Wow. This book.
I would usually start off my reviews with a chipper greeting and introduction, but that doesn’t seem to fit the tone of this particular review.
Everything I Never Told You was my first soiree into Literary Fiction and it blew me away.
The story opens on the death of Lydia, the daughter of a Chinese American family in the 1970s. Upon her death, Lydia leaves behind her mother, Marilyn, her father, James, and her brother and sister, Nath and Hannah respectively. Told from multiple points before, during and after Lydia’s death, Everything I Never Told You is a character study of family dynamics, Chinese American culture, parental pressure and each individuals hopes and dreams. In a strange way, the tone of the novel reminded me of parts of The Doll’s House or The Awakening, especially in Lydia and Marilyn’s stories. However, Ng crafts a story that is uniquely her own.
Celeste Ng’s writing style is exactly what I never knew I wanted. It was fluid and dynamic, without being fluffy and exaggerated. It was incredibly easy to read and I appreciated that Ng didn’t bury her layered commentary behind a wall of convoluted prose. Each section of the novel seemed to be essential to the plot and development of the story. At first, I will admit the various perspectives the narrator focuses on were confusing, especially when the perspectives jumped through time. However, after getting used to the patchwork that Ng was creating through her storytelling method, my reading experience became much smoother. I loved how Ng provided the audience with perspectives from every character, while still maintaining a third person narrator. It felt like opening a doll house and watching the daily lives of the dolls inside. Yet, the narration didn’t separate the audience from the story entirely and still allowed them to view certain scenes from inside each character’s head. I believe that this helped me understand how each character was processing Lydia’s death, and how they might have reached the head space they were before Lydia died.
I won’t say that the characters were all likable. I have seen many people comment that they were too separated from the characters to care about their motivations or emotions. While I do believe this critique is partially valid, I still believe that the characters were dynamic enough to create a genuine story. I also believe that part of the purpose of Ng’s characters was to provide the reader an avenue to place themselves into the story. Personally, I related to Lydia and Hannah’s stories the most. I empathize with the way Marilyn pushed her dreams onto Lydia. All the while, I understood Lydia’s desire to appease her mother, which leads to her unhappiness and inability to escape the pigeon hole she has been placed in. I understand the idea of the universe revolving around Lydia. Hannah’s silence and attention to the details of her life, as well as the intricacies of her family's dynamic was also something I could relate to. I believe that if I read Everything I Never Told You again when I was older, I might relate more to Marilyn’s story, which intrigues me.
Something I appreciated above everything else was the way Ng revealed information to the audience and wrapped the story up. The reveals in the story didn’t seem like giant truth bombs that she was waiting to drop in order to shock her audience. Instead, they simply seemed like details that were there all along and were still glossed over until someone payed them closer attention.
In the end, Everything I Never Told You left me contemplative and eager to read whatever else Celeste Ng publishes.
Overall:
4.5 out of 5
90% out of 100%
-Jaime