Little Fires Everywhere

Just finished “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng. A good book, by a good writer. I admired the intricacy of the plot–complicated plot lines that come together in the end–and enjoyed the characters. However, I found myself often able to put the book down, or to skim pages, and wondered why. I decided it’s because she constantly gives us the ending, of the book, of an anecdote, of the back story, before giving us the story, so the story becomes anti-climactic. There is no tension to pull us through. Also, she often gives us paragraphs of examples to illustrate a character trait, or examples of the times, when one or two “telling details” (as Flannery O’Connor says) would suffice. And finally, she keeps pointing out the theme, the little symbols, metaphors, over and over as if she doesn’t trust her reader to discover them on their own.