Big Little Lies [2014]
By Liane Moriarty
Genre: Suspense, Fiction, Drama, Contemporary, 2021-read,female-oriented, murder, mystery, reviewed
Rating : 3/5
This book is perfect example of what makes for good TV but poor reading. It's a strange relationship I had with it. I wanted to put it away and pick something else so bad but I couldn't bring myself to do so. Having watched the very successful TV series with the same name starring Nicole Kidman didn't help either. It is boring for the most part and only got remotely interesting towards the end. I was asking myself why the heck do I care about the personal lives of some small town people and try wrapping my head around their petty skirmishes, illicit affairs and even poke into some damning domestic violence? Also what is this book trying to convey? That it's ok for women to put up with domestic violence? Or is it ok for the abusing husband to be murdered?
It's a small town called Pirriwee in Australia. Three mothers form a close interpersonal friendship over their children's school life and their private issues. Madeline is the boisterous, fiesty, quarrel hungry mother who easily holds grudges and fights with anyone over a cause. She is also melodramatic - blowing everything out of proportion and could get quite distracting after a while. Jane is the newcomer to the town with a small kid who is born out of a one night stand. She was subjected to cruel insults and violence during that one night stand with a stranger who gives his name as 'saxon banks'. Celeste is the divinely beautiful, insanely rich and for all outer appearances happily married woman whom obviously most women in that town envy. She constantly wears a lost look, fidgety apprehension and holds tight the secret that her husband is a violent person with anger control issues. She secretly visits a psychiatrist seeking help with her disintegrating marriage. One night during an event, one of the parents - Celeste's wife beating husband - gets killed. The story is to find the events leading to it and after, why it happened and how it happened. It is very head scratchingly slow paced. The narrative is interleaved with events preceding the death/murder with interrogation of the main characters at the site of death.
I don't think the story answers any moral questions like if the murder is justified or if it is actually a murder/accident. Very average read. I will be weary to pick another book from this same author because it's a zero value adding book as far as I am concerned. It didn't shine any light upon domestic violence that's already unknown or given me some good learning experience. :/ :/
Drama lovers might resonate well with it though!!
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