Activities of Daily Living

Chen’s meditative debut novel follows her award-winning poetry collection, Mouth. Alice, a Taiwanese immigrant, is caring for her father, whose health is declining. In addition to her day job as a video editor, she is working on a project about artist Tehching Hsieh, whose performance art projects in the 1980s lasted for years and focused on the passage of time. The book jumps between Alice in present day and artist Hsieh in the 1980s. Chen’s philosophical content delves into the concept of time and the need for projects, with projects being the motivation to continue the activities of daily living. Alice continues to describe how she, her father, and Hsieh all need projects to engage with life. Narrator Tina Huang’s depiction of Alice and her stepfather is empathetic and feels entirely authentic. Huang’s task is challenging, however, as there is little to signify changes in time or setting, making it difficult for listeners to follow the novel’s shifts between past and present.