Little Fires Everywhere

“Little Fires Everywhere” was the tv series I planned to watch next after finishing “Big Little Lies”. But right then the lockdowns due to the pandemic started, I began writing in earnest and had to drop the pastime that used to be my favourite for many years. So, when the book deal for “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng landed in my mailbox, I downloaded it. The book turned out to be exactly my kind of read. I appreciate that the author didn’t cut short on fleshing out the characters. Some might call it ‘tell not show’, but I loved it. The characters – and what a diverse set of them there is in the book! – felt real, even though not always their motivations were crystal clear, which is absolutely fine with me. Words exist to explain things. And it is impossible to explain everything about a character and their past through dialogue in the scenes set in the present. I understand that not everyone likes such a style when some parts of characters’ lives are described as a narrative rather than some bits and pieces of it get thrown between the ‘action.’ Yet, it works for me, and thus, I enjoyed learning about the inhabitants of Shaker Heights, their dark and not-so-dark secrets, the dreams they pursued and the ones they decided to leave behind. The book draws a wide canvas of life in an upmarket suburb of Cleveland, Ohio – Shaker Heights – focusing on the Richardsons and the Warrens. The Richardsons are a perfect American family, with a big and beautiful house, two successful parents, and four teenage children. While the Warrens are a single mother Mia and her daughter Pearl. The Warrens become the tenants of the Richardson’s, renting from them a house Mrs Richardson has inherited from her parents. However, the relationship between the two families doesn’t stay within the tenant-owner limits. I found the dynamics between Mia and the Richardsons’ children especially fascinating. It might seem that the privileged and somewhat spoiled teenagers who live the American dream their parents have created for them would not even see a struggling artist who never stays in one place for long and has to supplement her income by doing low-paid jobs. It also might seem logical that the daughter of the nomadic mother would inevitably become an outsider in the uppity school of a planned community such as Shaker Heights. Yet, it doesn’t happen this way. On the contrary, the rich get drawn to the poor, and the ties that form between them become so strong that it’ll bring tremendous heartbreak to everyone when they are forced to cut them. At first, the plotline with the teenager crises, such as pining for a boy out of your league and being left alone at the party thrown when the parents are out of town, frustrated me. But then the whole picture came together, and this part clicked into place in the overall narrative. I didn’t feel that the author forced a certain point of view on the readers. All the characters in the book have their flaws, as well as their share of disappointment. To me, it was compelling that I couldn’t firmly take someone’s side. Mia, a nomadic artist, certainly followed her heart and creative dreams. Still, even though the Richardsons’ children were drawn to her due to the stark difference she presented with their own mother, was Mia’s choice of lifestyle beneficial for her daughter Pearl? As much as I can relate to Mia’s passion for art, I can’t wholeheartedly support the idea of sacrificing one’s child’s comfortable life because of it. True, Mia had other reasons for not staying in one place for long – her back story is exciting and, like everything else in the book, controversial. I didn’t feel that the author wanted the readers to condemn Elena Richardson, an ideal Shaker Heights resident, a wife, a mother – a working one at that – who has her life planned. After all, Elena has built a great life for herself and her family. There is no denying that. Only those who haven’t experienced real poverty can declare that a comfortable home, stable, higher-than-average family income, the ability to buy a car for your child’s sixteenth birthday, etc. are not real values. While the real ones are following your dream and staying true to your nature. Perhaps the perspective slightly shifts only if one has gone through a real financial struggle when buying food and paying utility bills become an insurmountable task. “Little Fires Everywhere” touches upon some controversial topics I found intriguing to explore. It also made me realise my position on some of them differs from the accepted by the mainstream. I recommend this book to those who don’t mind the gradual immersion in the story and appreciate delving deep into the characters’ backstories and motivations.

This is quite the story and once I started this morning, I couldn’t put it down. It’s not typically what I enjoy reading- lighter, fluffier novels that are more “Shaker” in nature with rules and right and wrong and few gray areas. This novel is all grey. It will make you question what’s fair and what is not. Celeste Ng does an AMAZING job with the characters and making you care about them even if you don’t love them. Everyone is sympathetic and unsympathetic at the same time. The timelines of the book are a little “all over the place” with a lot of foresight and revelation happening at the same time as the current plot and at times, this was a little irritating. But that said, it’s part of what contributes to the charm of this story. It’s sad and unfair and untidy in the way that life is and it’s enjoyable to read. I’m fixated on how I would rather have ended this story but I’m also satisfied with how it ended. This is my second Celeste Ng novel and I’m just as impressed with this as I was with the first one. This author excels at writing family dynamics and the complexities of friendship and the teenage years. This is majorly a book about motherhood and the author does an amazing job in exploring what motherhood is really about and the difficult dynamics between mothers and daughters. It is a book about loss and right and wrong and it was messy and tough and unfair and I loved it even though it’s not what I typically would read. Celeste Ng is now on my must read list.

5 Amazing Bright Shiny Stars! I would given it 100 Goodreads would let me. Little Fires Everywhere is a novel that far surpasses any other that I have ever read. I don't know how Celeste Ng did it. It is a brilliantly written novel with intricate, rich and wholly vivid characters whose lives are so fully intertwined you can't help but read on in bewildered awe of how Celeste Ng created these characters. My nerve endings were fully engaged on high alert from the first sentence. Shaker Heights, Ohio is an affluent town with rules and regulations like no other. Mrs. Richardson lives by them, having been raised by them and she has raised her four children (Lexie, Trip, Moody and Izzy) to abide by them as well. She rents a little apartment in Shaker Heights to Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl, who are less fortunate. Mia is a free spirited artist, who lives life to the fullest. These women have one thing in common and one thing only: they love their children immensely and they accept each other's as their own. Mia (or rather Ms. Ng) describes it beautifully: "To a parent, your child wasn't just a person, your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all existed at once. You could see it every time you looked at her; layered in her face was the baby she'd been and the child she'd become and the adult she would grow up to be and you saw them all simultaneously, like a 3-D image. It made your head spin. It was like a place you could take refuge, if you knew how to get in. And each time you left it, each time your child passed out of your sigh, you feared you might never be able to return to that place again." Neither live perfect lives, sometimes in fact they make grave mistakes, yet their love for their children never falters. These mothers relationships with each other, their family and everyone in town is threatened when a custody battle ensues between a friend of the Richardsons, Mrs. and Mr. McCullough, who are in the middle of adopting a Chinese American baby and a friend of Mia's, Bebe, who is the birth mother. This battle wrecks havoc on the town and causes incredible strife between the families. This novel is captivating and crazy compelling. These characters burn an indelible image onto your soul. The character of Izzy, Mrs. Richardson's daughter had me from the beginning (kind of like Hannah from Ms. Ng's Everything I Never Told You - which I also loved). Izzy has a strength and over came odds that most children in her position wouldn't. Her triumphs made my heart soar. Somehow Ms. Ng made me change my mind about some of the characters throughout the course of this novel. In the beginning, I felt one way about two of the characters and then by the end, I did a complete switcheroo, and my feelings about them FIERCE. Little Fires everywhere brought forth laughter and lots of tears. It is that kind of novel. I can't recommend it highly enough. It is captivating, compelling and full of heart and soul. Celeste Ng's ability to intertwine the characters and storylines was wondrous, brilliant ad beautiful. I loved every second of this book. It has now topped my list as my FAVORITE BOOK of ALL TIME. Little Fires Everywhere was a Traveling Sister Group Read and included Brenda, Norma, Jennifer, Holly, Melissa & Kendall. We all had a fabulous time reading this one together - the group discussions for this incredible read were amazing and I look forward to our next read together. Thank you to Edelweiss, Penguin Press and Celeste Ng for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Published on Goodreads, Edelweiss and Amazon on 9.17.17.

This book opens with the tenents of the Richardson family the Warrens, Mia and Pearl, leaving at night and dropping off the key in the mailbox. Then the next day the Richardson house is on fire and it was set by the youngest Richardson child, Izzy, leaving Lexie, Trip, Moody, and their parents, Elena, and Bill without a home. But what else would you expect from Izzy? She is always doing crazy things and seeming to let her mother down constantly and be a genuine screw up her entire life. Her mother has her reasons for criticizing her and it comes from a place of love but Izzy doesn't know that or feel that. Now, what led up to these events? Mia is an artist whose medium is photography and she and Pearl travel constantly in search of artistic endeavors. But this time Mia has promised Pearl that they will stay put and her sophomore daughter can finish high school in one place. But what a place it is. Shaker Heights, Ohio is not reality. It's its own world. Where you have to be a certain kind of person to stay there. Everything is planned in this suburb of Cleveland including what you can paint your house or where you can put your trash can or you'll be charged if your grass gets a certain length. The big story in this novel is how a friend of Mia's Bebe Chow who had given up her child to the fire department during the winter because she was suffering from postpartum depression and had no money for food or diapers for her child and thought she was doing the best thing for her. Well, a local family was given her daughter to adopt. Bebe who had lost her job gets another job and cleans herself up and goes to every fire department looking for her baby but has no luck. Then Mia who has taken some work cleaning and making dinner at the Richardsons hears that the Richardson's friends are adopting a baby that was found at a fire station and Mia tells Bebe. Bebe goes to the press and causes a huge commotion. It will cause a split in the town as Bebe fights for her child back and Bill Richardson, a lawyer, represents the adopting family. Elena who is close friends with the adopted mother and believes in following the rules to a tee cannot believe it when she finds that Mia is behind Bebe's claim. So she becomes out to get Mia and begins to research her life as Elena is a journalist at a small local paper. Pearl first makes friends with Moody a quiet young man who fits his name. He is not popular like his older brother Trip or sister Lexie. Thinking that he is not enough to dazzle Pearl he introduces her to his family at his house and that is the beginning of the end. Moody is in love with Pearl who is attracted to Trip. Lexie who is a bit shallow will find her own life turned upside down and needing Pearl's help. Izzy falls in love with Mia as a mother figure and begins to work with her on photography projects. This book is just plain amazing in its characterization. The characters are so fully realized and realistic that you feel as though you know them. The story is rich and compelling especially the way Pearl is seduced by the Richardsons. In a way, she is an innocent no matter how much she has seen of America. And why Izzy sets fire to the house is perfect. This is one of those incredible and special books that don't come along very often. I highly recommend reading it. I give it five out of five stars. Quotes Being allowed to do something and knowing how to do it are not the same thing. -Celeste Ng (Little Fires Everywhere p 63) But the problem with rules, he reflected, was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time there were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on. -Celeste Ng (Little Fires Everywhere p 269)

This month in my book club, it was my pick. I have been dying to read Little Fires Everywhere going on a year now – seriously – but just haven’t had the time with review work obligations. I really need to find a better balance of work reading versus pleasure reading, especially as my TBR pile has multiplied to a ridiculous amount, spilling from my bedside table onto my desk, with the excess stacked up in two dangerously tall piles in my library. Little Fires Everywhere did not disappoint. And I’m glad of it, since my pleasure reading time is so precious to me. I’m also always a little nervous when picking a book for my book club. I’d hate to pick a dud (my friend Kelley did one month and we haven’t let her live it down yet, ha ha!) and I’m always conscious of everyone else’s reading preferences. We are a bit of an eclectic mix who fall into several different reading preference categories, but the four of us generally can agree if a book is good or bad. I’ve been waiting on pins and needles to hear if they liked Fires as much as I did and luckily, they enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. This book was . . . well, overall, it was simply a portrait of human character. It carefully and thoughtfully peeled back the layers of the contributing factors give a person their personality, whether it be person, place, thing, or idea. Whether it be setting or circumstance. Time or space. Or all of the above. It detailed the nuances that keep a personality in its place, and what sways a person to make the decisions they make. It got raw, and it got dirty. At times, it was hauntingly real in the way that the author could slice right down the middle of the character’s insecurities and lay them open and bare. Of course, there were some instances where the details got a little too deep and a little too particular. There were so many characters that the back and forth of points of view became a bit tedious, your mind wandering from this person to that. It was hard to get attached to any one character, but in reflection, I wondered if this was the author’s intent. We discussed it in my book club . . . how the characters could sometimes feel a little flat. Again, I argued that perhaps this was the intention all along. Shaker Heights is a real place, and author Celeste Ng grew up there. Was she poking fun at her traditional and ideally flawless little town? This book was not perfect, but it was a page-turner. There was a plethora of winding and twisty turning story-lines constantly weaving in and out of one another, making it feel like you were wrapped up in a daytime soap opera. They nestled into one another like Russian dolls, each character’s path fitting inside the others with flush precision. And the ending . . . well. It was an ending, I can say that much. The town of Shaker Heights is full of little houses made of ticky-tacky, just like the song suggests. The people there are the epitome of cookie-cutter, even in the standard way they strive for diversity and range. Everything has its place and its purpose; every shade of skin color is accounted for in much the same way that the colors of the houses are chosen. It is a masterfully planned community, right down to the studs. There are rules in Shaker Heights, rules on how many trees you have to have in your yard or where your garbage can can be (and at what time it can be there). Rules on speed limits and how many animals each home can handle. And for the most part – it all works. The residents of Shaker Heights take their community and its way of life as something to be treasured; it is a Utopia and must be treated as such. Mrs. Richardson grew up in Shaker Heights and never had any desire to leave the comforting motherly embrace the town provided. She thrived on the structure and glory that the town slowly embedded in her over the years; Shaker Heights carefully watched as she grew from adolescent into woman, and Elena Richardson hoped her children would grow up in her image. After all, who could want more than a tidy little existence in a tidy little town? No surprises, no nastiness, everything remained clean and beautiful and idyllic. Trip and Moody Richardson are her sons, and they are the epitome of what embodies the Shaker Heights Young Man. Trip plays sports and has rugged good looks that have captured the eye of many a young lady. Moody lives up to his name and spends feverish afternoons writing in his journal or riding around the quiet tree-lined streets on his bike. Mrs. Richardson’s oldest daughter Lexie is equally appealing with her WASP’ish good looks and beauty queen smile. But then there’s Izzy, the black sheep . . . the odd girl out . . . the child who must always question everything and insists on going her own way, especially if its against the grain. Izzy is the child who always has a problem shoved up her sleeve, always ready to throw it like a bomb on a battlefield. Izzy has always been difficult, even a as a young child. Mrs. Richardson even insists that she knew Izzy would be trouble even as the infant floated around in her womb. Thankfully she has become a little more manageable since the Warren family came to town, spending her after-school hours as a pseudo assistant to the enigmatic artist instead of plotting her next revenge. Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl drove into Shaker Heights from God knows where and planted themselves in the Richardson’s investment property, renting out the upstairs space and setting down some not-so-firm roots. Mia is a photographer of some sort, a job that the formally educated Mrs. Richardson could never understand. The whimsical Mia, with her peasant skirts and thrift store bracelets, spends her days creating what she calls art from nothing . . . fragments of their little town distorted into images manipulated in a dark room to suit Mia’s whim and fancy. Her daughter Pearl possesses a quiet shyness that borders on socially awkward, never having been in one place long enough to make friends organically. But Pearl and Moody, they have caught on like fire, and it feels as if you can’t find one without finding the other since the Warren’s move to Shaker Heights. It doesn’t take long for the wounds to begin showing through the worn bandage, the blood vivid and shiny. While Shaker Heights appears perfect on the outside, scratching softly upon the surface allows what’s underneath to show. When a prominent family in town announces their impending adoption of a little Asian baby, the real trouble begins. Mia Warren quietly and deftly inserts herself into the equation, urging those around her to do the same. She knows who that baby really belongs to and she knows the situation is going to get messy. But she’s been in messy places before, she’s had to make hard choices in her dark past, and she knows that she can’t walk away from what is in front of her. Not like she did before. The case of the baby will split the town into two equal pieces, throwing neighbors in separate chasms and pitting lifelong friends against one another. Mia Warren will be at the center of it all, her daughter an extension, and Mrs. Richardson’s family threaded into the scandal as purveyors of what they believe to be true justice. Will the ties that bind be enough to keep the family together, or will Izzy burn it all down around them – as is her custom? Little Fires Everywhere is the newest novel by Celeste Ng, and has taken book clubs around the country by storm. Hulu has announced an impending development of the book into a limited television series, and Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington have attached themselves to the project. A quick and enticing read, Fires catches the reader from early on, allowing its burn to spread and gather as the pages turn and the story builds on top of itself. Layer upon layer is applied, in a touch so tender you barely see it coming. It is appropriate for ages 15+, and touches on relationships from that particular age group all the way into adulthood. There are more than a few frank discussions about sex and pregnancy, but it is all very relevant to the plot and situation that readers of all ages will be able to relate to. The takeaway in my book club for this particular novel was that while the book was an easy and fun read, it was also viewed by some as a story was a little too young for their taste; a touch too YA fiction instead of adult. While the plot is split between points of view, and quite a few of those characters are indeed teenagers, I personally didn’t find it to be an issue. For me personally, the overall feeling was that of an adult fiction novel. That’s probably what I love best about my book club – we are all such different readers coming from different walks of life and points of view, and we can be hit by the same book in totally conflicting ways. It makes for a great group discussion, and our differences always lead to growth in my book comfort zone. I give Little Fires Everywhere 4.5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to those who like easy and fast reads that are engaging and full of mystery. It is both plot and character driven which makes it semi-unique, and while the development is not strong in the character sense, the plot more than makes up for it. Readers who enjoyed Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies or Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth would equally enjoy Little Fires Everywhere.

Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You is a finely crafted narrartive. Like all good art it is suggestive and rarely pushes us in one direction or another. An artistic novel, like a photograph by Edward Weston or Dorothea Lange, emotes different responses from different people. Ng's initial novel, which I think is a book I keep on my shelf and want to return to later because I know I never really saw or understood all of what I was experiencing. Really good books at like that. Ng's Little Fires Everywhere is really very different from her first work. The focus of the new novel is important and deals with subjects quite significant: parentage, racial identity, family, what it means to be an artist, the development of personal identity in children in a family, and more. All issues which are important to try to understand. And Ng's tale wrestles with all of these subjects . I read this book and found the narrative flow interesting and the characters individualized and representative but Ng's subtle and suggestive touch and deft technique found in her first book was lacking in this work As a reader I felt she was masking documentary in the shape of fiction. Of course the two can be merged into such masterpieces as Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath or Evan's and Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Emily Dickinson wrote: "Tell All the Truth but tell it Slant." Which I think is in a nutshell what art is all about. There are parts of Ng's work that were quite wonderful, especially the places in the novel where the Richardson teens struggle to achieve identity. Also how Mia the artist gave a kind of emotional shelter to the two Richardson girls, away from their controlling mother and the family's socially and economically privileged position in their Shaker Heights community. . But there are parts of the novel that seemed, for me at least, overly irksome or just tiresome. Mia, the single mother and central character, uses photography in her artistic projects. Being a professional photographer, I was interested in all the equipment the young artist acquired during her formal education studying at a university under the guidance of a woman who had established herself as a master artist with a camera, like Berenice Abbott at the New School of Social Research or Walker Evans at Yale. But Ng's story lags when she gets quite technical. Way too much information about cameras and tilts and swings offered by a view camera that most readers never need to know. Also I really struggled when it came to Ng's description of Mia's art works. Can you really understand the essence of Hieronymus Bosch's works or any visual artist with words. Like reading a book of art history without the pictures. The last part of the book is important since it focuses on art works Mia has created for each Richardson in the family, including the mother and father. This is a crucial part of the story but trying to picture in one's mind each individual piece of art left in an envelope for the family as a gift was so difficult. I had to read each description two or three times to get some hold on the visual image of each art object. Ng's first novel was crafted in such a way that we had to participate with her in discovering the Truth (Dickinson's term) that the story allowed us to formulate from the details of the narrative. In Little Fires Ng seems to force her hand, pushes us in a direction she wants us to go, rather than presenting us with a story which readers will use to explore the subject matter and discover for themselves meaning which the details of the book evoke. A good novel is not like a jigsaw puzzle but like a box of Legos, where readers are allowed to take the pieces of the story and imagine or formulate an understanding based on characterization, dialogue, scenes, conflicta, and story line that the writer gives us.

When I read this lovely book for the second time, I fell in love with each of the characters. I saw so much I hadn’t seen before: the insight of Mia, the maturity and innocence of Pearl, the struggles Mrs. Richardson buried in the rigid structure of her life in Shaker. I was reminded of Greek tragedies, in which the downfall of the person is rooted in his or her character. But this is not tragic, not at all. These characters were able to find liberation, despite their past mistakes.

It’s no secret that I think Ms. Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told You, is a great book. I would definitely rank it among the best I’ve read in the past few years. I was somewhat wary to take up her next book, thinking it would have to be a disappointment after the triumph of the first. Fortunately, Little Fires Everywhere is also a wonderful read. I’ve been trying to put my finger on what it is about Ms. Ng’s writing that appeals to me so much. First, it’s because she is able to put together complicated plots that don’t seem contrived, which would be an easy trap to fall into considering the difficult themes she addresses. Second, she dives deep into her characters, often bringing out hidden depths as the novel progresses. Most important, however, is her soft touch. “Gentle” is the word that comes to mind when I think of her prose; and yet, she builds to very powerful emotional moments without being false or (usually) melodramatic. It’s quite amazing. Much like in her first novel, Ms. Ng digs into the false front of suburbia here. Instead of digging into the sorrows of one family that has tried to fit in, however, with this story she puts a family of long-standing in their community at the center. The Richardsons are practically Shaker Heights royalty, with their big house, four kids, and rental property to boot. Into this property comes nomadic Mia and her daughter Pearl. As the family’s lives start to intertwine, secrets are pulled to light that shake the comfortable lives and liberal entitlement of the family and the community. Though I do like this book very much, I wouldn’t put it up quite on the level of Everything I Never Told You. In this one, Ms. Ng has a habit of putting in foreshadowing of future moments looking back on this story which didn’t work for me. (“Even years later, Mrs. Richardson would insist that digging into Mia’s past was nothing more than justified retribution for the trouble Mia had stirred up.”) And, as much as I like the image of Mia’s final gift to the Richardsons at the end of the novel, it feels a bit heavy-handed, as does the neatly tied loose ends. On some level, everything works out of everyone, so the decisions made, good or bad, have no cost. That said, this novel was an absolute pleasure to read and unravel. I am already looking forward to seeing what Ms. Ng does next.