美国国家公共电台 NPR A Mother And Daughter Upset Suburban Status Quo In 'Little Fires Everywhere'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Celeste Ng's new novel is about two families in the heart of America who can't seem to see into each other's hearts. The Richardsons are a happy family with four children and a lovely home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where, quote, "the soft smells of detergent¹ and cooking and grass mingle² in the entryway." Then a mother-daughter pair, Mia Warren and her teenage daughter, Pearl, pull up with everything they own in their VW Rabbit and rent the guesthouse at the Richardson's. The two families become enmeshed in each other's lives in all ways.

Breaking the bubbles of their lives sets off "Little Fires Everywhere," which is the title of Celeste Ng's novel. Celeste Ng, whose previous best-seller was the huge best-seller "Everything I Never Told You" joins us now from the studios of WGBH in Boston. Thanks so much for being with us.

CELESTE NG: Thank you so much for having me.

SIMON: Let me get you to describe this Shaker Heights of the time period in this novel, a suburb of Cleveland that is considered so quintessentially American, you know, it's a line in "South Pacific."

NG: I didn't know that, actually. There's a line about it in "South Pacific"? (Laughter).

SIMON: There is indeed, yes.

NG: I'm going to have to go and find that out? My mother loves "South Pacific." So Shaker Heights was my hometown. As you said, it's a suburb on the east side of Cleveland. And it's known for being very progressive, very affluent³ and very racially diverse, which is actually the reason that my parents chose to move there. Every house has a front lawn. The architecture is sort of carefully designed. And the whole community is sort of planned to be - it's almost a utopia.

SIMON: They really worked at becoming an integrated community.

NG: They really did. And it was very deliberate. It was in the '50s, I think, there was an incident where someone had started an explosion at the house of a black professional in the community. Really at that point, came together and decided⁴ that they wanted to try to actively⁵ integrate the community. That's an attitude that still continued up to the late '90s and to now.

SIMON: The novel reminds us that nothing is more compromising than children. Pearl Warren is drawn⁶ to the Richardsons. The Richardson children are drawn to the Warrens. What's this mutual⁷ fascination⁸?

NG: I think it speaks a lot to the sort of truism that a lot of times, there are the parents that you're born to, and then there are the parents that you choose. And they're not always the same people. And so in the novel, the Richardson children are drawn to Mia Warren because she's so different from their mother. She's a little bit of a free spirit. She's a freethinker. She's an artist. And likewise, Mia's daughter, Pearl, is drawn to Mrs. Richardson, who's a pillar of the community. She's very grounded. She's a rule follower⁹. In some ways, they're seeking out things that they don't get from their own mothers.

SIMON: Now, by the time we meet them, Mia Warren and her daughter have lived in 46 different towns. What makes her decide to kind of try and get involved in something?

NG: Well, Mia's guiding principle, as she's been moving around so much, has always been, don't get involved and don't get attached. And what happens in this case, she meets someone in Shaker Heights. And the struggles of this woman who's a woman who's given up her child for adoption¹⁰ and now sort of wants to find the child again resonates with her very strongly.

SIMON: May I fill in some blanks? She doesn't just decide to give her child up for adoption. She leaves the baby in front of a firehouse.

NG: Yes, she's a - so this is a Chinese-American woman. She's an immigrant. She's not very well-off. She's a single mother. And she feels she's unable to care for her baby. And she leaves her baby at a firehouse. And she's basically given up all of her rights to her child. And now, when Mia meets her, this woman has kind of gotten her life together. And she wants to get her child back. And, of course, that causes some complications.

SIMON: How does this divide Shaker Heights?

NG: Well, one of the reasons that this adoption becomes so contentious¹¹ is that the baby is a Chinese-American baby. And the family that adopts her is a white couple. And this raises all sorts of questions about race. Can a white couple raise an Asian-American baby properly? Is she going to be missing out on something? It also raises questions of class, you know, this working-class mother versus¹² this very affluent, professional couple in Shaker Heights. And so it touches on a lot of the things that Shaker Heights wants to sort of handle perfectly¹³ and, of course, it doesn't.

SIMON: We should mention the McCulloughs are the name of the couple who adopt the child who's left in front of the firehouse.

NG: Right.

SIMON: Are you a little hard on the McCulloughs?

NG: I might be. I tried very hard in writing the book to show that this is a complicated situation. And I think that right now our sort of natural sympathies are often with the biological mother. We tend to prioritize that in not all cases, but in many cases. Even as little as about 20 years ago, often, our sympathies ran in the other direction.

There was a case in the early '90s known as Baby Jessica, where a baby was adopted and then the birth parents wanted her back. And public sympathy at that time was almost completely with the well-off adoptive parents. And so I think it does say something about our position, where we are as a society as to, you know, who we tend to favor.

SIMON: Yeah. It just reminded me, there's some things in life for which you don't get a do-over. You know, and I understand that the birth mother, May Ling Chow, was hurt and sick and deserves sympathy, not a jail sentence for abandonment. But I don't know, can you leave your child in front of a firehouse and expect to come back a year later and say, everything's fine, I want her back?

NG: That - and that's the question. I honestly don't have an answer for that. I feel for all of the parents in this situation. Like you said, there are certain things where you don't get a do-over, you know, cases of abuse or neglect, which this arguably is. It's so hard to know. And I think those situations get so fraught¹⁴ because we're trying to figure out what the best situation for a child is. And yet, that's almost never a clear-cut answer.

SIMON: I noticed, looking at your travel schedule, you have an appearance with this book in Shaker Heights.

NG: I do, yes.

SIMON: How do you...

(LAUGHTER)

NG: The best comparison I have, I think, is that writing about my hometown is a little bit like writing about a relative. You see all of the great things about them. You love them dearly. And yet, you also know all of their quirks¹⁵ and their foibles and maybe their shortcomings. But I hope that people who live in Shaker Heights will see this as a portrayal¹⁶ of the community. The community is really a character in the book, just as all of the people in the book are. And it's got its strengths and it's got its weaknesses.

SIMON: Celeste Ng - her novel, "Little Fires Everywhere." Thanks so much for being with us.

NG: Thank you.

1 detergent   

n.洗涤剂；adj.有洗净力的

参考例句：

• He recommended a new detergent to me.他向我推荐一种新的洗涤剂。
• This detergent can remove stubborn stains.这种去污剂能去除难洗的污渍。

2 mingle   

vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往

参考例句：

• If we mingle with the crowd,we should not be noticed.如果我们混在人群中，就不会被注意到。
• Oil will not mingle with water.油和水不相融。

3 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

8 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

9 follower   

n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒

参考例句：

• He is a faithful follower of his home football team.他是他家乡足球队的忠实拥护者。
• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。

10 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

11 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

12 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

15 quirks   

n.奇事，巧合( quirk的名词复数 )；怪癖

参考例句：

• One of his quirks is that he refuses to travel by train. 他的怪癖之一是不愿乘火车旅行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All men have their own quirks and twists. 人人都有他们自己的怪癖和奇想。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 portrayal   

n.饰演；描画

参考例句：

• His novel is a vivid portrayal of life in a mining community.他的小说生动地描绘了矿区的生活。
• The portrayal of the characters in the novel is lifelike.该书中的人物写得有血有肉。