Igniting Truth

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There was nothing I did not like about this book, from the first word to the last. Celeste Ng throws us in at the deep-end from the get-go, with a burning house and fire-engine sirens. Physical drama and unanswered questions. For a few pages I thought maybe I was reading a whodunnit, not my usual fodder, but the story was skating along so smoothly I decided not to mind.

In a way 'Little Fires Everywhere' IS a whodunnit, but it is also so much more. The fire-crisis with which the narrative begins begs the question as to how such devastation came about, and it is impossible for the reader not to want to find out the answer, especially when arson is suspected. Yet instead of embarking on a forensic introduction of suspects, Celeste Ng simply takes us back in time to introduce us to each of the Richardsons, the blessed and well-heeled family who had occupied the home, and to Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl, a less fortunate and itinerant pair whose lives become enmeshed with the Richardsons when they move into a small property they own.

Gradually, and with compelling depth, the background and inner narratives of the large cast of characters is revealed, from all four of the almost-grown-up Richardson children and their successful parents, to the much more mysterious and artistic Warrens. Celeste Ng is so in control of her story, so good at getting us to empathise with each set of predicaments faced by her protagonists, that I soon forgot to wonder who started the house fire and why. All I cared about was the lives of these people and the dilemmas they faced as their lives became entangled. The dilemmas themselves were heart-rending and utterly credible, encompassing everything from penury to emotional rejection, to unwanted pregnancy, to deeply moral issues of cross-cultural adoption. Just writing that list makes me marvel; Celeste Ng crams so much in and yet the novel never for a moment feels overloaded or creaky.

Without contrivance or cliche, we do finally get the answer about the fire. It is a difficult answer, and one that, given all we have learned, makes perfect and terrible sense. What we learn along the way, is that all of our lives are little fires; that we ignite things in each other, things that can be good or fateful, and over which, once set in motion, we have almost no control. Oh yes, Celeste Ng is a master at her craft all right, well deserving of all her various literary awards, and doing that thing all the best writers do, of leaving her readers feeling wiser by the final page.



View all my reviews