Little Fires Everywhere
By Celeste Ng

352 pages, Penguin Press; 1st Edition edition (September 12, 2017)

Reviewed by ROBERTA GATES
January, 2019

Our Readers & Reviewers choice for March is Celeste Ng's thought-provoking novel which pits two mothers against each other. Their conflict takes root when Mia Warren, a single mother with a teenaged daughter named Pearl, rents the upstairs of a house owned by Elena Richardson, a matriarchal figure who has four children, all of whom are only one year apart. Mrs. Richardson (as she is always called) is a proud and orderly person who thanks her lucky stars that her grandparents had the foresight to settle in Shaker Heights, the leafy and progressive suburb of Cleveland which is the book's setting.

Mrs. Richardson, although she supports the arts and likes offering a helping hand to those in need, finds her new tenant somewhat unsettling. Mia is a self-proclaimed artist who, though her photographs are exhibited (and sometimes sold) at a gallery in New York City, lives in near poverty. To make ends meet, she takes odd jobs, including one as a housecleaner/cook at the Richardson home. Mrs. Richardson also works, but her job as a local journalist is not as satisfying as Mia's photography is to her.

Before long, these two families become intertwined. Pearl, who starts dating Moony Richardson, envies the Richardsons and their large comfortable house. "They were so artlessly beautiful, even right out of bed," thinks Pearl. "Where did this ease come from? How could they be so at home, so sure of themselves, even in pajamas?"

In the meantime, however, Izzy, the Richardsons' misfit daughter, does not find home a particularly appealing place and consequently spends almost all of her after-school time at Mia's apartment, where she serves as an unpaid "studio assistant."

The tension builds further when Mark and Linda McCullough, who are neighbors, decide, after years of trying to have a baby of their own, to adopt an infant left at a neighborhood fire station. But the baby's biological mother, an immigrant from China, soon appears, leading to a court case which leaves Mia and the Richardsons on opposite sides of the debate.

In addition, there's a mystery about Mia's youth, which Mrs. Richardson, using her journalistic skills, sets out to solve.

These threads coalesce in a dramatic and surprising way that should give us plenty to talk about at our Readers & Reviewers discussion, including mother-daughter relationships, the importance of racial/cultural heritage, class divisions, feminism - and more!