Big Little Lies
I first heard of BIG LITTLE LIES on the Emmy Awards when it won a sack full of trophies for the HBO movies. I didn't know the setting was an Australian elementary school, and I had no idea they had that kind of parental involvement.
The three protagonists are Madeline, Celeste, and Jane. Madeline is a live wire just turning forty. She's driving her daughter to school; she keeps complaining out loud “I'm forty!” Chloe, her daughter has the funniest line in the book. She says, “I'm five!' Celeste is a beautiful woman, so beautiful that she literally stops traffic. You wouldn't think she was undergoing spousal abuse. Jane is a young single mother who claims she doesn't know the name of her son Ziggy's father; he was the result of a one-night stand.
The action starts during kindergarten orientation when a little girl is choked. There's a line-up of sorts and Amabella fingers Ziggy as the culprit. Jane is 99% sure he didn't do it, and boy, does she have reason to think he just might have.
There are further complications. Madeline's first husband, Nathan, walked out on her when her daughter Abigail was just a baby. He married Bonnie, a hippy type whom Abigail worships. Jane does know who Ziggy's father is and Celeste, who seems to have the perfect marriage (her husband is loaded and they live in a mini-mansion, is thinking of leaving him.
The book works in reverse order. Usually, in a mystery, you're looking for the killer. In this one you're being teased about the identity of the victim. It all points toward trivia night. Everybody is supposed to dress up as either Elvis or Audrey Hepburn. Jane, who thinks she's plain, gets a new haircut, and she looks like she could get a job as a stand-in in an Audrey movie. She also gets a surprising new boyfriend.
I have not seen the movie, but I just don't see Reese Witherspoon as Madeline. Reese could pass for twenty-five. Otherwise, I found myself thinking this could work with America as a setting. It would have to be an elite elementary school, the kind you have to sign the kid up for when he/she is born. I'm an ex-teacher, and I have never seen this kind of parental involvement, especially a trivia night. That's one of the main grouches you hear in the faculty lounge. The wrong people show up at parent/teacher conferences. Those that should never show up.
The three protagonists are Madeline, Celeste, and Jane. Madeline is a live wire just turning forty. She's driving her daughter to school; she keeps complaining out loud “I'm forty!” Chloe, her daughter has the funniest line in the book. She says, “I'm five!' Celeste is a beautiful woman, so beautiful that she literally stops traffic. You wouldn't think she was undergoing spousal abuse. Jane is a young single mother who claims she doesn't know the name of her son Ziggy's father; he was the result of a one-night stand.
The action starts during kindergarten orientation when a little girl is choked. There's a line-up of sorts and Amabella fingers Ziggy as the culprit. Jane is 99% sure he didn't do it, and boy, does she have reason to think he just might have.
There are further complications. Madeline's first husband, Nathan, walked out on her when her daughter Abigail was just a baby. He married Bonnie, a hippy type whom Abigail worships. Jane does know who Ziggy's father is and Celeste, who seems to have the perfect marriage (her husband is loaded and they live in a mini-mansion, is thinking of leaving him.
The book works in reverse order. Usually, in a mystery, you're looking for the killer. In this one you're being teased about the identity of the victim. It all points toward trivia night. Everybody is supposed to dress up as either Elvis or Audrey Hepburn. Jane, who thinks she's plain, gets a new haircut, and she looks like she could get a job as a stand-in in an Audrey movie. She also gets a surprising new boyfriend.
I have not seen the movie, but I just don't see Reese Witherspoon as Madeline. Reese could pass for twenty-five. Otherwise, I found myself thinking this could work with America as a setting. It would have to be an elite elementary school, the kind you have to sign the kid up for when he/she is born. I'm an ex-teacher, and I have never seen this kind of parental involvement, especially a trivia night. That's one of the main grouches you hear in the faculty lounge. The wrong people show up at parent/teacher conferences. Those that should never show up.
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