I hadn’t heard of Celeste Ng, but her debut novel ‘Everything I never told you’ was assigned as this month’s read for our local book group. So I put it on my wishlist at the end of last year, and was given it for Christmas. I didn’t start reading it until a couple of days ago, and finished it today; I found it quite hard to put down at times. It’s set in the United States, with the main part of the story being in 1977. 
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The novel opens by telling us that Lydia is dead, but her family doesn’t yet know. It’s not that the narrator is her killer (which was my first thought) or someone who observed her dying. It’s an authorial comment, something which I think of as rather old-fashioned. But it works… and similar asides are used throughout the book.
The novel is written in an omniscient viewpoint style, seeing into the minds of the five members of Lydia’s family, regularly switching viewpoint. And it works. The switches are so well done that the narration doesn’t feel disjointed or awkward, as ciykd so easily happen. Nor is it an issue when there’s a sudden author comment about what is going to happen in the future, which the person concerned has no idea about.
There are many time-switches too. Although the book opens with the day that Lydia has died, and moves forward a few months during the course of the book, there are many flashbacks and forays into the past. We see, for instance, how Lydia’s parents (James and Marilyn) first met. Before that, we see Marilyn with her mother, desperate to escape her rather cloistered lifestyle.
Slowly, a picture builds up of an oddly dysfunctional family. James is from a Chinese background although he’s an American citizen. We first meet him, in the 1950s, lecturing at a university. Marilyn is one of his students. She’s only a few years younger than he is, but strongly attracted to him. To ensure he doesn’t get in trouble, she quits his course…she loves the fact that he’s not like other men, who treat her as a ditzy female, refusing to recognise or acknowledge her intelligence and ambition.
James and Marilyn’s oldest child, Nath (which I assume is short for Nathan) is 18, about to head off to Harvard university. He’s extremely bright, passionate about anything to do with space. But - as we quickly realise - he’s mostly been ignored by his parents, in favour of Lydia. She was 16 when she died, and was clearly her parents’ favourite. Her younger sister Hannah, who must be about ten, has mostly been ignored. Hannah is quiet, intuitive and observant, and longs for her parents to notice her.
I found it quite hard to comprehend the racism that the family experiences, but perhaps in 1970s small town America it wasn’t unusual. Nath and Lydia have been the only Chinese (or, rather, half-Chinese) students at their high school, and they’re known as ‘Orientals’. This is part of what makes life difficult for them all, but their parents make it worse. James continually wants them - particularly Lydia - to make friends, to smile, to go with whatever is the norm, in the hope of fitting in. Marilyn doesn’t much mind what Nath and Hannah do, but she’s determined that Lydia will be a doctor, as she had hoped to be herself before her life changed course.
I found it hard to relate to either of the parents, living in a culture and era so removed from my own. Growing up in 1960s England, in the Midlands, it wasn’t so unusual to have people of Asian, African or other non-European descent around us. Most were born in the UK, and we didn’t see them as any different - until their parents’ culture impinged on them in some way, as sometimes happened. There were, of course, a few ignorant racists, as there still are. But not the majority, as this book seems to suggest was the case.
But quite apart from James feeling like an outsider, and Marilyn determined to break with expectations and norms, they seem ignorant of any principles of raising children. The unfairness of it all struck me several times; Nath and Lydia have quite a good relationship, sympathising with each other, but their parents don’t seem to understand or appreciate either of them for who they really are. I liked all three of the children, who were well-drawn and three dimensional, each with their hopes and dreams, each wanting something from their parents which they didn’t get. I thought Hannah the most believable.
The mystery of Lydia’s disappearance is gradually told, building some tension and not really resolving what happened until towards the end. And although the final pages of the book are positive, on the whole, looking to the future, I found the climax - the resolution - very sad. It’s a poignant book, reflecting on the problems in this family; there’s no actual abuse (other than one dramatic slap) but a great deal of neglect, and emotional pressure.
The writing is excellent and I expect the story will stay with me for a while. The reading group were mixed in their opinions; most liked it, on the whole; two of them really didn’t. I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but if you like this genre of fiction, it’s a good book to try. I’m glad I read it although it’s not a book I’d have chosen without it being on the reading group list.
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