Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

Set in the utopian town of Shaker Heights where everything is governed by rules, there’s written rules regarding such things as dustbins and curfews and then there’s the un-written rules driven by social standing and ones place in the community. The residents assure one another that race isn’t an issue, the town planning has even gone so far as to ensure that some neighbourhoods are mixed tenancy but utopia can quickly turn dystopian on the spin of a coin.

Elena Richardson knows all about the rules, she is the living, breathing epitome of Shaker Heights. She left the town to go to a nearby university, returning with a handsome beau, made a suitable marriage, had the accepted amount of children and has a little job that gives her the correct kudos but doesn’t impinge on family life. Her children are Trip, a good looking jock, the assured and self confident Lexie who’s eyes are firmly fixed on Yale, Moody, an academic with an artistic side, and Izzie who has been a worry to Mrs Richardson since the day she was born.

Into the manicured lawns and gently curving roads to ensure drivers can’t speed wafts single parent and artist Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl in their broken down VW. They rent an apartment from Mrs Richardson. Mia assures Peal that this is the last time they will move, they are staying in Shaker Heights for good.

When Moody discovers Pearl her independent lifestyle captivates him, it is so different to his contained orderly life. They have so much in common, art, poetry and he strives to keep their friendship separate from his family, almost as if he knows that once she steps over the Richardson’s threshold Pandora’s box has been opened.

This novel examines motherhood, who deserves to be a mother and who doesn’t, it pits birth mothers against adoptive mothers, the rights and wrongs of surrogacy and abortion are turned over and held up for public opinion. The Richardson teenagers, especially Izzie gravitate to Mia as she fulfils needs in them that their mother can’t. To Izzie she provides a calm, listening ear and suggests solutions that unfortunately Izzie can mistakenly take at face value. In turn Pearl invagles herself into Richardson family life, marvelling at their décor, home furnishing and solidness, loving the family and falling in love but always respecting Mrs Richardson.

The best friend of Mrs Richardson, Linda McCullough adopts an abandoned Chinese baby, when the baby’s birth mother makes herself known and starts legal proceedings to get her baby back Elena and Mia find themselves on opposite sides of the fight. Matriarchal war breaks out; Mia offers advice and support to all involved whereas Elena uses her journalistic title to poke into hidden corners and expose secrets, her bullying and judgemental manner bulldozing through until she finds herself in a place she’s never been before – in the wrong, not a perfect mother and questioning her life.

We all agreed that the novel is beautifully written, and begs to be read in one sitting, it is one that we would recommend to others. Her descriptions of the town are cool and factual, leaving the reader to judge for themselves if it is a place they could love or loath. The teenagers are finding themselves and by the end of the book they are all changed people, Lexie finds herself questioning her deeply rooted Shaker Heights opinions but it is Izzie who makes the greatest journey and the reader doesn’t discover the depth of Elena’s love for her youngest child until almost the end of the novel.

It was the ending that we all disagreed on, some thought the ending was too sudden and found it disappointing, another comment was that it was too open and left too many possibilities. One group member would like to read a sequel charting Izzie’s life.

Wyke Book Group, review written by Dianne Blashill.