Little Fires Everywhere
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This is my third Reese Witherspoon book club novel to review in a row, so my white girl is showing. Little Fires Everywhere is a novel by Celeste Ng about the intercepting paths of two families in Shaker Heights, a seemingly idyllic suburban town outside of Cleveland. I didn’t know that Shaker Heights is an actual thing until recently. I was helping one of my students prep for his history quiz on early 20th century America and I was like *Oh cool, Shaker Heights, I’m reading about that in a book right now*. And my student was like *Oh cool, I’m a 16-year-old boy, so I actually don’t care at all*. The book is fiction, but Shaker Heights is an actual place and Ng grew up there. It was one of the first “planned communities” with the purpose of creating a Utopian society. They have rules about mowing the lawn, what color scheme you can use on the outside of your home, where you can put your trash, etc. The original Shakers were pacifists who wanted everyone--every gender and race-- to be equal and happy. They basically thought that if they planned everything out in advance and intentionally tried to inject diversity into the scene, then life would be better. They also had “spontaneous dance parties” as a form of worship, which sounds lit.
Because the town is so particular, anything scandalous really *shakes* things up. Little Fires Everywhere has a lot of scandals. Maybe even too much? The scandals all weave around a common thread of motherhood: what does it mean to be a mother, how do others perceive you as a mother, are you worthy of motherhood, etc.? In an interview at the end, Ng makes a really compelling case for why she went this route, saying, “Motherhood seems to be a no-win battle: however you decide to do (or not do) it, someone’s going to be criticizing you.”
I think Ng’s writing is innovative throughout, but I love it when she makes casual references to what happens to characters in the future. For example, she might show an interaction between two characters-- let’s call them Miss Cucumber and Mr. Pickle. After they chat in real-time, Ng might write, “Miss Cucumber and Mr. Pickle won’t see each other for another ten years. When they do, Miss Cucumber will be Mrs. Cucumber and Mr. Pickle will be filing for bankruptcy.” As readers, we get brief glimpses into the future and more in-depth revelations of the past. Doing so consistently contributes to a larger picture of the complex world of the book--something that Hulu execs must have picked up on.
My biggest complaint is that I wish it had been longer. There were several half-explored characters that I think deserved more stage time (Moody? Tripp? What the hell is going on with Mr. Richardson?). Ng creates a multi-layered fictional drama, but then only pulls back the curtain on certain parts. I imagine that this is appealing to some readers-- there is plenty of mystery and it’s genuinely unclear how it will end. For me, I wanted more. Give me a fat book any day, especially in quarantine. If the writing + story + characters can hold the weight of more pages, then I say keep on going. Overall, I give Little Fires Everywhere 4 out of 5 flames.
