There were big and little lies throughout Big Little Lies: Competitive barbs among the mothers, parents
helping children too much with assignments, Amabella keeping secret the
identity of her kindergarten torturer. Perry’s beating of his wife, Celeste, might
seem to vie for biggest with his using his cousin’s name when he met, bullied
and impregnated Jane. But the biggest lie was the refusal to tell the truth, by
every witness to the inadvertent murder at the end of the story. If this book had been written recently,
I would have guessed that at least one of the author’s goals was to demonstrate
collusion. It seems such a good example of something that has been on everyone’s
mind lately! But, the book was written in 2014, so it is free of that potential
political influence.
Most of those at our meeting seemed to have enjoyed reading
the book. Thanks to Joyce Z. for giving us the opportunity to read and discuss
it! We raised questions: Was Madeleine always looking for a fight? Morna said
Madeleine’s character trait was more that she didn’t back down from a fight
than that she was looking for one. Was Celeste in love with her husband, Perry?
Linda said Celeste was a victim type, which could explain why she stayed with
Perry. Did we admire any of the characters? The only name that was mentioned
here was, perhaps Tom.
We talked about the helicopter parenting in the book and how
it related to our experiences. When she was a parent in rural Texas, Joyce Z.
did not see anything like the parent community from the book. Heather saw
helicopter parenting, not when she was parenting but when she was a teacher,
which would have been closer temporally to the trend described in the book in 2014.
We talked about wealth and beauty. Both were noticeably influential
and even powerful in Big Little Lies.
Joyce Z. had noticed that looks were important in the book, and Flo joked that
all Jane needed was a haircut to change her place in the society. Ken felt that
Celeste’s beauty had robbed her of the chance to be valued for herself.
Choices was another topic we noted from the book. The
children in the book seemed to be given too many choices and too much power.
Make no mistake - Big Little Lies is
not a handbook for parents!
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