Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere

Adult fiction
My younger daughter, Katie, has reading tastes very similar to
mine. As she went through middle and high school we devoured every
book by Sarah Dessen, graduating to Jodi Piccault and Lisa
Scottoline. We're also big fans of Maine's horror meister, Stephen
King. Needless to say, any time she recommends a book I get my hands
on it speedy quick. Even her enthusiastic recommendation, however,
could not prepare me for how hard I'd fall for Celeste Ng's Little
Fires Everywhere: a spellbinding novel that raises ethical questions.
Little Fires Everywhere is one of those rare novels where the
location is as much a character as any of the humans who carry out the
actions that constitute the plot. A fictitious real estate as Shaker
Village abodes says:
"Whether you buy a homesite in the School Section, broad acres in the
Shaker County Estates, or one of the homes offered by this company in
a choice of neighborhoods, your purchase includes facilities for golf,
riding, tennis, boating; it includes unexcelled schools; and it
includes protection forever against depreciation and unwanted change."
Unwanted (read unplanned) change is kept at bay through
regulations that cover just about everything. Houses can only be
painted certain colors. Sirens announce the beginning and end of
Halloween trick-or-treating. Garbage cans must be hidden from view.
Achievement along conventional lines is lauded along with a black or
white ethics system in which everything is right or wrong.
Elena Richardson is a poster Shaker Village adult. She's a
third generation native who, following a college detour, returned to
raise a family and pursue a writer career for the local weekly. She
measures and regiments every activity in her life from the exact
amount of breakfast cereal to the line above which her nightly glass
of wine may never go.
"All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a
dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control. It scaled walls
and jumped over trenches. Sparks lept like fleas and spread as
rapidly; a breeze could carry embers for miles. Better to control
that spark and pass it carefully from one generation to the next, like
an Olympic torch. Or perhaps, to tend it carefully like an eternal
flame: a reminder of light and goodness that would never--could never--
set anything ablaze. Carefully controlled. Domesticated. Happy in
captivity. The key, she thought, was to avoid conflagration."
Ironically Elena, staunch believer in success coming only from
following all the rules, is the one who introduces the danger of
unwanted change into her town. She has a rental property she leases
to people she feels deserving of a hand up. Her new tenants, Mia and
daughter Pearl, are the opposite of all she believes in. There is no
husband/father in sight. Mia is an artist, a photographer, who
supplements her earnings with the bare number of hours of more
employment needed to keep a roof over their heads and food on the
table. In contrast to the conspicuous consumption of the Richardson
home, their home is furnished sparsely. Mia and Pearl are frequent
movers, taking off for an unplanned location whenever Mia completes a
new project.
This time is meant to be different. Mia, newly aware of the
depths of her daughter's acute lonliness, has promised Pearl that this
time they will settle down. The families blend and bond in complex
and unpredictable ways...
...while a drama in which Elena and Mia will take opposite sides
threatens to tear the town apart.
Little Fires Everywhere is an excellent choice for adult book
clubs. It is guaranteed to spark lively discussion.
On a personal note, Ng dedicated the book "to those out there on their
own paths, setting little fires". I've been one of these people just
about all my life. As far back as first grade I got in trouble for
speaking my mind and not following dumb rules. I've marched,
pamphleted, made speeches, sung, and written my way through decades of
protesting the establishment. I'm still going strong. My opinion
pieces and many of my reviews are little fires. And now, as a
graduate student and dining services worker, I can work on kindling
and nurturing little fires in the hearts, minds, and souls of my
fellow UMaine students.
A great big shout out goes out to the other setters of little fires.
jules hathaway




Sent from my iPod