Book Review: "The Book of Goose" by Yiyun Li

There have been times where I have picked up a book because of its artwork. Unfortunately, in these cases I had in fact, judged a book by its cover. There have also been times I had picked a book up because of its title. I had found it interesting or wanted to know exactly what it meant. Then there are times like these where the book has been looking at me, following me, for ages. I first came across this book on the Amazon Bookstore. I saved it to my wishlist. Then it came up on my Amazon Recommendations. Finally, I was in a bookstore in Birmingham and gave up trying to stop it. I bought the book. I knew I was in for one hell of a ride but honestly, this book simply blew me away.

The Book of Goose starts off with Agnes coming to terms with her past alongside her childhood friend, Fabienne. Fabienne has since died and Agnes is ready to actually tell her story and this story is something really twisted and shocking. She goes back to when she and Fabienne were young and the fact that they thoroughly disliked how depressed the postmaster, M. Devaux was after his wife's death. Now, Fabienne has a lot of philosophies of grieving that are realistic but really quite horrible. However, the two girls entrap M. Devaux in helping them write a book, to which he is initially cynical and admits he reads his mediocre poetry to his pigeons that keep returning to him every evening.

However, Fabienne says that Agnes should put her name as the author. If Fabienne is coming up with the ideas and M. Devaux is editing them down, Agnes is writing it all down first and thus, must put her name on it. Intimidated a little by Fabienne's confidence in the success of the book, Agnes agrees. The book is released and thrust into national fame alongside its author. When asked how they should respond to the fame, Fabienne states that Agnes must go through the fame journey alone - stating she wants nothing to do with it. The deception of the book being written by a child prodigy must be kept up.

Alongside all of this is some painful stuff. For example: for most of the first half of the book, Agnes' brother Jean is sick and bedbound and she explains that there are people she knows that have died in childbirth. There's a murder plot that is turned into framing someone for a crime to get them to keep their mouth shut. However, it is not even certain as to whether any crime was actually committed as the door, remaining thoroughly closed, had our narrator standing outside and away from the main action. Painfully, Agnes goes to England in one part of the book and things begin to bubble over to the point of no return and things look like they could completely collapse over her.

As Agnes deals with fame, we see her character change from kind and empathetic with a touch of shyness to someone who is arrogant and slightly stuck up to someone who finally cannot take much more of this. The question of what happens to Agnes is always more interesting than that of what happens to the book. As the story morphs into something much more worrying, so does our narrator and as letters are sent back and forth, there are more deceptions lying ahead - not just in Agnes and Fabienne themselves but in everyone around them.

This book is so different to the others I have read this year and it kind of makes me a little sad that I didn't pick it up when it first came out. It is a brilliant book, written with incredible precision and styled in the most readable way that you would think Agnes is a very real person. The author's creation of Agnes' personality makes me think of novels by Ottessa Moshfegh and if you are a fan of Ottessa Moshfegh's works like My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Eileen and especially the book Death in Her Hands, then you will absolutely adore The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li.