
Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When the Richardsons' friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family – and Mia's.
Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak. (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
My Review: If you are an awards winner reader (or even an
award-winning reader!), this book should definitely be on your radar. It won
the Best Fiction for the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2017 and was one of the
winners for Best Fictional Families in 2017 for the Kirkus Reviews best books.
So it’s out there. Chances are you’ve seen it.
Where to start? Hmmm…this is a very complicated book. It’s
not complicated to read, actually. The writing is very relatable and accessible.
It even has a vibe that’s sometimes ironic, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes
friendly, sometimes menacing. The story itself is complicated and nuanced and
has so many different layers to it it’s like many different books in one. For a
shortish and simple book of fiction, it is really anything but. I can’t believe
all of the things that Ng crammed into the story and the pages. It didn’t seem
to be too much, though, because Ng is a masterful storyteller who was able to
cram in all the complexities and secrets of a whole town of people into a novel
that is really pretty impressive.
I’ve been asking myself for days now if I enjoyed this
book. Liked? Yes. Appreciated? Certainly. Enjoyed? I don’t know. And here’s why—this
book is the most aptly named book I’ve encountered in a long time. On the
surface “little fires everywhere” could
just be talking about the little fires that were set on each of the beds in the
home that is burned. At the next level, “little fires everywhere” could mean the
proverbial stirring of the pot that is going on by different characters in the
book, whether the pot stirring is intended or not. But mostly, “little fires everywhere”
just means that Ng takes all things that are normally socially accepted or
social norms and drops them on their head and then lights the fire on each
little issue and walks away, leaving the reader with their feelings and
thoughts hanging out and having to deal with things on their own. See what I
mean? I liked it. I appreciated it. Enjoyed? I don’t know. It’s not like I
disagreed with the author, either, on all of the issues she’s discussing. There
were many of the issues where I could see both sides and understand where each
was coming from. This book is obviously emotionally charged in a lot of ways
and Ng boldly goes in with a take-no-prisoners attitude and just stomps on
everything with nary a care. It was kind of awesome. Uncomfortable, too. I’m
not sure if I would want to discuss this in a book club. Or maybe I would? I
don’t know. It’s so intense and so complicated that the discussion would either
be about nothing really, just the story on the surface, or All The Things and
maybe some people would leave with their feathers a little ruffled at the
least.
This is not a book that you should take to the beach for
some relaxing and care free reading. Don’t expect to be loving the nurturing
character of each person. Do be prepared to be challenged both intellectually and
emotionally, and be prepared to be thinking about this book way longer than the
normal fiction fare. Little fires? You betcha. More like an inferno. Read it
and be prepared to be impressed, entertained, heartbroken, and challenged.
My Rating: 4 Stars
For the sensitive
reader: There are many sensitive issues in this book including sex and teen
pregnancy, and there is also language.
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