Yiyun Li is a Chinese-American writer who moved from China to the US when she was 24 years old. Although her mother tongue is Chinese, from the very beginning she started to write in English. She has won many awards for her writing. This is her memoir.

For a decade, Li tried to be a perfect mother, writer and full-time worker. During those 10 years, she used to write between midnight and four in the morning --- and then one day she just could not do it anymore. She became depressed and even tried to commit suicide. As a result, she was hospitalized twice. She wrote DEAR FRIEND, FROM MY LIFE I WRITE TO YOU IN YOUR LIFE for two years, and her intention, at first, was to argue for and against suicide at the same time. But once one starts reading this magnificent memoir, it soon becomes obvious that this is about much more than that. The reader will not find out the details of Li’s depression or suicide attempt, and she does not even write too much about her hospital stays. There is no recollection of her dark times, because this is a memoir about healing.

"DEAR FRIEND is a beautifully crafted memoir in which Li masterfully combines childhood memories with the life and work of great authors and her own intimate thoughts on life, death and writing."

DEAR FRIEND does not have a linear plot line. Instead of providing insight into her childhood and youth in China, move to the US, depression, hospital visits and healing, Li takes the reader on an intimate journey. Yes, bits and pieces about her life in China and her hospitalization are scattered throughout the book, but what dominates are her thoughts about writing and references to the literature that she read during her healing process. In a way, this is a homage to Li’s favorite authors in whose works she found solace in her dark times. Thus she refers to such writers as Turgenev, Kierkegaard, Hardy, Gorky, Green, Chekov and Mansfield, and a whole chapter is devoted to William Trevor and their friendship.

This is neither an easy nor a fast read. It is pregnant with difficult thoughts and reflections on life, death, writing, the relationship between a writer and his/her characters, and the writer and his/her readers. Li also poses a question about identity and language, because she writes solely in English, her second language.

With her recollections of the books she read in her teens, Li transported me back to my own adolescent years, a time when electronic devices didn’t dominate our lives and we could surrender to reading. The book rouses a desire to read not only all the authors she mentions here, but also her own works.

DEAR FRIEND is a beautifully crafted memoir in which Li masterfully combines childhood memories with the life and work of great authors and her own intimate thoughts on life, death and writing. Although it is divided into nine chapters, each dealing with a different issue, the book should be read as a whole. Only that way will one get the complete picture.