Everyone knows that some books are better than others. Often people avoid saying it, because it sounds kind of mean! But it’s the truth.

Everything I Never Told You (buy here) is one of those books that is just slightly better than a lot of other books. It just is. It feels so real. The writing style is clear and engaging. The story touches the reader. I have so, so much to say about this book!

Synopsis:

This is the story of a Chinese American family trying to survive in 1970s Ohio. Marilyn and James Lee are an inter-racial couple, and are parents to three children, Lydia, Nath and Hannah. Lydia is the favourite child, at least until the family wakes to find her missing. After Lydia is found dead, the family truly begins to crumble apart. Wedges and grudges that had been overlooked for far too long, suddenly grow in size.

Everything I Never Told You a wonderful piece of fiction that is not so much murder-mystery as a family portrait, a coming of age work. It describes what it’s like to be Chinese in America. It uncovers the complexities of motherhood. It details the individual feelings and behaviours of each family member, slowly uncovering their true identities to the reader.

My thoughts:

This book focusses primarily on racism, but also on the complexities of family.

The racism theme running throughout Everything I Never Told You regards the treatment of Chinese and Chinese Americans in America in the 60s. Moments of casual racism expose the setting and attitude of this time period more than any lengthy description could. The author’s continuous and purposeful use of the term ‘oriental’ to mean ‘Asian person’ jars the reader, drawing attention to backward and inappropriate views.

If you haven’t come across the term ‘oriental’ before, or don’t quite understand why it’s so wrong, think about its “cultural baggage” (read Jeff Yang’s thoughts here). It has been associated with racist speech and harmful stereotyping. It encourages one to consider Asia as some vague entity. It refuses to distinguish between the various countries and cultures that Asia actually consists of. To call a person ‘oriental’ is to disrespect that person’s heritage. Finally, the word was used in the past to distinguish Asia from Europe in a demeaning way. In modernity, “There was a recognition that the term Oriental was a Eurocentric term that geographically referenced the East relative to Europe” (read more about that here).

If you’re wondering: a more appropriate term would be ‘Asian American’, or better yet, refer to that person’s cultural heritage through the actual country they are from. They might have Korean heritage, or Chinese, or Vietnamese.

This was a slight tangent, but then again, understanding the intentional racist undertones of this work of historical fiction novel is vital. Because it is founded in a past reality, we can use it to understand the world we live in today. We can use it as a snapshot of the past to consider whether or not we’ve progressed or not, for example.

I would consider, despite our best intentions or our hopes, we actually haven’t progressed all that much at all. Consider news stories you’ve read recently about racism in America against Chinese people because of the coronavirus (you can read more about that here). America, and the world, has a long way to go, and sometimes we forget that.

Everything I Never Told You reminds us to watch our behaviour. We might have learned an attitude or a reaction, but that doesn’t mean we can’t adjust and adapt.

The novel offers up descriptions of scenarios when white people could have stepped in after their white friends behave badly towards Chinese Americans. We can take this as a reminder to do differently: to step in rather than be a bystander.

Racism wasn’t the only focus of the novel, although it’s so important to talk about. The novel also talks about family relationship and interactions.

This was actually my favourite part of Everything I Never Told You: the way it focussed on building a family portrait up. It realistically and harshly exposed the way this family interacts with one another. As the novel goes on, you, as the reader, are allowed insight into more and more personal thoughts of the characters. You really feel like you’re slowly getting to know them, and by the end of the novel, when all the twists and turns are completely revealed, you somehow are made to feel like you’ve played a part in discovering those emotional secrets.

Favourite or forgettable?

Favourite. Everything I Never Told You  is an impactful novel that encourages the reader to consider their actions and attitudes. Emotional. Touching. You should read it.

If you loved this, read this:

• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (buy here)
• Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (buy here)
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (buy here)
• Red Sorghum by Mo Yan (buy here)

Please let me know if you have any other book recommendations! I’ve love to read some more literature by Asian authors (either in translation or originally English works).

Note the amazon purchase links in this post are affiliate links. This means that, should you purchase the books through my link, I earn a very small commission! You don’t pay any extra!