Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Synopsis:
“So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.” ~Via Goodreads
Review:
Everything I Never Told You mostly takes place in the 1970’s and begins with the death of 15-16 year old Lydia and how her family essentially copes with her death. I enjoyed reading this book because I found the concepts of race, interracial marriage, and motherhood interesting with regards to how they unravel throughout the novel. Ng’s prose is beautiful and overall she writes about family conflict quite well, but I did have issues with some of her characters.
The more I read, the angrier I became and I felt that Marilyn and James were never truly fit to be parents in the first place. The only character I cared about was the neglected Hannah, the youngest sibling in the Lee family. I completely understand that family drama can get messy, but I suppose these characters didn’t feel real enough to fully carry some of the novel’s major concepts. In other words, while the characters have real-life traumas that motivate them to carry out certain actions, they were exaggerated to the extent of being unbelievable. Marilyn and James are too absorbed in their own wants and desires to care enough about the effects it has on their children...especially considering how much Nath and Hannah are affected by their sister’s death. Although the ending attempts to “remedy” some of the conflict, let’s just say I wasn’t completely convinced by the familial dynamic by the end of the novel.
Have you read Everything I Never Told You? What were your thoughts?