How To Tell A Love Story Steeped In Grief.
How to End A Love Story by Yulin Kuang has been sitting on my bookshelf for two years. Many people around me have championed the story and I have even met Kuang twice! But somehow, consciously or subconsciously, I never made the time for it.
I knew this was the story of Helen Zhang, a novelist who moves to LA to be part of a writers’ room for the TV adaptation of her own book (total Romcom setup). Her love interest, Grant Shepard, is also a writer on this team. However, the sobering, not-so romcom twist, is that during high school, Helen’s sister committed suicide by jumping in front of Grant’s car.
Perhaps my subconscious avoidance came from my history with loss. When I was young, I experienced a lot of grief and loss, some very traumatic and some just as a natural progression of life.
However, this January, Emily Henry’s film adaptation of People We Meet on Vacation, was released on Netflix and Kuang had written the screenplay for it. Before I watched this movie, I knew I finally needed to put on my big-girl panties and read Kuang’s book.
However, the story did not feel like the tragedy I expected. There was no romanticization of trauma and pain. There was just fear, anxiety, avoidance, and coping. I was surprised by how much I related to these two characters. They had trauma for sure, but over the years they were simply forced to keep going. This turned them into masters of survival and avoidance.
The punch to the heart did not come from epic retellings of tragic events, but rather from depicting the simple truth of how hard it is to keep all your pieces together when you’ve been shattered. It’s in the honest conversations between the two characters that we feel the weight of the trauma.
This simplicity made the book soar. Kuang shows moments of silliness, joy, and lust in everyday-life. Trauma was woven in, but I never felt like I was sitting in the darkest places of the characters’ minds for an unreasonable time.
On another note, because it's me, I cannot explain how hot this book was! The way that Kuang describes the yearning between the characters is intoxicating. I have not read such titillating, steamy prose since I read Book Lovers by Emily Henry. Kuang doesn’t use straight-forward physical language, but rather language that is incredibly evocative and sensual. I don't blush often when I read but this book had me sweating!
Just like Helen and Grant, I sometimes want to avoid anything that will remind me of my grief. Kaung reminds me that when we walk hand-in-hand with our grief we can be truly alive and feel everything from sadness, to joy, lust and peace. It’s an important lesson to remember and it's a GREAT book!
