What are we gonna do for our middle years

It may be appropriate to call Lu's novels "parallel narratives to life".

As the title of his latest novel, "Nowhere Else", suggests, life is "Nowhere Else".

Life is not an epic, a fantasy three-body problem. There is no love measured in light years. There is little room for looking at the horizon or the stars. Life is the moment we are experiencing, with a plain face, but we are small into their own plot. Whether the plot is happy or sad, whether the character is an extra or a stranger, we should take it as it is.

In middle age, people should be calm and secure, but never thought that in this era of rapid change, people are living more and more entangled. There's nothing crazy about what's written in "Nowhere Else." They are just snapshots of middle-aged people's lives. "Two children" policy came, su xiu found his trouble began to bulge like belly, she suddenly found that exhausted youth "unit" began to change face, she had to change his attitude to learn to do a bitter woman. The second sister, Su Jin, had to endure the pain of having her child far away from her, while also facing the embarrassment of her husband's infidelity. The paradox was that she seemed to realize more clearly that she had already been tired of and looked down upon this man, and that he could not keep up with her own growth rate. Her "aesthetic" of another good man is modifying her emotional needs. Eldest sister Su Ying is busy with her sister and daughter's marriage, and her own life is not yet clear.

Women are struggling, trying to take the initiative in a workplace and a relationship that can get you out if you're not careful. But where are the men? As far as I'm concerned, at least, the men in the novel are "hanging around," living in the shadow of tough women. There is no dripping blood to face, what they have to face is their overall adjustment in this era. They have no grievances? Middle-aged but have wronged also not self-pity, they are the must keep their negative emotions with saliva to swallow, is that possible by others as a fool or company with a smile, also is the sense of accomplishment is more and more difficult to find yet assumed a look of fighting, even sigh life would be considered melodramatic and artificial person...

The plight of middle age in Lu's pen -- the new state of "people in middle age" is vivid. This is the age of "up in the clouds" (philosophers say electronic ontology has replaced physical ontology), in which the young may feel as if they were a fish in water, while the middle-aged may have to start over like schoolboys, only to be thrown out of the blocks in a breathless attempt to catch up. The past experience, which could have allowed the middle-aged to build up their confidence, seems to be completely ineffective, and even become a redundant burden. But the problems they encounter are hard and incomparable, unable to avoid: two children of milk powder money, elder escort, after the wave of compulsion, the suffering of marriage... I can't handle any of them. The pain in their hearts, the healing music and the marketing of chicken soup for the soul don't work. The point is that middle-aged people are hard enough to convince, and hard enough to convince themselves.

Live a crisis, you lie to yourself "play is the heartbeat", live bland, you comfort yourself "plain is true", is it so?

But what makes literature literature is that it allows you to empathize with it and at the same time gain some kind of unspeakable awareness and understanding. Life may be cruel, but life in literature radiates a soft halo of compassion. Lu's narrative doesn't try to give you a methodology for dealing with life's dilemmas, but it does offer a solid world view, a window of amiable lights and a pair of warm eyes. Like he's three sisters Sue home, although can't get the interested object, the lack of "life", "life is elsewhere", "love in the other shore" empty spirit realm, but they were clinging to life itself, stick to this side of the lifelike, are stubborn live bravely, are in middle age that no placeless desolate, digestive load more and more heavy fetter alone more and more embarrassed, Struggling with self-drive, in the tiredness, in the disappointment, tenaciously touch the first "fetal movement" from the deepest part of body and mind. Yes, little people's lives are like babies, born with the power of self-improvement.

This is the benefit that literature brings us. Literature never needs to say the word "inspirational", but when reading is moved, when tears are lightly touched, we will get the joy of liberation and find a deep breath to continue walking.

What are we gonna do for our middle years? It is to live one day at a time seriously and vigorously. The so-called life, is to let life, live. Even if there is no rainbow in the sky, even if life is full of holes, we are still full of goodwill to the world, the pace is calm.