Image from Celeste Ng | Buzz Blog
Kevin Day Photography
Who is the hero? Is it the restless teenage outcast with hair, "gold upon gold," or is it the eccentric artist single mother with wild fantasies and dark secrets? This book will leave you wondering. . . for days.
Ng's novel is the best fiction piece I have read in the past several years. It makes me miss teaching literature and helping students see the often seemingly insignificant details in characters, events, and imagery in a novel. Ng's story is filled with profound plotlines, dynamic characters, and figurative complexity.
With interweaving compellingly emotional plotlines that force you to reflect on your own held beliefs and truths, you are forced to see things from multiple perspectives. Just when you think a character is not possibly redeemable, you find yourself suddenly understanding where they are coming from, even in the midst of despising them. The way Ng weaves in and out of the characters' points of view and points in time throughout the novel creates an exciting momentum, a true adventure of reading.
This novel deals with topics like parenting and how we view our children, the concept of giving without expecting anything in return, unending searches for truth, and the innate connections that we sometimes have with another person.
In all of our lives, there are indeed, "Little Fires Everywhere," and through the explorations of human concepts like our deep-seeded pretentions, the redemption of others and ourselves, showing kindness in the face of hate and fear, and the ability to let go of what is yours, Celeste Ng has created a story that certainly convinces the reader that we do, in fact, "sometimes . . . need to scorch everything to the ground and start over" (Ng 311). This book will truly leave you "searching for a spark of familiarity in the faces of strangers" (Ng 336).
As I neared the end of the novel, I found myself procrastinating about finishing it because I knew I would be sad once I had done so. Thoreau said it best -- he usually does -- "A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting." Little Fires Everywhere will certainly leave you with many "hint[s]" upon which to live and may even inspire you to "act[ ]" upon them.
