“One had followed the rules, and one had not. But the problem with rules... was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time they were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure what side of the line you stood on.”
A slow burner for me, it took me a while to get to know and like the characters and get into the thick of the story. Bu then, from about half way through I got really engrossed in this story of sufferance and love. The Richardson look like the perfect family that welcome the new arrivals, the artist Mia and her shy daughter Pearl. But soon the two families have their life mixed up with Pearl admiring the Richardson's steady and easy life and with Izzy Richardson being "adopted" by Mia as her helper.
Their lives interlink more and more, past secrets are brought out in the open and both parts are involved in the big case relating to the custody of a baby, abandoned by her biological mother who now wants her back.
The setting is your typical american wealthy suburbia, where rich white families are very set in their views and their social and work life and a bit stereotypical. And the Richardson are not as perfect as they seem, they all have issues of their own which are very well hidden not to disturb appearances.
The mother and daughter relationships in the novel are prominent, one - between Mia and Pearl - unusual but strong, the other - between Mrs Richardson and Izzy - strained and cold. and then the baby case brings up the question of natural versus adoptive motherhood and their rights.
A complex novel, with a lot of very important and serious themes in it. Abortion, love, motherhood, adoptive rights, the condition of immigrants in suburbia US, to name some. It is a book that makes you think and have strong opinions and likes and dislikes for its characters.
A novel that might seem a plain family saga but it has a lot more in it. A very good read, even if quite sad.
“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
Overall rating: 7 Plot: 7 Writing style: 7 Cover: 8
Title:Little fires everywhere
The Plot:
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors 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 principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
The Author:
Celeste Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She graduated from Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan (now the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan), where she won the Hopwood Award. Her fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Times, One Story, The Guardian, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere, and she is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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