Things in Nature Merely Grow — Book Summary & Review
by Yiyun Li
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Things in Nature Merely Grow Summary
In Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li frames her grief through a stark grammar of being—“to be” as the verb that does not die—then tests that idea by living it, day after day, at the exact point where words fail. Li opens with the facts she can’t prettify: her son Vincent died by suicide in 2017, and her son James died by suicide in 2024, both near home, and both choices haunt her like a locked room she keeps trying to enter. She refuses the usual arc of mourning and instead builds a working philosophy out of repetition: now and now and now, no “later” to bargain with. The book’s structure feels like a sequence of returns rather than chapters that resolve; Li revisits the same metaphysical problem—how to keep a person present without turning them into a slogan—while admitting how brutal the attempt is.
One of the book’s most concrete moves is her insistence on “things that work.” She doesn’t treat writing as therapy and she doesn’t treat philosophy as insulation; she treats them as daily methods for staying in contact with reality. Gardening becomes a way to practice patience without lying about outcomes. Reading Camus and Wittgenstein gives her language for the absurd and the limits of saying. Learning the piano, with its slow repetition and stubborn failures, is another form of “to be”: the body continuing, the mind refusing to vanish. Li’s most bracing argument is radical acceptance, but she keeps it grounded in logistics—what you do when the timeline stops making sense.
Honest limitation: this is not a conventional grief memoir aimed at comforting readers or offering a step-by-step coping plan; if you want narrative closure, you’ll feel the book’s refusal to provide it.
Key Takeaways from Things in Nature Merely Grow
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“to be” as the verb that does not die: Li treats presence as something sustained by language and relationship, not by time travel.
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“now and now and now”: she rejects the grief bargaining rhythm of later, insisting only the current moment is real enough to work with.
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“things that work”: gardening, reading, and music function as methods for staying in contact with reality, not distractions from it.
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Camus and Wittgenstein: Li uses their limits—absurdity, logic, and what language can’t capture—to sharpen her own metaphysical honesty.
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Two-suicide timeline: the book’s emotional engine is the second death arriving after the first, making “acceptance” a practice under pressure.
Who Should Read This
Someone who has had their life split into Before and After and keeps looking for words that won’t betray the dead. If you’re stuck in the logic of “later” and can’t believe you’ll ever reach it, Li’s “now” framework may finally match what you’re living.
Who Shouldn't Read This
If you want a grief book that moves toward resolution, Things in Nature Merely Grow will frustrate you with its refusal of comforting arcs. If you dislike philosophical memoir—especially the Camus/Wittgenstein strain—you may find Li’s reasoning heavier than you want from a 192-page book.
Editor's Verdict
The single best thing Li does is make “things that work” feel practical, especially in how gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, and learning the piano become rituals of “to be.” The real limitation is that the book offers no comforting storyline or coping roadmap, and readers seeking that will come away angry. This hits hardest for someone who’s just survived a second wave of loss and needs a way to live inside “now” without pretending it’s healing.
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Things in Nature Merely Grow — Frequently Asked Questions
About Yiyun Li
Yiyun Li is a Chinese-born writer who lives in the United States. She is the author of the essay collection Things in Nature Merely Grow, which draws on her long engagement with literature, history, and close reading of the natural world. Her credibility comes from her published work across fiction and nonfiction and her established reputation as a careful observer of language and lived experience. Other notable works include the novel The Book of Goose and the story collection A Friend of the Earth.
