Celeste Ng's impressive debut novel is an absorbing and emotionally resonant study of the fragility of family life, the burden of expectation and the suffocating pressures when a child is forced to inherit their parents dreams.
The story is as much one of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of a favourite child age 16, Lydia, as it is about the meeting and marriage of Marilyn Walker, a studious white Virginian with ambitions of becoming a Doctor and James Lee, a first generation Chinese American graduate hoping to secure a teaching position at his alma marter, Harvard.
It goes back and fro in time and as we learn more about each member of the family, the unhappiness of the family members become apparent. With the death of Lydia, more of the story unravels, James is consumed with guilt and sets out on a path that will destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful sets out to make someone accountable, no matter what the cost. Nath, Lydia's brother is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's Hannah, the youngest of the family who observes far more than the rest of the family realises and may know more of what really happened.
This was our July book group read and although I did enjoy it I was glad to get it finished!
Chrisxx
4 comments:
That sounds really depressing. I'd have to be in the right mood to read it even if it were an excellent book.
Sometimes I get tired and bored when each chapter or so swings from one time era to another. If it is well written, that's Okay. It should be an interesting discussion for you all.
I am just too old to hold interest in writing that jumps back and forth. So, I tend to let those stay on the shelf gathering dust.
The comments about time jumping back and forth are interesting, because so many books are written in that style these days, or jumping from character to character so that each chapter is about a different person. I will add my voice to those who do not enjoy such books. I want a straightforward story line that draws me deeper and deeper, not one that makes me say wait, who? What? Where are we?
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