Liane Moriarty: Big Little Lies | Lara
From the author of Truly Madly Guilty and The Husband s Secretcomes a novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
A murder... A tragic accident... Or just parents behaving badly? What s indisputable is that someone is dead.
Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mum Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place.
Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn lethal.
“It had never crossed her mind that sending your child to school would be like going back to school yourself.”
Big Little Lies is as adult thriller novel told from the perspectives of three mothers of five-year-old toddlers: Jane, Celeste and Madeline. Each of them has very different lives and different families, but a series of circumstances brought them all in the same place, connected by the same events. A story that begins as nothing more than a case of school bullying and some parent-drama turns out to be something much darker and more sinister. Moriarty shapes her work as a hoop that tightens, beginning with the story of three seemingly different women, adding parts from interviews describing circumstances of the night of the “incident”, that only add to the tension, leaving readers with the hanging question of “What the hell happened on the trivia night?”
The way she gave descriptions of their lives, the gossip and the events of the community, I really felt like I was there like I could be another mother engaging in the drama and mystery. Moriarty captured one seemingly usual ad casually disinteresting group, such as pre-school parents community, giving voices to three different types of mothers: a single mother who decided to keep her child after a one-night stand, a divorcee happily married for the second time and a mother of twins whose husband beats her. The stories that began as totally different ended up overlapping and unraveling a big mystery of the trivia night and everything the book has been building up towards that point. I loved it so much that there were two parallel mysteries – one case of bullying inside their group, and the other death at the night of the trivia game. It’s impossible not to get invested in this immensely thrilling and intriguing story.
Each of the three main characters made a huge impression on me, and, the message each of their personalities and life stories was meant to send struck me really deeply. Madeline is a forty-something mother of three, with the eldest child from her failed marriage. I especially liked her because she is a survivor, and people often underestimate how hard it is for a single mother to raise a child after the father has left. She’s happy now, but her way to that happiness wasn’t easy and she sure as hell won’t forget or forgive her ex-husband for what he put her through only because of his selfishness. The realistic situation of her complicated relationship with her daughter after her father came back into her life made me like her even more and appreciate Moriarty for creating such a complex but fun and strong character.
“They say it's good to let your grudges go, but I don't know, I'm quite fond of my grudge. I tend it like a little pet.”
“It’s because a woman’s entire self-worth rests on her looks,” said Jane. “That’s why. It’s because we live in a beauty-obsessed society where the most important thing a woman can do is make herself attractive to men.”
0 komentari