Little Fires Everywhere

I’m not going to lie, I chose this book so that I would feel less guilty about the amount of TV I’ve been watching during quarantine, and I find something rewarding about being able to experience one piece of writing in two different mediums. And let me just cut to the chase, the book was definitely better than the series. But for people who hadn’t read the book the series got rave reviews.

LFE starts off a little slow for my taste, but then there was a point that I just couldn’t put it down. Without giving too much away, I felt like this tale of motherhood was a masterclass in empathy.

What I found so interesting about this book is that it is based in a progressive suburb of Cleveland, and on paper sounds idyllic to anyone with modern progressive values. Enter one of our main characters, Elena, an upper middle class white woman. Elena, in my opinion depicts exactly what makes white women, even progressive white women, problematic. That’s not to say that she isn’t well intentioned, but her actions undermine her intentions. We see this as we meet Mia, an enigmatic artist and single mother. Mia’s character is easy to embrace, she’s warm, thoughtful and marches to the beat of her own drum. But what is beautiful about the way Ng has told these stories is her ability to implicate all of her characters.

On the surface this book is a suburban drama of these two women and their families. But if you read between the lines this is novel is a beautiful social critique about race, class, privilege, and growth even after complete devastation.

*The show was entertaining but didn’t do the characters justice, but you can be the judge of that.