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Booked for the Day

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

On Monday, November 2nd, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.  Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

  • We started the discussion with the question, what was your first reaction when you finished the novel? The group found the book far too depressing and without the depth you need in a good novel. Plus we were all angry at James and Marilyn for forcing their desires onto their children so that was something that preyed on our minds throughout the book. How can supposedly brilliant parents be so clueless?
  • When we discussed our favorite character most of the group did not have one. They thought that the story featured the most unsympathetic, self-absorbed cast of characters and only felt frustration with the parents. Once again, we see people living out their own frustrated dreams through their children. Some of us did feel sympathy for Hannah because she was so blatantly neglected.
  • We discussed Jack and thought that the twist in the end seemed so random. One member thought that it is great to have twists and turns but not just for the purpose of seeing how many you can incorporate in one novel. We thought that the bad boy image that Jack had was just another version of how perceptions can be deceiving.
  • We talked about whether any of us were in a situation where we felt like an outsider. Two of our members discussed situations where this had happened to them. They understood looking around and not seeing themselves in anyone. Being the only one who is different. One member thought that Ng did do a nice job of relating Nath, Lydia and Hannah feelings.
  • It did seem that the isolation that the family felt was self-imposed. It was hard to believe that during the 1970s no one in the community would accept Marilyn and James. It did not seem that they made an effort to make friends. Even the police officer who tried to help Nath was turned away.
  • We thought the ending was unrealistic. To think that the family could live happily ever after, after a tragedy like that was hard to believe. We all thought that this dysfunctional family needed years of counseling before recovering and becoming a family again.
  • We talked about whether Lydia death was an accident or if it was suicide. The book leads us to believe that it was an accident and that Lydia did believe that she could swim that far but again we did not believe that was realistic. Someone who was as depressed as Lydia probably saw this as a way out of a situation that she could no longer handle.
  • This book did make most of us stop and think, did I do this to my children?
  • This is not an especially uplifting story and we all decided that we would not recommend this book. We also thought that if we did we would have to be careful to whom we recommended it to. We did think this might be a good classroom book for students as a way to start a dialog if they are experiencing this form of parental pressure to succeed.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.

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