by Celeste Ng
Why I downloaded this book, I don’t really know. I guess it had appeared on some ‘list’, somewhere.
The Richardsons are an all-American family with four adolescent children, journalist mother and lawyer father, who live in the prosperous suburb of Shaker Heights in Cleveland, Ohio. The children befriend another teenager, Pearl, the daughter of photographic artist Mia, who rent an apartment owned by the Richardsons. Pearl and Mia lead a peripatetic life, moving on every few months. Mia’s background – and the identity of Pearl’s father – are a mystery.
Elena Richardson appears – and aspires – to be the woman who has it all. She struggles with the real challenges of parenting teenagers (including daughter Izzy who appears to everyone else as “strange”) but still gives attention to her career and neighbourhood responsibilities. The Richardsons’ friend and neighbour, desperate for a baby, manages to find a child to adopt. And then the real mother of the child appears and wants her baby back. The Richardsons are involved, professionally and personally, supporting the adoptive parents. Mia meanwhile befriends and encourages the mother.
As if this wasn’t enough motherhood stuff, we learn about Mia’s past life through some amateur detective work / investigative journalism / neighbourly nosiness at the hands of Elena (who is termed throughout the novel “Mrs Richardson”). OK, no spoilers here. Suffice to say that the relationship between landlord and tenant suffers, , Mia and Pearl move on, and no one comes out a winner.
The story engrossed me, but I really don’t feel that this book deserves its many accolades. It is forgettable. The best thing about it was probably the portraits of the teenage children – though even these are forgettable, more caricature than character.
A rug and a book 