{"id":30657,"date":"2025-03-10T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=30657"},"modified":"2025-03-16T21:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T01:36:07","slug":"yiyun-li-techniques-and-idiosyncrasies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2025\/03\/10\/yiyun-li-techniques-and-idiosyncrasies\/","title":{"rendered":"Yiyun Li: “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/span><\/div>

“Techniques and Idiosyncrasies”<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Yiyun Li<\/span>
\nfrom the March 17, 2025 issue of\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/h3><\/div>

\"\"I<\/span>‘ve said it often over the years, but Yiyun Li is one of my favorite writers, often exploring even the most personal suffering in her work. This week we get “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies,” in which Lilian, a 51-year-old writer, goes to the doctor’s office. We may remember Lilian from Li’s prior story in the magazine: “The Particles of Order.”<\/p>\n

In this new story, Li invites us into a space where vulnerability, loss, and the weight of experience are palpable. The doctor’s office, usually a place for routine checkups, becomes the backdrop for Lilian\u2019s quiet but intense reflections on her past and present. Through her seemingly mundane visit, we are drawn into the subtleties of memory and grief — how personal history can subtly shape even the most ordinary interactions.<\/p>\n

Here is how the story begins:<\/p>\n

\n

Lilian was the only patient that morning. This was a change from the crowded waiting room she was used to in the days before Dr. Fenton began to charge an annual fee. \u201cConcierge medicine\u201d sounded like \u201cbespoke chocolates\u201d and would not have been Lilian\u2019s natural inclination, and yet she stayed with the clinic. Looking for a new physician would require making calls, meeting strangers, and filling out medical-history forms, and that, even for a healthy fifty-one-year-old, could be complicated. Lilian might be able to omit the two miscarriages\u2014not all experiences, thank goodness, left a trace\u2014but could she also omit the two childbirths, the second by C-section? Small talk happened in doctors\u2019 offices, sometimes about children.<\/span><\/p>\n

A fee was a manageable price for not having to lie or explain. Lilian did not mind telling the truth, but truths could be startling and leave people uneasy\u2014spooked<\/em>, Lilian called that state.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this story. Please feel free to comment below.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s New Yorker fiction is Yiyun Li’s “Techniques and Idiosyncrasies.” What begins as a routine checkup at the doctor’s office for Lilian quickly becomes a poignant meditation on memory and grief, drawing us into the subtle ways in which personal history shapes even the most seemingly mundane interactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,491],"tags":[1504],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-30657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-yorker-fiction","category-yiyun-li","tag-2025-new-yorker-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/March-17-2025-Featured-Image.jpg?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-7Yt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30660,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657\/revisions\/30660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30657"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}