Rated 5 out of 5
I picked up Tao Lin’s Leave Society because I wanted to stay informed about reviews of it, and I wanted to see if it was as good as some people were saying it was. I didn’t know if I would like it because I haven’t read a lot of his books. I’ve read Trip and Taipei, which came after a lot of the small press books he released. I also really loved his whale poem. Taipei is on course reserves at my library, and assigned to graduate students studying media and society. Relating to Taipei scared me at the time because it looked a little like my life. Leave Society feels like a natural progression in a trilogy of recovery.<br/><br/>When I read a review that said the main character Li finds love, I was super confused. I had a hard time believing that a Tao Lin novel would end with a love story. Between pages 252-289, he reconnects with Kay. I don’t want to give too many spoilers. It’s incredibly slow, sweet, non-alcoholic, and endearing. He switches off between writing one paragraph about Kay and one paragraph of subtly related informative text for a few pages. He slows down the intimacy experienced as he flips between these two perspectives, and calls each time they hang out a “variation” on the first time, and chronologically numbers their hangouts. I found it beautifully written.<br/><br/><br/><br/>So how does he fall in love? Can it also happen to me? Lol<br/><br/><br/>Between pages 252-289, he reconnects with Kay. I don’t want to give too many spoilers. It’s incredibly slow, sweet, non-alcoholic, and endearing. He switches off between writing one paragraph about Kay and one paragraph of subtly related informative text for a few pages. He slows down the intimacy experienced as he flips between these two perspectives, and calls each time they hang out a “variation” on the first time, and chronologically numbers their hangouts. I found it beautifully written.