I found myself at home one weekend having finished one book and without another from the library. So, I went to my basement and found this little gem on my shelf of books purchased from our Friends of the Elgin Library. It is heart-wrenching story of family, race, coming-of-age, and parents struggling with it all.
Marilyn and James Lee have a good life in the 1970's despite some blatant racism due to the fact that Marilyn is white and James is Chinese-American. They come to accept this as normal and try to raise their two children the best they can, despite struggles. Marilyn struggles with her choice to leave her path to medical school when she becomes pregnant. When their children, Lydia and Nathan, are very young, Marilyn decides to leave for months, not telling them where she has gone. This leaves a lasting mark on their family upon her return, especially for Lydia who tries to be everything her mother wants, which includes focusing her entire life on being a doctor. James struggles with his job dissatisfaction and the fact that Marilyn is struggling. And it turns out that Nathan is the real scientist in the family, and when he leaves to go to an Ivy League school, Lydia has a hard time handling it. It is this last struggle of Lydia's that will again change the family forever.
You know how we all think to ourselves, "I never knew anyone else ever felt this way?" There were so many family issues in this novel that hit home to me in that way. But we all have a lot in common. What mother hasn't wanted "more" for her children than she has? What mother hasn't looked at another kind of life and longed for it for a moment? What man hasn't felt helpless in a family of female emotions? What child hasn't felt like they were second best? This wonderful author of Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng, has woven all this into a slim book that will stick with me for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment