Published by Penguin Press on 26 Jun 2014
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Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.
So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Dad in every Disney channel movie: but son, you're giving up your DREAM— ellie schnitt (@holy_schnitt) November 1, 2017
Son in every Disney channel movie: no dad, I'm giving up ~yours~
This is not that story. This is a story of belonging, of loneliness, of perfection, of failure, of of all the words said and unsaid in between. It's in the way that one thing happens, and two things are remembered. How it stays with us and shifts our understanding of the world and our relationships without notice or fanfare. It's an incredibly subtle, intricate story, and I think that's what makes this story so real.
Lydia, five years old, standing on tiptoe to watch vinegar and baking soda foam in the sink. Lydia tugging a heavy book from the shelf, saying, "Show me again, show me another." Lydia, touching the stethoscope, ever so gently, to her mother’s heart. Tears blur Marilyn’s sight. It had not been science that Lydia had loved.
Any attempt to try to convey how the particular dynamic between the children and the parents of the Lee family resonated with me feels cheap, as pointing to any one example would oversimplify what Ng so artfully crafted. But another way I related to the story was about the desire to please--not being given any pressure to do so, but getting caught up in it, then not being able to keep up. A perfectionism of sorts.
Every character had their flaw. As we all do. Except for Hannah maybe; she's precious and must be protected at all costs!! (Not a fan of James though.)
The end was a little too subtle for me. Carrying the same rhythm and subtlety throughout the book to the end left this story feeling a bit incomplete. But there was plenty else in the book to think about.
