Title: Big Little Lies
Author: Liane Moriarty
Published by: Penguin Books
Published on: 2014
Pages: 465 pages
They say it's good to let your grudges go, but I don't know, I'm quite fond of my grudge. I tend it like a little pet.
Chapter Four
Not going to lie, Big Little Lies came to my radar because of the TV show first instead of the book. And it caught my attention solely due to the all star cast. Particularly Reese Witherspoon whom I've always adored since secondary school. And how it won so many awards.
The story centers on three women living in Sydney: Jane, Madeline, and Celeste. Jane was a newcomer in the area and her son, Ziggy, was starting kindergarten in Pirriwee Public School. On Ziggy's orientation day, Jane met Maddy on the way there. She accidentally clicked her heels while warning a group of youth for driving recklessly. Maddy immediately liked this young mother who was almost half her age. Together with Celeste, they stroke out a friendship with Jane.
It's a good thing that Jane made fast friends with them, as Ziggy was accused of bullying his fellow classmate at the end of orientation day. The mother of the bullied girl, Renata, was furious and demanded Ziggy to apologise while he insisted he didn't do it. Jane came to his defense, and so was Maddy. War was declared there and then.
Underneath the perfect façade, each woman concealed a secret in their family. Maddy's ex-husband just recently moved into town with his new, young wife, and while she was perfectly happy with her second marriage, Maddy couldn't help but be jealous of how close her daughter grew to her stepmother. And eventhough Celeste seemed to lead a perfectly happy marriage with a loving husband who doted on their kids, he was actually physically abusive to her. But the biggest mystery has got to be Jane: as the youngest mother in the kindergarten, she had been raped when she was nineteen and had to raise Ziggy all by herself. And the reason why she came to the peninsula? To find the man who raped her.
As lies and secrets colided, all of them found their world spun out of control and ended in murder.
EGGLYSIS
This is the moment I fell in love with Madeline Martha Mackenzie and self-identified with her. The fact that Reese plays her in the TV show also helps.
Big Little Lies was a pleasant surprise. The narration is cheerful and matter-of-factly, yet beneath the glittery, bubblegum package lurks important issues that Liane Moriarty wants to highlight to the world: how the society treats rape victims even in this modern world, harrassment, and domestic abuse. These are the issues that women are most likely to face in their everyday life, yet we have become so used to it that we are desensitized. Liane takes us in a merry-go-round ride, until suddenly she takes a sharp turn and reveals that it's actually a scary roller-coaster.
I love how adorably flawed all the women are. Madeline was petty, sometimes rude, rather psychotic, yet she was actually very insecure inside. She loved her family very much, and her friends come at that, and could turn into a protective mama bear for them. Celeste was beautifully fragile, but not for a single moment we can deem her stupid. And Jane, oh sweet Jane. She was dealing with her own trauma and raising a perfectly good young man.
Comparing it to the TV show, there are a few minor changes made, especially regarding Madeline's arc. Several plot points are changed to highlight her relationship with her oldest daughter, and I especially love how the showrunner decided to introduce Joseph, the man Maddy worked with, whom I pictured as this balding middle-aged man while reading, as a hunky Santiago Cabrera.
And yes, he plays Lancelot du Lac in Merlin. IKNOWRIGHT I WAS SCREAMING WHEN HE APPEARED ON SCREEN. And the parallel between Lancelot and Joseph are too similar to be called incidental. Both lured a woman in a committed relationship to have an affair. But I don't blame Maddy or Gwen. I mean, look. At. Him.
I COMMAND YOU TO BE ETERNALLY SHIRTLESS AND BE IN A SEMI-WET STATE
In the end, what makes Big Little Lies fresh is how it shows the world that women are strong despite the circumstances and that strength comes from supporting other women, not bringing them down.
Overall, Big Little Lies...
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