Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Bibliographic Data

Ng, Celeste. Everything I Never Told You. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print.

Summary

Set in a small Ohio town, Celeste Ng’s novel, Everything I Never Told You, is an incisive study of a Chinese-American family as the parents, brother and sister try to cope with the death of their daughter and sister, Lydia.  The family is broken and bruised by the absence of a family member so central to the parents’ concept of a successful, socially-accepted young adult.  The Lees each have secrets which they keep from one another because of tension, disappointments, fears, and anger which have been simmering and finally surface upon Lydia’s death.  Several incidents occur which are personally interpreted and weighed against a backdrop of discrimination, sexism, high parental expectations, and desertion.  Will Lydia’s death be the catalyst of the destruction of the Lee family?

Analysis

Celeste Ng’s debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, is a penetrating exploration of a family struggling to adjust to the death of a daughter and sister.  Ng, as the omniscient narrator, enmeshes the reader in the lives of each of the Lee family members.  She uses the literary technique of flashback to explain through thoughts, words, and actions that the parents, James and Marilyn; the brother, Nate; and the sister, Hannah all have suffered discrimination growing up.  When Lydia goes missing, the family dynamics change and Lydia’s absence brings forth underlying issues for each family member. 

Ng’s ability to describe the inner thoughts of each character with tremendous sensitivity and poetic imagery is a definite strength for the novel. 

“All their lives Nath had understood, better than anyone, the lexicon of their family, the things they could never truly explain to outsiders: that a book or a dress meant more than something to read or something to wear; that attention came with expectations that – like snow – drifted and settled and crushed you with their weight” (263).

She also creates suspense by analyzing a character’s words and actions at the time they happen, using foreknowledge because of her omniscience.  “It would be almost eight years before school would seem real and possible and tangible again, but Marilyn didn’t know that” (50). 

The novel so realistically portrays the emotional trauma Lydia’s death creates that there is little to criticize.  Perhaps several of the depictions of the parents’ individual struggles are more mature than a young adult would appreciate or comprehend. 

Young adults might connect with Ng’s novel on several levels.  They would read how prejudice occurs in ethnic heritages.  If they had lost a sibling, they might feel empathy with the Lee family’s emotional states.  Parental pressure might be a touchstone for teens who struggle to meet their parents’ expectations.

Everything I Never Told You would be developmentally appropriate for older teens.  Although the treatment of death and family disunity is sensitive and perceptive, younger teens might come away sad and somewhat depressed since each character has an issue which seems to be unsolved by the end of the novel.  They might concentrate more on what happened to Lydia and not actually understand the psychological aspects of the story.

As an award winner, Ng’s Everything I Never Told You has a place in Young Adult (YA) literature.  It was the winner of the 2015 Alex Award, the 2014-2015 Asian/Pacific American Award, and a New York Times Bestseller and Book Review Notable Book of 2014.

Activity

Trace and discuss discrimination against Asians in American by watching available DVD presentations about Chinese railroad workers in the American West and the Japanese internment camps out West during World War II.

Related Resources

1. Our American Century collection

This collection will enable the librarian to provide the young adult user context for understanding the times in which Ng’s novel takes place.  It includes pictures and explanations of people, places, events, and cultural items mentioned in the novel.

Our American Century: The American Dream: The 50s. Alexandra, Va.: Time-Life, 1998. Print.

Our American Century: Turbulent Years: The 60s. Alexandra, Va.: Time-Life, 1998. Print.

Our American Century: Time of Transition: The 70s. Alexandra, Va.: Time-Life, 1998. Print.

2. When Half is Whole Multiethnic Asian American Identities by Stephen Shigematsu

This collection of stories involving several individuals of mixed heritage enables the library to examine the questions which multi-ethnic Asian Americans have about their identities.

Shigematsu, Stephen. When Half is Whole Multiethnic Asian American Identities. Palo Atlo: Stanford UP, 2012. Print.

Published Review

“Everything I Never Told You.” Kirkus Reviews 82.11 (2014): 132. Web. 6 July 2015.