I had the pleasure of reading this captivating masterpiece written by Celeste Ng around September 2019. I was fascinated by the dynamic the author created between such contrasting families. The book is so well-written and thought provoking. The story introduces conversations about privilege and race and identity. I was left questioning my own habits of judgement and assumptions.
After finishing the book I made a list of 10 quotes that resonated with me and wrote these quotes in my original post. Today, I reflected on these quotes once more because the story Ng wrote is now depicted on tv. With Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington portraying the roles of Elena and Mia, the story came alive with full force and depth. The show gave an enriching perspective on Ng's work and expanded the story even further. The characters were brought to life in ways I couldn't even imagine and I could tell the actors worked hard to tell their story. The show brought me back to reflect on the same message Ng was able to illustrate through the following 10 quotes:
“Your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all existed at once.”
“It was disorienting, like seeing a door that had always been open suddenly shut.”
“He loomed in the background, solid and impressive and important, like a mountain range on the horizon.”
“How could they be so at home, so sure of themselves, even in pajamas.”
“To have such a deep taproot in a single place, to be immersed in it so thoroughly that it had steeped into every fiber of your being; she couldn’t imagine it.”
“most of the time they were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure what side of the line you stood on.”
“Anger is fear's bodyguard.”
“I don't have a plan, I'm afraid, but then, no one really does, no matter what they say.”
“His life had been divided into a before and an after, and he would always be comparing the two.”
“She smelled of home...as if home had never been a place, but had always been this little person whom she'd carried alongside her.”
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