Memory Piece, Lisa Ko

This is a cool, strange book — a story of three women and their friendship over the years, but also, unexpectedly, a work of sci-fi that sketches a vision of the future that awaits us. Each section is so distinct — different narrator, different span of time, different focus — but they also connect in cool ways.

The first section is about performance art and the artist’s Bildung, or development. I’ve been more and more into making art these last few years, in that I’ve been taking classes in ceramics, drawing, and soon painting, and so I’m all the more excited by books that compellingly describe what it’s like to be an artist (could I be an artist?). But it had absolutely never crossed my mind to think about performance art, or to wonder how a person gets into making it, so this was really neat.

I don’t want to say too much about the second and third sections, other than that they’re terrifying and hit very close to home. There are really complex and fascinating explorations of how people feed into the systems that destroy them, and how they try to resist them. It probably enthralled me all the more because I had no idea that the book was going there, so apologies for ruining the surprise, but I think it’ll be worth it anyhow.

And meanwhile, it’s also a really lovely account of the sweet, sexy, and somewhat lonely experiences of three very different women and their lasting attachments to each other. I really enjoyed it.