My purpose in reading this short story collection was to get to the title story --- "Story Of Your Life" --- which has just been remade into the film "Arrival".
As much as I have disdain for Amy Adams as an actress I will see this movie just to see if the director and actors can bring about a fraction of the emotion and human understanding that is captured in this outstanding short story. "Story Of Your Life" tells us two intertwining stories. Author Ted Chiang does a masterful job of overla
ying a past and future event involving Linguist Louise Banks. In the past story she is called upon by the U.S. Government to help interpret communication between humans and an unknown alien race that has appeared throughout the planet in various locations.
The future story involves Louise's yet to be born daughter and this relationship is examined at different times in her lifeline. Invariably, the future story shows us how attempts at communication between parents and their children could very well resemble speaking with an alien race who you have no common lingual base with. The future story is eye-opening and heart-breaking and I hope the movie comes close to the feelings it extracts.
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