“Lulu”
by Te-Ping Chen
from the April 8, 2019 issue of The New Yorker

I don’t know Te-Ping Chen, but with a bit of searching this morning I see she’s a Wall Street Journal reporter who, in her interview, says, “I think journalism and fiction are both ways of being differently attentive to what’s around you.” I’m glad to get to know her work a bit better, and Lulu sounds promising: “a young Chinese man watches his twin sister become increasingly involved in dissident activism.” This premise combined with this opening paragraph makes me interested:

The hour of our birth had been carefully forecast, a winter’s day Cesarean timed to coincide with Dr. Feng’s lunch break. The doctor pulled me out first, indignant and squalling, like a hotel guest roused and tossed before checkout. Lulu came next, and was so perfectly quiet that at first they thought she wasn’t breathing at all. Then they thwacked her on the back and her cries joined mine and they laid us side by side, boy and girl, two underwater creatures suddenly forced to fill our lungs with cold dry air.

So, happy April everyone! I’m working a few days this week before taking off Thursday and Friday, which promise to have nice weather. I hope this story accompanies the pleasant beginning of spring nicely!

Please have a wonderful week — and share your thoughts below!

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