Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng • At the end of the book the author leaves us, the readers, a letter and I think it captures the essence of the book well so instead of writing my own review, I’ll just paste some of the letter:
“Dear readers,
When I first began Little Fires Everywhere, I knew I wanted to write about my beloved hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio. I started with a story about troubled families-the wealthy Richardsons and their complicated family dynamics, mysterious Mia and her daughter, and the secrets they all carry with them-and set the story in my hometown.
Shaker Heights, I realized, is full of fascinating contradictions. It's a wealthy, highly regulated city-one of the first planned communities in the United States-and the belief in planning is so strong that the city even planned for diversity in everything from the appearance of its houses to the racial makeup of its population. It was founded on utopian principles and even today brims with idealism and a sense of exceptionalism. And despite all this, of course, Shaker Heights still struggles with the same race and class issues as the rest of the nation.
Like many places in our country, Shaker Heights is full of idealistic, altruistic people— of all races— who are good at heart and sincerely want to do the right thing. Yet when personally affected by the issues, even idealists often end up making selfish choices with far-reaching effects. It's human nature, yet I wanted to explore how-and how often—we justify it to ourselves when we cross moral lines. Where do we follow the rules, and where do we justify breaking them? Do our pasts determine what we deserve in the future? And is it ever possible to leave your past behind?
These are some of the questions I hope the novel raises.” & that’s exactly what it did.
