Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng: A review
(Note to readers: Celebrating the holidays has put me behind in reviewing the books I've read recently, so until I catch up, my reviews may be a bit more truncated than usual.)
Celeste Ng's latest is a cautionary tale for our times. She describes a time in America when the government has passed and signed into law the Preserving American Culture and Traditions (PACT) Act. The act allegedly is meant to "protect" American values from the influence of foreign entities, especially China. But what it really does is provide a framework and an excuse for institutionalized racism and violence against minorities. Many books are banned and internet searches for cultural and historical subjects are blocked. Children are being taken away from parents who are deemed "bad influences" and people who dare to question anything about the act are being arrested.
The protagonist through whose eyes we see and experience all of these events is a twelve-year-old boy named Bird. Bird lives in a dorm at Harvard with his father, a former professor turned librarian at the university. His mother, a Chinese-American poet, had abandoned the family three years earlier because her poetry was considered subversive and her vocal opposition to the government put them in danger. Bird dreams of finding her.
Bird finds a clue that leads him to believe that his mother is in New York City and he heads out, on his own, to try to locate her. In NYC, he encounters a rich heiress who had known his mother when they were both penniless and we learn of a secret society of librarians whose goal is to help reconnect children with their birth parents after they have been forced apart.
Ng's description of this dystopian America is certainly enough to give anyone pause, but in the end, the whole thing felt a bit one-dimensional to me. The characters never really "grabbed" me and I wasn't able to identify with them and feel involved in their story. In short, Our Missing Hearts, while certainly not a bad book, seemed to me to be missing a bit of heart.
I had to stop and start reading this book several times - partially because of some of the harrowing scenes, but also because for a long time I couldn't really get into the characters. Overall, I would still give the book four stars as a study of how easily our country could fall into this kind of dystopian nightmare. The seeds are already planted. All it took was a "Crisis". For me, it was a cautionary tale well worth the read. I plan to reread it in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI think Ng has shown us just how easily our country could slip into the fascism of a totalitarian state. Let's hope we are wise enough to prevent the slide.
DeleteThat's too bad. That whole secret society of librarians is a bit intriguing, but I prefer books where the characters grab me. :D
ReplyDeleteI have yet to read any of her work, though it keeps being recommended to me. I will probably not start with this one if I get around to them!
ReplyDeleteHer books could be read in any order. They are not a series so each does not depend on the previous book.
DeleteRight, I just meant because this one does not seem to be quite as loved as others, so I probably won't start here.
DeleteHmm. Interesting. I have read her other 2 books so I will likely get to this one. I'm not a huge fan of hers so I go into it a bit cautiously. It's sort of a bleak premise so I need to gear up a bit.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed her books that I've read but I wouldn't count myself among her devoted fans. This one was, indeed, a bleak story and one that warns us of what could happen if we are not vigilant.
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