Structure

Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life is a series of essays which are linked together thematically. The essays are grounded by their thematic connections as well as by the fact that they are all primarily about and influenced by Li's two-year period of depression. However, the structure of each essay, as well as of the book as a whole, is nonlinear and somewhat unclear. The pattern of stories, anecdotes, and musings appears to follow Li's thought patterns as opposed to a clearly defined structure. Some essays have an internal structure of their own that does not extend to the others. For example, the paragraphs in Chapter One are broken up into sections and numbers sequentially. This presents the first essay as a series of impressions which are not narratively linked. While the other essays follow a similar structure, Li does not...