Sweeping Past

For this response, I decided to focus on Yiyun Li’s Sweeping Past. This short story centers around the protagonist, Ailin, reminiscing of her two best friends in the eternal sisterhood that they had sworn to each other, and the tragic backstory that caused the rift. 

I found this story interesting when I was first reading it, mainly because I wasn’t sure what to expect when it first began, with little context to the style of Li’s writing or storytelling. However, the shift between the memories and current day in a way that made the narrative of Ailin’s younger days seem more current, and the timelines feeling blended, was poignant in the first couple of paragraphs. 

It also felt like an impactful way of showing the generational difference layered over the cultural difference a possible non-Chinese reader may have when it comes to the prospect of the arranged marriage between Mei and Lan’s son and daughter. Ying herself could not understand whre Mei and Lan’s resentment of Ailin could come from, especially when she was not the cause of either of the children’s death. Ailin, however, mentions herself that she understands that the anger spawned from her old friends’ grief was not inherently rational, nor did she expect it to be. 

Overall, this was a gripping telling on the concept of grief, I feel. The grief not only Mei and Lan felt towards their children’s respective deaths, but also the grief that Ailin may not have openly expressed to Ying, but she must have felt even in her older age of her lost friendships. This, coupled with all the regrets and what-ifs that have run through her when in reference to her later marriage being a catalyst, shows that there are perhaps parts of the situation that she will always wonder about, even if she has done her best to make her peace with the circumstances.