Celeste Ng’s masterfully written book stays with you. Part of its power is that the fiction it creates isn’t at all far-fetched, given the current state of things. What’s animating so much of what’s going on in our country is fear. Faced with deep uncertainty, people look for others to blame. It’s not a long leap from where we are now to the world of the novel, in which the country is under some patriotism act, and anyone deemed unpatriotic is silenced and their children are taken away.
Ng leaves her readers with a sliver of hope. She shows the impact that a single act of defiance can have in the face of state oppression. That act unsettles something in people that they thought they buried in order to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Those unearthed feelings remind them–and us–of what is right. We only hope that those in the novel’s world act on those feelings, and that we do, too.
