Can we be content in troubled times?

In the Five Poems Lake of An Yu's "Sunbirth," folks strive simply to carry on — and maybe that's okay

There is an undeniable bleakness to the landscape around Five Poems Lake, the isolated setting of An Yu’s Sunbirth.

Five Poems Lake was a rather monochromatic place. If you stood on the tallest building and gazed down at the town, you would’ve wondered why it was all so grey, like everything had been drawn in pencil.

In part, of course, that’s because the Sun is gradually dimming, forcing people to don layers of clothing and hunker down inside to stay warm. People find makeshift solutions to compensate for the lack of warmth and diminishing resources, and some plot to escape. But an eerie fatalism shrouds Five Poems Lakes’ residents, who’ve come to acknowledge that no amount of ingenuity can alter nature’s inexplicable course. Even when the Beacons band together to form a searing, sun-like blaze, heating the air and brightening the skies once again, they regard them as a curiosity. They seem to think their efforts may ultimately be pointless — they can’t replace the Sun, no matter if they’re willing to sacrifice their lives to try.

When I reread An Yu’s novel last week, something struck me about its fictional world versus our all-too-real one. If there is an overarching governmental authority in the country where Five Poems Lake is located, it’s in the deep background — people don’t seem to pay it much attention. That’s in stark contrast to ours, where power is in a constant state of overreach, metastasizing like an aggressive cancer. As I write this, my phone is lighting up with ever more egregious news. (Trump laid out a red carpet for Putin!? Invited him to ride in the Beast?!) In Five Poems Lake, it feels so quiet — and I’m a little envious of that.

IRL, our smartphones rarely leave our hands, while in Five Poems Lake, no one appears to have one. There is television, but my impression is that people are tuning in to get updates on what they need to know about the weather and the latest sighting of the Beacons. There is no dizzying cacophony of broadcasts, podcasts, and social media posts. Theirs is certainly not a state of bliss, but it does appear to be blissfully quiet. Some in Five Poems Lake have even found their way to contentment, though others are restive, wanting more, but of what?

The following sentences really stuck with me. I’m still pondering them.

In a way, I thought, our bodies are just containers. I’d always assumed that we have the capacity to absorb the world, to endlessly store everything that we come across. But as we sat there in silence, I began to question whether there were, in fact, things that could overflow from us. Is that what the Beacons were: people who had become too full?

What do you make of what An Yu’s getting at here? I also wonder if the sense of isolation many of us experienced in the early days of Covid lockdown seeped into this novel and, in part, accounts for its quietude in the face of catastrophe. Is the book offering us a portrait of grief? Eager to hear your thoughts!

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The Ink is celebrating its fifth anniversary this weekend, and we’re offering a special sale for the occasion. So choose your discount — 50 percent off for your first year, 20 percent off forever, or a 30-day free trial — and join us for the next five years. The Book Club is open to all paid subscribers to The Ink, so it’s a perfect time to join and get access to our meetings, chats, and live conversations with authors. If you haven’t yet become part of our community, join today.

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How to participate in the Book Club

We’ll post questions — our discussion guide — every Sunday, and every other Wednesday we’ll meet for a discussion with the Club, or a visit from an author or other special guest. We’ll also host chat threads each week to allow you to share your insights on key questions in advance of our meetings.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars for Wednesday, August 27, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’ll talk live with Sunbirth author An Yu and have the chance to discover more about her process and what inspired the novel. We hope you’ll join us!

To participate in our meetings and author talks on Substack Live, join from your phone or tablet with the Substack app. You can watch on desktop at The Ink, and comment and ask questions in our chat, but you won’t be able to join the live video discussion. Book Club meetings are open to paid subscribers to The Ink, so if you haven’t become part of our community, please join us today.

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Photo by 邱 国标, iStock