Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo is a story about Fenfang and her adventures through life (a very light way of putting it).

Here are some of my highlights

People always say it’s harder to heal a wounded heart than a wounded body. Bullshit. It’s exactly the opposite—a wounded body takes much longer to heal. A wounded heart is nothing but ashes of memories. But the body is everything. The body is blood and veins and cells and nerves. A wounded body is when, after leaving a man you’ve lived with for three years, you curl up on your side of the bed as if there’s still somebody beside you. That is a wounded body: a body that feels connected to someone who is no longer there.

Never look back to the past. Never regret. Even if there is emptiness ahead, never look back.

Kafka said, anyone who can’t come in terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to wave away his despaired and the other to note down what he sees among the ruins.

Life is too short

الحياة قصيرة  It is this wounded body that is torturing me. I’m reading a book that describes how I’m feeling although what she went through is probably something I can’t get through with. I thought I taught myself how to do it. To not dwell on something which I know isn’t worth even thinking about let alone getting myself too involved in. I am still me, the person who’d rather touch the flame of a burning candle just to see how it feels and will do it every single time just to check if I can still feel it on my skin. There will be a time when it will not sting, right?

“If I’m annoying, then why bother yourself with me?” Well, yeah….

No, Jon Maclaughlin, not everyone needs saving.

It turns out I’m not as strong as I think I am and when you’re not turning into this person you wish to be, what do you do?