often invisible. Members of this group are the most marginalized of all who live in our society. They are undocumented immigrants without a safety net, or community. They include former soldiers and other veterans of recent American wars who have witnessed and committed horrible acts and suffer deep physical and psychic scars. And they include those who have served time in prisons, and are released with psychological and social problems, and no resources. This is the story of what happens when people who have lost hope, and are social outcasts, collide.
Lish’s description of these lives and this world is brutal. It is hard to believe he hasn’t lived in it himself. The prose is unflinching and relentless at times, but that is what makes the reader care about these lives. It is a timely novel. As we see the desperation of Syrians and African migrants to reach Europe and various responses of Europeans governments, we begin to feel the fragility of geographical borders, and the impossibility of simply wishing desperate people away. Zou has a ferocity to survive. Skinner is so tormented, it seems that Zou is the only thing that keeps him alive. They live in a world where damaged vets and undocumented immigrants have few friends, and many who exploit them.
Why then would most people choose to read this book? Lish’s writing is tremendous. It is compelling, as are his characters. The stories at the center of this book are timely and pertinent to all of us. It is a book that you will continue to think about and may haunt you, after you are done.
Lish’s novel is the story of an “underclass� that exists in America, right under our noses, but often invisible. Members of this group are the most marginalized of all who live in our society. They are undocumented immigrants without a safety net, or community. They include former soldiers and other veterans of recent American wars who have witnessed and committed horrible acts and suffer deep physical and psychic scars. And they include those who have served time in prisons, and are released with psychological and social problems, and no resources. This is the story of what happens when people who have lost hope, and are social outcasts, collide.
Lish’s description of these lives and this world is brutal. It is hard to believe he hasn’t lived in it himself. The prose is unflinching and relentless at times, but that is what makes the reader care about these lives. It is a timely novel. As we see the desperation of Syrians and African migrants to reach Europe and various responses of Europeans governments, we begin to feel the fragility of geographical borders, and the impossibility of simply wishing desperate people away. Zou has a ferocity to survive. Skinner is so tormented, it seems that Zou is the only thing that keeps him alive. They live in a world where damaged vets and undocumented immigrants have few friends, and many who exploit them.
Why then would most people choose to read this book? Lish’s writing is tremendous. It is compelling, as are his characters. The stories at the center of this book are timely and pertinent to all of us. It is a book that you will continue to think about and may haunt you, after you are done.
January 30, 2019
A novel about New York from the point of view of the most disenfranchised. A book that is never sentimental, never condescending. One of the best books I've ever read.
December 21, 2015
This book did everything I ask a great book to do. Primarily it let me enter the lives and gain understanding of an American veteran, and a Chinese Muslim immigrant. Quiet sunbeams of hope peaking into a dismal urban landscape. Beautifully written I like the author's style. Shades of Journey to the End of the Night by Celine, and McCarthy's The Road but set in current day Brooklyn and Queens. Anything this bloody ugly and real must finish on a noire downslide. The NY Times gave the best summary:Take a Muslim immigrant girl and an all-American boy, and have them fall in love in New York City, where everything in the earliest days of the 21st century suddenly went horrifyingly wrong. The pair stumble across each other in Chinatown one day when Skinner is looking for a “massage� and Zou Lei is sitting outside the basement noodle place where she works. They have three things in common: the military (her father was in the Chinese Army), working out (they both love the gym) and loneliness. Together they explore what one comes to think of, over the course of the novel, as “the real New York,� the mostly hidden world of all the broke, overworked and often “illegal� people who actually keep the city running. And this a line from the book, "The bright side, she said, was that she had met him and they could form an army of their own, a two person unit, to fight these difficult battles involving his mental recovery and her immigration status." There is still hope in the hearts of the most discarded of Americans.
March 29, 2015
A masterpiece of empathetic characterization and a total gut-punch of a book. With such tenderness and without editorializing, it illuminates the desperate and largely invisible struggles of an undocumented Chinese immigrant and her PTSD-ridden Iraq vet boyfriend, all playing out in the darkest and most barren pockets of New York City. The emotions in this book are so huge and so deep, but they always felt earned. The author has an amazing ear for dialogue and for detail, and a true gift for inhabiting his characters. I can't remember the last time I was this convinced of the reality of the characters, and felt such anxiety for them and such a sense of holding my breath as each storyline hovered on the cusp of total disaster. I'm sure I'm making it sound like why would anybody ever read this book, and it's certainly not pleasant or fun, but it is a beautiful and meaningful reading experience and I'm so very glad I read it.
April 11, 2018
„Następne życie� to przejmująca do szpiku kości, melancholijna i przygnębiająca opowieść, która miejscami daje nadzieję, ale częściej ograbia z niej czytelnika. Atticus Lish oszczędnymi słowami wykreował historię miłości, która wzrusza prawdziwością, przeraża dosłownością. Wystarczy moment, wystarczy chwila, byśmy przepadli pośród zdesperowanych dzielnic Nowego Jorku, pośród tumultu, chaosu, niekończącego się pędu. To nie jest nowy wspaniały świat, to nie jest Ameryka wielkich szans i karier od pucybuta i milionera. To ziemia obiecana, która sama już nic nikomu nie obiecuje.
Piękna powieść. Warto!
Piękna powieść. Warto!
March 23, 2020
I wanted to give this book 1 star because it was so hard to read - the staccato writing, relentless descriptions of the grimy parts of New York you would rather not see, and a plot that refuses to unfold neatly. Characters with very few redeeming qualities who, if they were real, you would turn your nose at and hurriedly walk away from on a street.
And still, they grow on you. You begin to understand them better, and you start to care. You want them to catch a break because that's what books are supposed to DO - neatly package a story and tie up the loose ends so we can get closure; give us the happy endings, or even just an ending one can make peace with. This book does none of that.
It keeps scratching an open wound and forces you to constantly look at it, giving the reader no respite. I never want to read the book again, but I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come. That was probably what the author wanted - to make you uncomfortable rather than unaffected.
It was a great book.
And still, they grow on you. You begin to understand them better, and you start to care. You want them to catch a break because that's what books are supposed to DO - neatly package a story and tie up the loose ends so we can get closure; give us the happy endings, or even just an ending one can make peace with. This book does none of that.
It keeps scratching an open wound and forces you to constantly look at it, giving the reader no respite. I never want to read the book again, but I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come. That was probably what the author wanted - to make you uncomfortable rather than unaffected.
It was a great book.
August 18, 2024
Numa narrativa extremamente descritiva, Atticus Lish deixa-nos a história de dois personagens dÃspares que em comum tem, apenas, a sobrevivência “embrulhadaâ€� nos problemas do quotidiano. Desengane-se, no entanto, quem achar que o quotidiano é a vida “normalâ€� como a concebemos. Esta é a vida dos “invisÃveisâ€�, à procura do seu “American dreamâ€�, que nunca chega porque ou alguém o destruiu ou porque alguém decidiu que não se tem direito a ele.
É, ainda, uma crÃtica feroz a uma sociedade que explora os tais “invisÃveisâ€�, que se ergueu e continua a sobreviver graças ao seu trabalho e que continua a negar-lhe a existência, feita por alguém com uma perspicácia fora do normal e que consegue relatar a dinâmica da vida a desenrolar-se de forma espantosa.
É uma narrativa crua acerca de vidas complicadas em que os finais são os possÃveis, sem maquilhagem de qualquer tipo.
Peca pela extensão desnecessária mas é brutal.
É, ainda, uma crÃtica feroz a uma sociedade que explora os tais “invisÃveisâ€�, que se ergueu e continua a sobreviver graças ao seu trabalho e que continua a negar-lhe a existência, feita por alguém com uma perspicácia fora do normal e que consegue relatar a dinâmica da vida a desenrolar-se de forma espantosa.
É uma narrativa crua acerca de vidas complicadas em que os finais são os possÃveis, sem maquilhagem de qualquer tipo.
Peca pela extensão desnecessária mas é brutal.
April 11, 2015
Three quarters of the way through this beautifully grim depiction of life at the bottom, Zou Lei,
an illegal immigrant who lives in fear of being thrown in jail again, of losing her barely paying backbreaking job, of seeing Skinner, the physically and mentally scared Iraq war vet who she has fallen in love with fail to surface from his overmedicated nightmares, meets a Muslim who wants to save her.
He wants her to come back to the religion she learned a bit about growing up dirt poor in rural Western China:
“But, he said , you cannot have these beautiful things if you lead a bad life, if you are sinning, doing what you want. Of course you must live properly and obey the law. He pointed at the bilingual Arabic and English sign over the mosque’s doorway, which he read aloud for her. It said Preparation For The Next Life.�
This may be one of the few places in the book in which the author intrudes to include irony. Instead author Atticus Lish describes in loving detail the blasted housing projects, the unending trips for fast food, the meaningful meaningless of running and hiding through the demotic argot of those from Latin America, China, Afghanistan, as they try to survive in the outer orbit of New York City. The title of the book, however points to one of the few times that anything even remotely redemptive enters into the minds of the characters or the unfolding of a plot that we know, from the beginning, will not end well for some. Zou Lei is far more sinned against than sinning. In fact she is far more holy than most who have shrines. Skinner, however, haunted by demons, fights for a soul he lost in the killing zones. Others have lost their souls in prison or in the pursuit of money. The redemptive act of running may be the way of escaping dark thought. Zou Lei is always running, figuratively and literally. Her story is in some ways an update of Huck Finn-- a mattress for raft and then lighting out for the territories--and in this she may be more American than most of us.
The book has earned some rave reviews for its poetic prose put into service to give the largely voiceless to the voiceless. It’s not as if there are not millions who speak and live like Lish depicts; it’s just that they don’t write books or appear often in the media except when they are arrested or are themselves the victims of crimes. Lish’s sentences are clear and clean but also have a ‘deluging onwardness� that makes what happens seems fated.
For those who want to read a writer using all his skills to bring readers into this world that so few seems prepared for, then I would encourage you to read this book. It is one of the better novels I have read in the past few years.
an illegal immigrant who lives in fear of being thrown in jail again, of losing her barely paying backbreaking job, of seeing Skinner, the physically and mentally scared Iraq war vet who she has fallen in love with fail to surface from his overmedicated nightmares, meets a Muslim who wants to save her.
He wants her to come back to the religion she learned a bit about growing up dirt poor in rural Western China:
“But, he said , you cannot have these beautiful things if you lead a bad life, if you are sinning, doing what you want. Of course you must live properly and obey the law. He pointed at the bilingual Arabic and English sign over the mosque’s doorway, which he read aloud for her. It said Preparation For The Next Life.�
This may be one of the few places in the book in which the author intrudes to include irony. Instead author Atticus Lish describes in loving detail the blasted housing projects, the unending trips for fast food, the meaningful meaningless of running and hiding through the demotic argot of those from Latin America, China, Afghanistan, as they try to survive in the outer orbit of New York City. The title of the book, however points to one of the few times that anything even remotely redemptive enters into the minds of the characters or the unfolding of a plot that we know, from the beginning, will not end well for some. Zou Lei is far more sinned against than sinning. In fact she is far more holy than most who have shrines. Skinner, however, haunted by demons, fights for a soul he lost in the killing zones. Others have lost their souls in prison or in the pursuit of money. The redemptive act of running may be the way of escaping dark thought. Zou Lei is always running, figuratively and literally. Her story is in some ways an update of Huck Finn-- a mattress for raft and then lighting out for the territories--and in this she may be more American than most of us.
The book has earned some rave reviews for its poetic prose put into service to give the largely voiceless to the voiceless. It’s not as if there are not millions who speak and live like Lish depicts; it’s just that they don’t write books or appear often in the media except when they are arrested or are themselves the victims of crimes. Lish’s sentences are clear and clean but also have a ‘deluging onwardness� that makes what happens seems fated.
For those who want to read a writer using all his skills to bring readers into this world that so few seems prepared for, then I would encourage you to read this book. It is one of the better novels I have read in the past few years.
August 27, 2015
This was a book that I'd had my eye on for a while, and given talk of it winning awards, I decided to buy it while it was still more or less full price. It's well worth the praise heaped upon it.
Set in post 9/11 NYC, it features two main characters-Zou Lei, an illegal immigrant from China and an ethnic minority in her country of origin, making it harder for her to integrate with the Chinese community in the city, and Brad Skinner, veteran of three tours of Iraq and recently discharged after having been wounded during service.
ZouÌýLei is forced to work long hours for little pay and to live in squalor, but believes in the American dream. When she meets Skinner, the ex soldier is taken with her, and they begin a relationship which has to endure the dangers of being undocumented as well as the strains of the mental scars left by Skinner's time in Iraq.
This book isn't a light read by any means, but I'd rank it amongst the best novels I've read this year.ÌýLishÌýdoes an amazing job in capturing the feel of the underbelly of NYC, both in his portrayal of its setting and its inhabitants, and the trials and tribulations faced by bothÌýZouÌýLei and Skinner, with all their resultant thoughts, feelings, consequences and actions are expertly conveyed. I genuinely cared for both characters, and the bittersweet ending was one that I found quite poignant.
A book that I'd definitely recommend.Ìý
Set in post 9/11 NYC, it features two main characters-Zou Lei, an illegal immigrant from China and an ethnic minority in her country of origin, making it harder for her to integrate with the Chinese community in the city, and Brad Skinner, veteran of three tours of Iraq and recently discharged after having been wounded during service.
ZouÌýLei is forced to work long hours for little pay and to live in squalor, but believes in the American dream. When she meets Skinner, the ex soldier is taken with her, and they begin a relationship which has to endure the dangers of being undocumented as well as the strains of the mental scars left by Skinner's time in Iraq.
This book isn't a light read by any means, but I'd rank it amongst the best novels I've read this year.ÌýLishÌýdoes an amazing job in capturing the feel of the underbelly of NYC, both in his portrayal of its setting and its inhabitants, and the trials and tribulations faced by bothÌýZouÌýLei and Skinner, with all their resultant thoughts, feelings, consequences and actions are expertly conveyed. I genuinely cared for both characters, and the bittersweet ending was one that I found quite poignant.
A book that I'd definitely recommend.Ìý
May 6, 2015
This book is very gritty. It's the story of an Iraq war veteran who has PTSD and he meets and falls in love with an illegal immigrant Muslim Chinese girl. Skinner (even his name evokes messed up white guy images) and Zole (sp? dunno listened to the audio) are living in the mean streets of NYC, getting by on his combat payout and her variable wages since she is routinely cheated due to her immigration status. This is the America we know is out there but we don't want to see. The narrative is compelling although in retrospect, not a whole heckuva lot happens in this book. I guess I liked it because the characters are extremely well developed and Lish has a unique way with words. As he is the son of literary editor Gordon Lish, this is not surprising....but there is a whole backstory about how he didn't want to trade on his name and found his own way with this book. Undoubtedly an admirable freshman effort (it won the PEN/Faulkner Award) and I look forward to reading more of his work.
This took me a long time to read because I went on a 10 day vacation and didn't take it with me. It's a long book but it flows well. The final chapters of this story take place in my hometown, Phoenix, AZ and it was interesting to see it through Lish's lens.
This took me a long time to read because I went on a 10 day vacation and didn't take it with me. It's a long book but it flows well. The final chapters of this story take place in my hometown, Phoenix, AZ and it was interesting to see it through Lish's lens.
December 28, 2014
Various blurbs, both on the covers and inside, describe this novel as a "love story". But it isn't really that at all; it's a tale of two people struggling to survive, one confronting myriad battle scars left by three consecutive deployments in Iraq, and the other constantly wary of authorities who would be happy to deport an illegal immigrant at the drop of a hat. Yes, they come together in a relationship. But Brad Skinner is so traumatized by wartime flashbacks -- unmitigated by pills and alcohol -- that he isn't truly capable of love, and Zou Lei's affection for him, while genuine, is ultimately less than her sense of duty to herself.
Set mostly in the backstreets of Queens, New York, in areas that most readers will never personally encounter, Preparation for the Next Life creates a compelling and thoroughly convincing account of day-to-day existence among the underclasses. There's no social safety net here; multitudes are eking out a bare subsistence, and hanging on by vaporously thin threads. Illegals are paid far below the minimum wage, and entrepreneurs on street corners are looking to make a fast buck under the police radar. Violence and brutality are prevalent, and generosity is rare. Walking is the primary mode of transportation in this realm, and author Atticus Lish shows us tenements, alleys, bars, and bodegas from a pedestrian's eye view. His staccato prose is just right for capturing the hubbub of the street and the din of restaurant kitchens where Zou Lei is sometimes employed, as well as the persistent echoes of battlefield horrors that bedevil Skinner's consciousness, leading to periods of severe emotional instability. Lish's book is a stunning portrait of both exteriors and interiors: the jagged cityscape with its distinctive smells, dilapidated buildings, and kaleidoscopic crowds; Zou Lei's unremitting determination to succeed; and Skinner's mental torment.
Although the attraction between Skinner and Zou Lei is primarily physical (besides sex, they share a commitment to grueling exercise regimens), their relationship occupies other small dimensions as well. After learning of Zou Lei's immigration problem, Skinner begins to worry about the possibility of her being deported (while casting about for some way to insure against it), and she gamely but vainly tries to help rid him of his war-caused demons.
Skinner rents a basement room on 168th Street, and the unfolding tension between him and the Irish-American family upstairs creates an important subplot that eventually leads to a spectacular climax. At that point in the novel, Zou Lei embarks on a solitary all-night pilgrimage, traversing somewhere between 20 and 30 miles on foot (it's an interesting challenge to try mapping her exact route). If there's no happy ending for either of them, there's some consolation in the fact that the author's gritty realism produces its own stark artistic beauty.
The title is taken from a bilingual sign displayed at the entrance to an inner-city mosque that Zou Lei visits on just one occasion. But as far as she and Skinner are concerned, there's nothing that could have prepared them for much of anything -- neither for their brief time together, nor for whatever "the next life" turns out to mean.
Set mostly in the backstreets of Queens, New York, in areas that most readers will never personally encounter, Preparation for the Next Life creates a compelling and thoroughly convincing account of day-to-day existence among the underclasses. There's no social safety net here; multitudes are eking out a bare subsistence, and hanging on by vaporously thin threads. Illegals are paid far below the minimum wage, and entrepreneurs on street corners are looking to make a fast buck under the police radar. Violence and brutality are prevalent, and generosity is rare. Walking is the primary mode of transportation in this realm, and author Atticus Lish shows us tenements, alleys, bars, and bodegas from a pedestrian's eye view. His staccato prose is just right for capturing the hubbub of the street and the din of restaurant kitchens where Zou Lei is sometimes employed, as well as the persistent echoes of battlefield horrors that bedevil Skinner's consciousness, leading to periods of severe emotional instability. Lish's book is a stunning portrait of both exteriors and interiors: the jagged cityscape with its distinctive smells, dilapidated buildings, and kaleidoscopic crowds; Zou Lei's unremitting determination to succeed; and Skinner's mental torment.
Although the attraction between Skinner and Zou Lei is primarily physical (besides sex, they share a commitment to grueling exercise regimens), their relationship occupies other small dimensions as well. After learning of Zou Lei's immigration problem, Skinner begins to worry about the possibility of her being deported (while casting about for some way to insure against it), and she gamely but vainly tries to help rid him of his war-caused demons.
Skinner rents a basement room on 168th Street, and the unfolding tension between him and the Irish-American family upstairs creates an important subplot that eventually leads to a spectacular climax. At that point in the novel, Zou Lei embarks on a solitary all-night pilgrimage, traversing somewhere between 20 and 30 miles on foot (it's an interesting challenge to try mapping her exact route). If there's no happy ending for either of them, there's some consolation in the fact that the author's gritty realism produces its own stark artistic beauty.
The title is taken from a bilingual sign displayed at the entrance to an inner-city mosque that Zou Lei visits on just one occasion. But as far as she and Skinner are concerned, there's nothing that could have prepared them for much of anything -- neither for their brief time together, nor for whatever "the next life" turns out to mean.
October 20, 2016
I have but one thing to sat about this book: what a beautiful but sad story.
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