I began "Little Fires Everywhere," with a bit of trepidation. So many had told me they were disappointed by it, especially after Ng's debut with "Everything I Never Told You."
This second novel does not suffer from sophomore slump, maybe because Ng is becoming an author who is unafraid to explore dark places. And what place is darker than American Suburbia?????
Some things do not change, darlings. The novel is set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and while it is not Peyton Place, there are plenty of secrets that ultimately uproot and destroy people. I kept thinking of Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour," though the issue explored here is not lesbianism, but the right to have or not have children, and who has the right, or not to call a child their own.
Secrets are part of the literal meaning of the novel's title, though it does open, and climax, with a conflagration. I loved Pearl connecting with the Richardson kids, and, being a different kid, myself, I related most to Izzy. Though I lacked the courage she has to break free.
While Mia, an artist, with secrets of her own, and her daughter, Pearl, are extremely sympathetic, as is the aforementioned Izzy, no one in the novel is altogether unsympathetic. Rather, they just get caught up in their own stuff, and some of that has harrowing consequences.
I felt bad for Bebe, the mother of May Ling, and the Ryans, a New York couple, who desperately want a child, engage Bebe as a surrogate, except she makes a decision that comes back to bite her later on. The reader meets the Ryans in the section charting Mia's back story, but then they are never mentioned again. I felt the most for them; they were truly victimized.
But that is me, darlings. I have been on a roll of satisfying fiction lately, and "Little Fires Everywhere" turned out to be a wonderful surprise. I urge you all to read it.
It will spark discussion, dears, book group, or not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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