Radical: A Life of My Own by Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo's memoir Radical is the story of a search for selfhood and a language that connects her past and present
Born in China, Xiaolu Guo moved to Britain when she was 29, building a family and life in London. In 2019, she moves to New York, and finds herself estranged from language, memory and home. Radical: A Life Of My Own, Guo’s memoir, is born in this tumultuous period, a search for selfhood through a language that connects her past and present, one that she can claim as her own. “Here I am,” she writes in her introduction, “in pursuit of an etymology of myself.”
Four lexicons organise the book – of encounters, separations, enduring and impermanence. Within each are chapters titled by radicals, the roots making up the ideograms of the Chinese language. This structure guides Guo's reflections on her life in New York. She meets a lover, whom she names E, and recounts their intimacy, and the eventual distance that pushes them apart; when she moves back to London during the coronavirus pandemic, her heart lingers in New York, and with E.
Her curiosity for Western literature, poetry and art melds with nostalgia for China. As she walks us through her life, time overlaps itself as old and recent memories meet, interwoven with reflections on the everyday – the shape of flowers, solace found in gardening, the changing seasons into deep winter. Guo’s writing is tender and raw, and she creates a passionate, intimate vocabulary, exploring the complexity of belonging, nostalgia, and love.