Book Review: Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng)
The
sliver of hope usually prevalent in any thriller, drama, or classic novel is
completely absent in Celeste Ng's Everything
I Never Told You. While waiting for any redeemable characters or any
instances of hope, you are given everything that the characters never told,
including some things that may have been better left unsaid.
A
family is searching for their daughter Lydia, who you find out in the first
line of the book that she is already dead. Lydia is the middle child of a
Chinese American family. Each family member knows Lydia differently because of
their interactions with and expectations of her. From her parents who saw her
through the hopes and dreams they had for her to the caution her brother had
for the boy she hung out with, each family member is trying to piece together exactly
what happened.
The
book is a cycle of parental faults: parents expect their children to live up to
their standards and end up acting just like them. Parents expect their child to
get married to a certain person or land a certain job, but their child grow up
to do the opposite. Then that child puts their own expectation on their
children, forcing their children to act the opposite as well. Instead of
painting a picture of growth, adaptability, and any sense of a hopeful future,
Ng gives a family of five that is stuck within this cycle without any hope of
escaping.
Ng
uses strong imagery that reinforces the idea of this inescapable cycle of
parental pressures. For instance, the cookbook Marilyn saves from her mother,
vowing to never be like her as a stay at home mother, becomes the symbol of her
being completely absent in her daughter’s life. The motifs are undeniable and
give rich complexity to the plot.
The
novel is a heavy hitter, and almost too real to be a fiction. It won an Alex
Award, which is awarded to ten books per year that especially appeal to young
adults. I am sure the book does appeal to many young adult readers: who hasn't felt
the pressures of family when choosing who to date or what job to pursue? The
book is darkly, and beautifully written. Ng masterfully creates five stories
that hold parallels while being diverse, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting a peek
into some of the character’s minds. The difficulties she discusses though, may
appeal to a younger audience of twelve to eighteen, but the issues dealt with
like adultery, suicidal thoughts, abandonment and unmet expectations are all
integrated into and may overwhelm a young adult. Yes, most young adults deal
with one or more of the issues listed previously, but if a young adult is
dealing with one of those issues, and then sees a family that is facing not
one, but all of those issues, it may be overwhelming, overcomplicated, and
almost unescapable.
If
you’re needing an escape from the worries of your life, this is not the book
for you. But if you are wanting to see a family with more dysfunction than
Everybody Loves Raymond and the literary elements of a psychological thriller,
this novel is a refreshing take on modern family dysfunction.
Comments
Post a Comment