Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: book review

Everything I Never Told You (2014) is set in Ohio, America, in 1977. Specifically, it is set in the Lee family home – with mother Marilyn, 45-year-old father James (an American history professor), and their children Nath, Lydia, and Hannah.

The Lee family is not the ‘usual’ Middlewood family – they are probably the only American-Chinese in the whole town, even though they were all born in America. When Marilyn (American) and James (of Chinese heritage, born in California) wed in 1958 their wedding – their mixed race marriage – would would been illegal in half of the states across America.

It is Tuesday, 3 May 1977, and Lydia Lee is 16 years old, but she does not appear for breakfast. On Wednesday a passerby noticed a rowboat adrift on the lake. On Thursday morning police drag the lake and find her body. The newspaper announced: Oriental Girl Found Drowned in Pond.

Nath thinks Jack Wolff – a senior at the same school as Lydia – was involved. Her mother thinks Lydia’s bedroom holds the answer. Perhaps her school bag too.

Did Lydia sneak out at night? Was she going to meet someone? In the rowboat … on the lake? Officer Fiske finds no evidence of anyone in the boat with her. So did she die by her own hand?

Lydia had fallen into the lake years before, and her mother had disappeared too years before. For a couple of months. But they both came back to the family. But yes, there were problems within it. Lydia was a loner – ‘friendless’ – happy to apply herself to science, and attending science summer school. Her mother thought she was a genius, but recently Lydia’s grades were rapidly declining. The only person she told was Jack.

Then everything someone never told anyone, everything someone had kept bottled up, comes pouring out of their mouth – was it Nath, Jack, James … Marilyn, Hannah ... Lydia? But this person is not the only one with secrets – and gradually the family’s secrets are exposed.

The nicely-written mystery slowly develops in a quiet, gentle, unobtrusive manner, until the weight of knowing sinks you slowly under.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog