It was one of those books I had a strong inclination to finish in a day when I started reading it and delved into it, full steam ahead. I did try my best but life got in the way. The story was beautifully framed and the setting was what got to me. I am not sure when it started (maybe
American Beauty, maybe
Wonder Boys) but I always had some strange fascination with suburbia and dissection of the so-called civilized society. The tacit and unwritten rule that everything was ok and happy, and everybody is friends with everybody else, the gleam of perfection manifested in the form of a constructed, put upon, dare I say, fake, happiness, perfect nuclear families with busy moms and successful dads; a house of cards ready to be demolished by just a little tremor.
Liane Moriarty did that amazingly well. The central conceit is that of a murder mystery but it would be a shame to reduce this novel to that one single genre or trait. This is a commentary on our social mores, the way we bring up our children and how often the masks and facades of civility that we wear start to peel off at just one small fissure, a scratch on the perfectly glazed surface we have decided to present to the world. There is always a tipping point, there is always a moment when you bend something so far that it doesn’t go back the way it was before. People are the same. There is so much one can take.
Back to the book:
Little Big Lies has three amazing protagonists, each vividly drawn with really interesting arcs. At some point, I emphasized with all of these characters. Making someone like me who cannot be more far away from the world depicted in the book, see the plight of white privileged suburban moms is no easy feat. It is the beauty of Moriarty’s storytelling prowess.
Madeline, Celeste and Jane are three women, three mothers, bogged down by their personal upheavals and the troubling proceedings at their children’s school. The lies, the rumors, the bitterness, the jealousies, all get their due. The innocuous and seemingly harmless whispers start a war, played in the playgrounds of school, Parent-Teacher conferences and Trivia Nights.
I had already decided to read this book when I heard that HBO was going to make a miniseries out of it. This piqued my interest because I love miniseries and I am always excited to see an adaptation of something I have already read. Now, after having actually read this, I am so glad that this is a miniseries and not a movie because there are many subplots and threads that need time and detail to foster. It could be told only in a serial format. And so far the casting has been spot on. Reese Witherspoon as Madeline (imagine her role in
Election) and Shailene Woodley as Jane (personally I would have like Analeigh Tipton). The role I am most happy about is Nicole Kidman as Celeste. Oh, she is going to do wonders with this character. She is already such a talented and established actress (though, I have had my misgivings about her in the past:
Grace of Monaco, anyone?!) that I am sure she would have no trouble kicking this out of the park. Laura Dern as Renata: no need for me to elaborate on that. She is Laura Dern. She is going to be amazing in it.
This is without a doubt one of the most elaborately framed and clever books I have read in some time: biting, smart, and strangely funny in some ways, a must read!