Stillness During Grief
Severance by Ling Ma is a meditation on routine during grief. Candace, the book’s grieving millennial narrator, makes very few choices in 271 pages. It’s kind of alarming, honestly. She sticks to daily routines until monumental events force change. We’re talking circumstances like a major breakup, a global pandemic, and a life-altering “condition” she develops.
Chapter 13 Disrupts the Novel’s Routine
Midway through Severance, an odd chapter appears, breaking the rules all the other chapters abide by. The other chapters are
- 15 pages or under1
- Written in first-person narrative from Candace’s point of view.
- Advance one of two storylines.
Chapter 13 does none of the above. At just 2 pages long, it’s the shortest in the whole book. Instead of narrative, Chapter 13 reads like standalone nonfiction. That’s because Ling Ma crafted Chapter 13 as a CDC public service announcement about the novel’s fictional pandemic. She places it in the middle of the book without fanfare or an introduction.
Chapter 13 is positioned exactly in the middle of the book in 2 ways:
(1) It’s the 13th of 26 chapters, and
(2) Ling Ma situated it at the 51% mark.
Disruptive with Purpose
Chapter 13 marks a change in the book, effectively severing the plot into two disparate parts. Thirteen is a turn signal, alerting us that the plot is about to take a turn.
The Plot Before Chapter 13
- Storyline 1: Traveling to The Facility
- Storyline 2: Candace’s life before the pandemic.
The Shift After Chapter 13
- Storyline 1: Living at The Facility
- Storyline 2: Candace’s life after the pandemic.
Visuals: A Severance Inside Severance
The best way to see Chapter 13’s disruptiveness and uniqueness is with a bar graph. Below, I’ve displayed the page lengths of all 26 chapters and the prologue. The tiny black bar in the midpoint of the graph, the glaring anomaly, is chapter 13. Notice how it visually marks the halfway point in the book and physically divides the book up.
A Closing Note on Bookclub Routines
Every month, I read with The Stacks Podcast Bookclub. It’s a routine I look forward too, but this bookclub is also anti-routine in a way. It shakes up what I read, adding automatic variety to my reading life. Host Traci Thomas picks books with her guests, and it’s a surprise every month that reflects the unique relationship she has with each guest. Severance by Ling Ma is the November #thestacksbookclub pick.
- Four exceptions: Ch 1, 3, 16, and 17 are all more than 15 pages and under 30. ↩︎
Annotate With Sara 