How Far the Light Reaches is a memoir of 10 essays that function to allow the author to interrogate their life as a queer, biracial journalist.
Two essays stand out as perhaps the best of the book. One is a look-back at being sexually assaulted in college. It’s deeply introspective and personal, and it was perhaps apparent how much the author interrogated their college experience. The other is about the beach at Jacob Riis Park in Queens, New York. The park is deeply integral to the essay, and I found it particularly encouraging reading about how queer people carved this space out for themselves.
The linking of marine biology with the author’s personal life is also pretty creative, and I found these parts of the essays an interesting read. But there’s something deeply shallow about how these ideas are presented, and the links are awfully surface-level and “graspy” in a way that neither wins nor loses points. Even the author notes this: “I acknowledge this metaphor […] is cheap”.
I did not find the writing particularly compelling, and it wins no points for me here. It’s self-obsessed, and I felt it too deeply believed that its story is inherently remarkable and makes little attempt to tell it well. In its obsession, I think it loses some self-awareness. One example: there was a section about Capitol Hill in Seattle, and how it was being gentrified by tech implants. But it doesn’t strike the author that they themselves are an implant.
I cannot judge the essays on being queer. But I can judge the essays on being Chinese, and I do not find them particularly compelling, even for diaspora-focused writing.
2.5/5
Written 16 December 2024
Adapted from my review on Goodreads.