Everything I Never Told You

Last weekend, the Hub and I drove to Glacier National Park in Montana, staying for a few days to celebrate our anniversary. It’s a beautiful place where we love to bicycle and hike. The Going-to-the-Sun Road, which winds through Glacier Park for about 52 miles, is an awesome journey that makes its way over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass at 6,646 feet.

Near the top, the road narrows and tightly clings to the mountainside while taking you around some high tight turns. It’s a ride in places that’s not exactly for the faint of heart (like me). If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Shining,” the opening scenes and aerial shots are of this epic road, which sets the movie’s beginning perfectly, both for being isolated and a little ominous.

Luckily our trip didn’t include any spooky moments like those in “The Shining.” I did not run into Danny talking about “redrum” or see any twins in the corridors of our lodge. Thank goodness. Instead check out the photo at left of Lake McDonald, which is serene and beautiful and along which we lodged and spent most of our time. Just don’t fall in. I’m sure it’d be rather chilly.

While there, I read Celeste Ng’s 2014 highly acclaimed debut novel “Everything I Never Told You,” which I picked for my book club to read and discuss after the novel was selected on many best-of lists last year. Perhaps I’m one of the last bloggers to read this quite sad but notable book? Luckily it generated a good discussion last night at book club. I think it’s because it delves into various issues that are still relevant today and consists of some characters and drama that can be argued over for quite a good long gathering.

It’s not giving anything away to say “Everything I Never Told You” is about a teenage girl (Lydia) who goes missing and is found drown in the local lake. That’s at the beginning of the book. The rest of it goes back in time, gradually laying out how she got there and why she died.

Set in a small Ohio town in the 1970s, the story explores Lydia’s close ties within her Chinese-American family who all feel like outsiders in their Midwest community. It delves into her parents’ backgrounds (her mother’s unachieved dreams of becoming a doctor, her dad’s humble and unpopular youth as a son of immigrant workers) and the views of her older brother and younger sister who are often ignored. In her parents’ eyes, Lydia is the favorite child who gets all the attention and is expected to achieve the unfulfilled dreams that they did not.

It’s an intense little book (292 pages) of an unraveling family and is a quick read. The author seems a natural, getting into the heads and backgrounds of all, while the pages flip by easily. It’s a sad and tragic story. Everyone in the family fails to communicate truthfully with one another, keeping secrets that ultimately have such regrettable consequences. I liked the many issues that this book touches upon which felt real to me, namely: the pressures kids and parents put each other through; women’s roles in society and unfulfilled dreams; being an outsider and feelings of inadequacy for those of mixed-race ethnicities — and on the flip side of that — the whole stifling, homogenized world of 1970s small-town America is effectively displayed in the book.

It’s agonizing at times how aggravating the characters can be and how suffocating the setting is. If only they would do this and this and this! — you think. But no, they don’t. Still you feel compelled by where their lives have taken them. You sympathize. It’s impossible not to. Despite whatever your minor quibbles, you must hear this novel out. For a slim debut, I felt it packed a lot of issues in. I’ll definitely be looking for whatever novel author Celeste Ng puts out next.

What about you have you read “Everything I Never Told You,” and if so what did you think?

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27 Responses to Everything I Never Told You

  1. I loved that book! It was a favorite last year and I will certainly read whatever Celeste Ng writes next. Hope my book club decides to read it this fall.

    • Susan Wright says:

      Thanks JoAnn. Yeah I think it’s a good pick for book clubs’ discussions. Lots to talk about in Ng’s novel. I enjoyed it too

  2. Deb says:

    I really like the way you’ve described this book, you’ve captured what I loved about it. I was amazed at how Ng put it all together. I thought it would be a weepy read but it was a really moving, thoughtful one instead. It had so much to say about race, gender, parenting, and how each generation impacts the next one.

  3. Haven’t read it yet, but since it’s so short, maybe I’ll give it a try sometime…

    …and wow, those photos are amazing of your bike trip. How many years are you celebrating?

    • Susan Wright says:

      Thanks Bryan, yeah the trip to Montana was amazing. I have so many scenic photos it was hard to choose just three.

  4. I really loved Everything I Never Told You, too, and I think you captured all of the reasons why. It seems like it frustrated some readers because they wanted to fix those little things, but they were the flaws that made the book seem real to me. Looks like you had an amazing trip and setting to read in, too!

    • Susan Wright says:

      Yeah Shannon. I did think Ng captured accurately some of the pressures between parents & kids and the failed communications. It did feel real to me too.

  5. I loved Everything I Never Told You, and yes, I do that too. I want to yell at the characters, or gently suggest they do this or that instead of what they do.

    An unforgettable read.

    Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES

    • Susan Wright says:

      Thanks Laurel. Yeah I felt like yelling at the mother a number of times in this book. But she wasn’t listening. LOL. Glad to hear you do that too.

  6. Anne says:

    Everything I Never Told You in now on my virtual TBR pile. Wow, sounds amazing. I love the photos of your trip. Some day I hope to make it to Glacier. We drove to Banff a few years ago and loved the scenery, it looks almost (more?) lovely. My Sunday Salon

    • Susan Wright says:

      Thanks Anne. Glacier is lovely. Banff is lovely too. It’s nicest to go these parks in offseason such as early June or mid-September when they are not as busy. I hope you can get to Glacier sometime!

  7. What a marvelous adventure you had! I also appreciated this fine debut, one of my favorites from last year. It’s nice to see it out in paperback. Sorry to be slow to visit as I’ve been offline most of this month myself.

  8. Well, you’re not the last person to read that book – I haven’t read it yet. It sounds like a great read, though. Your trip sounds like fun!

  9. Beautiful pictures! How inspiring they are.

    The book sounds great. I love those tragic family type stories. They’re tragic but interesting, if you know what I mean.

    • Susan Wright says:

      Yeah Erin if you like tragic family stories, you’d like this one. Thanks for kudos on the photos. A Good trip!

  10. I think Everything I Never Told You inspired one of our book group’s best discussions ever. I feel like sometimes our discussions focus too much on the issues raised by the book, rather than its literary quality — this book was perfect for book groups, because we spent a lot of time on both.

    • Susan Wright says:

      I agree Ann. Our book group had a great discussion on this book too. It’s an excellent book club book as it raises so many issues and it’s done so well.

  11. Ti says:

    Yes! What you said there at the bottom. If only they did this and this! So true. I wanted them to just sit their butts down and have a discussion as a family but of course that never happened. If they just SPOKE that would have been helpful. A few in my group felt that at the end, the entire family was doomed. I didn’t get that from the ending. I felt as if they realized where they went wrong and that maybe there was time to salvage relationships with the last two kids.

    • Susan Wright says:

      Yes! I agree. They put a lot of pressure on the girl but didn’t discuss things within the family. I also think there was Hope at the end of this book.

  12. Judy Krueger says:

    The book was so sad. It made me so sad for all of them. My reading group also had a good discussion over it. You write wonderful reviews.

    • Susan Wright says:

      I was hoping too that Lydia would make it at the end. Thanks Judy very kind of you to say. I just sort of whip something up about the book — that’s at the top of my head. But how can one do a good novel justice?! It’s hard eh?

  13. Judy Krueger says:

    Oh, I forgot to say that Glacier is probably the best place I have ever gone. It was 46 years ago on my honeymoon with my first husband. I still remember everything that happened in great detail. We were driven into the back country where we camped, did a 14 mile hike to a lake, caught fish, came back and fed almost the whole little campground. It is a magical location.

    • Susan Wright says:

      Wow that’s quite a memory Judy. It’s neat you remember it so closely. Glacier is a quite magical place. We’ve been there twice now and the landscape is just spectacular. Your fish story though is even better than ours.

  14. Lake McDonald looks ravishing, Susan. Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures.

    I love your review of ‘Everything I Never Told You’. I love how you have written about everything that moved me. I am sure I will keep an eye out for Ng’s next book. 🙂

    And, you inspire me a lot with your love for cycling. 🙂

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