Book Rating: PG-13
Language: PG-13 (Exactly two f*cks)
Violence: PG (It's not so much violent as it is intense. This is an intense book)
Sex: PG-13 (Multiple instances of couples having sex. It doesn't explicitly describe it, but you can definitely tell by the "unzips his fly" and something about "her bare thighs")
Drugs/Alcohol: PG (teen smoking, teen drinking. One kid basically is black out drunk)
This book is absolutely a masterpiece in family literature. The story tells of the Lees, a Chinese-American family in 1977 middle America who have just recently lost their middle and favorite child. This novel weaves together such an important family portrait through words and verbal images alone.
This isn't my typical "go to" genre. I don't read family dramas because I have the common misconception that they're "boring." This one kept my interest until the very end due to the emotional ties that I grew with the characters and how the writing crafted a brutally realistic story with short sentences followed by long, lyrical metaphors.
The story begins with the line "Lydia is dead." In a way, this could be the end of a story, but instead it begins one and becomes the most central plot to the book. Lydia may be dead, but we as the readers have no idea why. Celeste Ng takes us through the life of the Lee family, starting from the very beginning...back to where it all began with Lydia's parents meeting. As the book jumps back and forth from past to present we get a fuller understanding of why Lydia is dead and what lead to the point where her life finally ended in the lake.
This is so fascinating and mesmerizing. I knew absolutely nothing about the family in the beginning, but by the end of the story, I knew them intimately. I knew why Hannah was so quiet, I knew why Marilyn was so restless, I knew why Nath was so distant. It was as if they existed right in my own neighborhood. My mom always told me to never judge someone one on the outside because you never know what goes on behind closed doors. This story exudes this advice. On the surface, the Lee's are just like any other family. But there is so much that goes on once that door closes that others will never see.
I loved how the book approached the topics of racism, sexism, and even gender norms with absolute grace. It showed the daily struggles of those who had to deal with the racist comments and those who had to deal with sexist attitudes in a realistic and emotionally charged manner.
The writing is lyrical and impactful. Every sentence gave me a new type of feeling. There was not one word that felt out of place. There was nothing left unsaid. Beautiful prose. Beautiful storytelling. A beautifully tragic story. It was a journey to be able to walk through this tale of grief and the methods of coping with these characters.
This story really is about all the things a family thinks they know about each other and the things that make them realize that things aren't always what they seem. It's about the things they were never able to tell each other and it's about the words left unsaid in light of a sudden loss.
This is not a book I'll soon forget.
"It was too big to talk about, what had happened. It was like a landscape they could not see all at once; it was like the sky at night, which turned and turned so they couldn't find its edges. It would always feel too big."*Check out my other reviews --> here <--
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adjö,
lauren
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