Lives Unlived in “Such Common Life” by Yiyun Li

Lives unlived is a central theme in Yiyun Li’s fiction and is at the core of “Such Common Life,” a story published in her latest collection of short fiction, Wednesday’s Child (2023). This article analyzes how the form of the novella, which can be described as a long short story, serves the narrative purpose of reflecting on the paths not taken and what that means to a character as the closure of her life is in sight. This is achieved through a slow narrative rhythm and a dialectic relation between the two main characters, the younger one, a Chinese immigrant, acting as counterpoint to the elderly woman who is her charge. They alternately seem to be very different and to have a lot in common, and the occasional mirror effect between them brings out new revelations.