Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Everything Here Is Beautiful
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1970
WEBSITE: http://www.miratlee.com/
CITY: Cambridge
STATE: MA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017045577
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017045577
HEADING: Lee, Mira T., 1970-
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100 1_ |a Lee, Mira T., |d 1970-
370 __ |c United States
670 __ |a Everything here is beautiful, 2018: |b CIP t.p. (Mira T. Lee)
670 __ |a e-mail 2017-07-31 fr. R.Boyle : |b (“The birthday for Mira T. Lee is Aug 9, 1970”) e-mail 2017-08-03 (She is American)
PERSONAL
Born August 9, 1970; children.
EDUCATION:Graduate of Stanford University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Novelist. Worked as a graphic designer and a pop-country drummer.
AVOCATIONS:Salsa dancing.
AWARDS:Peden Prize, Missouri Review; recipient of an Artist’s Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short fiction to periodicals, including the Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, Missouri Review, Triquarterly, Harvard Review, and American Short Fiction.
SIDELIGHTS
Novelist Mira T. Lee did not grow up wanting to be a writer and studied biology in graduate school. Nevertheless, a short story she wrote after her mother’s death chronicled her mother’s final weeks and was published in 2009 in the Southern Review. “It was my first published piece, and it was a story I wanted to tell,” Lee noted in an interview with Los Angeles Review of Books website contributor Eleanor J. Bader, adding: “After that, I started to get more familiar with storytelling and found that I enjoyed seeing things branch out further and further from my actual life.”
In her debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, Lee tells the story of two Chinese-American sisters, one of whom begins to suffer from schizophrenia. In her interview with Los Angeles Review of Books contributor Bader, Lee noted that she writes about mental illness from experience because several people in her family have had schizophrenia.”I’ve dealt with doctors, hospitals, and social workers, and I am very familiar with the frustrations involved in trying to help someone with this kind of illness, so a lot of the emotions I include in the book are emotions I’ve felt,” said Lee in the Los Angeles Review of Books interview.
In Everything Here Is Beautiful, Miranda is the older sister and has acted as Lucia’s protector ever since they were young. Lucia has always been impulsive and unpredictable, unlike the steady, responsible Miranda. Although Lucia has become an accomplished journalist, her lapses into severe psychosis threatens both her career and her relationships, including her spouse and her relationship with Miranda. “To Lee’s credit, Lucia, the more compellingly drawn of the two siblings, never seems like a psychological case study,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
Eventually, Lucia begins to hear voices and goes deeper into what psychiatrists have diagnosed as probably schizophrenia. Although Miranda is living in Switzerland, she always returns to the United States to see if she can save her sister over and over again as Lucia travels, fights the odds and develops a career, goes through marriages and relationships, and has a child. Meanwhile, Miranda begins to question just how far she is willing to go to honor family ties and her relationship with Lucia as a certain amount of bitterness arises over the demands Lucia has made on Miranda’s life over several decades.
“This electrifying first novel is wistful, wise and utterly unforgettable,” wrote Stephenie Harrison in BookPage. Noting that “Lee handles a sensitive subject with empathy and courage,” a Publishers Weekly weekly contributor went on to remark: “Readers will find much to admire and ponder throughout.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 1, 2017, Margaret Quamme, review of Everything Here Is Beautiful, p. 29.
BookPage, January, 2018. Stephenie Harrison, review of Everything Here Is Beautiful, p. 16.
Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2017, review of Everything Here Is Beautiful.
Library Journal, June 15, 2017, brief review of Everything Here is Beautiful, p. 4a; September 1, 2017, Annalena McAfee, “Fiction,” includes review of Everything Here is Beautiful, p. 101.
Marie Claire, December, 2017. Samantha Irby, “What Were Reading,” p. 122.
Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2017, review of Everything Here Is Beautiful, p. 61.
ONLINE
Asian American Writers’ Workshop Website, http://aaww.org/ (February 7, 2018), Angie Kim, “Creating As you Go: An Interview with Mira T. Lee.”
Boston Globe Online, https://www.bostonglobe.com/ (January 5, 2018), “Stories that Inhabit Gra Areas Attract Mira T. Lee,” author interview; (February 2, 2018), Anna Parini, “A Shattering Debut about Mental Illness and the Bond between Sisters.”
Los Angeles Review of Books, https://lareviewofbooks.org/ (January 16, 2018), Elanor J. Bader, “Multiculturalism and Mental Illness: An Interview with Mira T. Lee.”
Masters Review, https://mastersreview.com/ (January 16, 2018), Katharine Coldiron, review of Everything Here Is Beautiful.
Mira T. Lee Website, http://www.miratlee.com (March 21, 2018).
San Francisco Book Review, https://sanfranciscobookreview.com/ (February 15, 2018), “Mira T. Lee, Author of Everything Here Is Beautiful Book.
Seattle Times Online, https://www.seattletimes.com/ (January 28, 2018), Ellen Emry Heltzel, “Mira Lee’s Everything Here Is Beautiful Tells of Two Sisters and a Legacy of Mental Illness.”
Shelf Awareness, http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ (January 16, 2018), review of Everything Here Is Beautiful.
USA Today Online, https://www.usatoday.com/ (Jan 16, 2018), Steph Cha, “Two Sisters, Bound by Love and Mental Illness, in ‘Beautiful’ Debut Novel.”
Wall Street Journal Online, https://www.wsj.com/ (January 9, 2018), review of Everything Here Is Beautiful.
Washington Independent Review of Books, http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/ (January 9, 2018), Alice Stephens, review of Everything Here Is Beautiful.
"Charismatic and electrifying... A knockout."
—RUFI THORPE, author of Dear Fang, With Love, and The Girls from Corona Del Mar
"...a stunning and unforgettable book filled with voices that resonate and haunt..."
—RUTH OZEKI, NYTimes bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being
"This was a powerhouse of a book... Compulsive reading and wonderfully drawn characters... I will sell this gladly to customers looking for a big book to get lost in."
—BETTY SUDARSKY, Bookseller, Wesllesley Books
Indiebound Amazon Barnes and Noble
everything here is beautiful
Two sisters: Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the vibrant, headstrong, unconventional one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts to hear voices, it's Miranda who must fight for the help her sister needs — even as Lucia refuses to be defined by any doctor's diagnosis. Determined, impetuous, she plows ahead, marrying a big-hearted Israeli only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She will move with her new family to Ecuador, but the bitter constant remains: she cannot escape her own mental illness. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until inevitably, she crashes to earth. And then Miranda must decide, again, whether or not to step in — but this time, Lucia may not want to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans, but what does it take to break them?
Told from alternating perspectives, Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its core, a heart-wrenching family drama about relationships and tough choices — how much we're willing to sacrifice for the ones we love, and when it's time to let go and save ourselves.
Forthcoming from Pamela Dorman Books (Viking Penguin), January 2018.
press & reviews
American Booksellers Association
The February 2018 Indie Next List Great Reads (ABA)
"Everything Here Is Beautiful is a remarkable debut about two sisters and the strength of their bond. At the heart of this story is Lucia a sister, mother, and woman who struggles with mental illness. Told from alternating points of view, Mira T. Lee gives an honest and emotional look at living with mental illness and its impact on not only your own life but the lives of those you love most. Captivating doesn't begin to cover this novel. You will find me eagerly waiting on the edge of my seat for the next book by this talented author."
—Kaitlin Smith, Copperfield's Books, Sebastopol, CA
American Booksellers Association
American Booksellers Association (ABA) selects EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL for its Indies Introduce program - as one of their Top 10 Debuts for Winter/Spring 2018.
"...Everything Here Is Beautiful explores the boundaries of our responsibilities to those we love, and how we might go about honoring someone's self-determination when that person may not be stable enough to be up to the task. At what point does taking care of someone else cease to serve anyone involved, and how do you know when you're there? Mira T. Lee's debut work is necessary — a generous, beautiful, and frank examination of a very difficult subject."
— Sarah Bumstead, Bookseller, Vroman's Bookstore (Pasadena, CA)
"...In this debut novel, Lee takes on the subject of mental illness and how loved ones must navigate its unpredictable, destructive path. What elevates Everything Here Is Beautiful from being solely a story about illness is Lee's beautiful rendering of Lucia and Miranda, first-generation Chinese-American sisters who, after losing their mother, must forge their lives as young women without family guidance or support... Lee's writing is dynamic, lush, and mesmerizing. I couldn't put this book down as I rooted for Lucia and Miranda to gain control of their lives and embrace the beauty in this process."
— Janine De Boisblanc, Bookseller, Orinda Books (Orinda, CA)
"This was a powerhouse of a book. Compulsive reading and wonderfully drawn characters and without a doubt the most inventive narrative I have read in awhile... I will sell this gladly to customers looking for a big book to get lost in."
— Betty Sudarsky, Bookseller, Wellesley Books (Wellseley, MA)
Wall Street Journal
Girl, Interrupted: A first novel probes a soul's dark nights
"Lucia's fierce passions—for New York City; for her sister and their dying Chinese immigrant mother; for the men she loves; for her daughter, Esperanza; for the Peking duck and spareribs she was raised on—are impossible for anyone, least of all the reader, to resist... There's not a false note to be found, and everywhere there are nuggets to savor."
— Leigh Haber, O, The Oprah Magazine
USAToday
"We are all at the mercy of the people we love, whatever misfortunes they meet or bring upon themselves... That's the power of family, awful and wonderful, and this power ripples through the pages of Mira T. Lee's extraordinary debut novel... If you love anyone at all, this book is going to get you." (Full review)
Boston Globe
"Over and over in this exquisite novel, we see the rubble that mental illness can leave in its wake... beautifully written... Lee's portrait of schizophrenia is compassionate and harrowing... With expert grace and compassion, Lee moves her cast of characters through the years..." (Full review)
Wall Street Journal
Six More Books to Read This Winter
"This debut novel is rooted in the relationship between two sisters, exploring the way love turns into duty when mental illness strikes in a family."
BookPage
"In shimmering prose, Lee nimbly unfurls a story that slithers like a serpent back and forth through time and across the threshold between what is perceived and what is real, producing a nuanced view of a complex woman and what it means to love her... This electrifying first novel is wistful, wise and utterly unforgettable." (Full review)
Entertainment Weekly
"A bold debut... Lee sensitively relays experiences of immigration and mental illness ...a distinct literary voice."
The Seattle Times
"It's to Lee's credit that she divides her sympathies between Lucia and those who care about her. Yes, her book is about the bond between two sisters, as indicated on its cover. But its real achievement goes beyond that relationship and depicts the way mental illness shapes family dynamics no matter how that bond is formed." (Full review)
The Masters Review
"This novel could have been another assembly-line debut in a publishing landscape full of them, and instead, it feels like something truly original. Mira T. Lee's voice is not reassuring or simple; it is alive, worthy of pursuit and concentration... The unlikeliness of the novel's events, each one presented with supreme authorial confidence, recalls Ann Patchett, except the style is jolted upward by several thousand volts. Everything Here is Beautiful is a novel to savor, and Mira T. Lee is a novelist to watch." (Full review)
KQED Arts
"Lee's prose is economical, sharp, and piercing... How does a family battle with mental illness? In Everything Here is Beautiful, the strategies are neither perfect nor expected nor do they yield the best results. In this manner, Lee has managed to write a book that feels wholly alive." (Full review)
Shondaland
What To Read This Week
"Mira T. Lee's debut novel is so raw and acutely human, it's the kind of book you want to get lost in and just go along for the emotional ride... It's a thoughtful and beautifully crafted book, both inside and out, and one you'll feel proud kicking off the New Year having read."
The Millions
Most Anticipated: The Great 2018 Book Preview
"...this novel never flinches."
Wall Street Journal
The 33 Most Exciting Books of 2018
"...an incredibly moving and thoughtful exploration of mental illness and its toll on family and loved ones."
bustle
35 Most Anticipated Fiction Books Of 2018 To Get You Pumped For A New Year Of Reading
"This exquisite book is one that will hurtle past all your expectations."
Chicago Review Of Books
The Most Anticipated Fiction Books of 2018
"This elegant debut is about the enduring bond of family and a delicately drawn portrayal of mental illness."
RealSimple
The Short List: Five Books That Won't Disappoint
"Great for book club."
marieclaire
What We're Reading
"Lee's debut is a profoundly relatable drama about how far you would, or should, go for family."
HuffPost
60 Books We Can't Wait To Read In 2018
"...a wholly original exploration of sisterly bonds."
Vulture
Twenty-Five Things to See, Hear, Watch, and Read
Electric Lit
46 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2018
Vulture
8 New Books You Need to Read This January
RealSimple
The Best Books of 2018 (so far)
Cosmopolitan
33 Books to Get Excited About in 2018
HuffPost
This Week's Must-Read Books
Paste
10 of the Best Books of January 2018
bustle
19 Debut Novels Coming Out In 2018 That You Definitely Won't Want To Miss
BitchMedia
Bitchreads: 25 Fiction Books You Must Read in 2018
Autostraddle
65 Queer and Feminist Books To Read In 2018
Seattle Times
Books to Look Forward to in 2018
poetsandwriters
Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
refinery29
Get Ready, Because Our 2018 Reading List Is Already LIT
elle magazine
19 of the Best Books to Read This Winter
the everygirl
10 HIghly Anticipated Books Coming Out This Winter
BritCo
16 of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018
BookRiot
101 Books Coming Out in 2018 That You Should Mark Down Now
Pure Wow
20 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018
the fold
Must-Reads For Your Holiday Break
PopSugar
The 22 Best New Books of Winter Will Have You Hibernating Over the Holidays
SouthernLiving
Books Coming Out This Winter That We Can't Wait To Read
Hello Giggles
10 Books That Will Change Your Perspective On Mental Health
Publishers Lunch Buzz Books Fall/Winter 2017
Publishers Marketplace selects EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL as one of its Fall/Winter 2017 Buzz Books.
"Everything Here Is Beautiful is a tender but unflinching portrayal of the bond between two sisters--one that's frayed by mental illness and stretched across continents, yet still endures. With ventriloquistic skill, Mira T. Lee explores the heartache of loving someone deeply troubled and the unbearable tightrope-walk between holding on and letting go."
— Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You
"Everything Here is Beautiful is a stunning and unforgettable book filled with voices that resonate and haunt. Mira T. Lee has written a story big enough to hold entire worlds, interior and exterior, with authenticity and compassion. At the same time she tells an intimately personal tale about family, self and the risks we take to care for the ones we love."
— Ruth Ozeki, New York Times bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being
"Charismatic and electrifying. Lee refuses the simple glamour of madness and makes vivid the actual costs of mental illness, the messiness of life, the way we tie ourselves in knots just trying to do the simplest things: love and be loved in return. A knockout."
— Rufi Thorpe, author of Dear Fang, With Love and The Girls from Corona del Mar
"This heart-wrenching, delicately drawn novel is filled with family love, passion, pain and forgiveness. Mira T. Lee spins a story spanning oceans that draws us ever closer to her characters' generous, flawed hearts. Powerful and unforgettable."
— Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Mambo in Chinatown and Girl In Translation
"This book took my breath away. Lee has an incredible gift for empathy--I found myself rooting for, and caring deeply about, all of the characters, even when they couldn't stand each other. I especially commend her nuanced, compassionate depiction of mental illness and how it impacts families. Everything Here Is Beautiful is an insightful, generous celebration of our capacity and complexity as human beings."
— Mark Lukach, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward
"Mira T. Lee has crafted an eloquent, vivid story not just of mental illness, but of passionate longing and family love in which there are no perfect choices but always a pulsing light of hope."
— Lucy Ferriss, bestselling author of A Sister to Honor
"Everything about this book is beautiful. It's a sisters' story, an
immigrant story and, more than a story of one family, it's an
unflinching reflection of the fast-changing American Family."
— Ron Fournier, New York Times bestselling author of Love That Boy
"Everything Here is Beautiful vividly captures the kaleidoscope of emotional contradictions within our bonds to family and country. Mira T. Lee's powerful debut crafts an elegiac journey: uplifting, disturbing, and--proving its title--beautiful."
— Matthew Pearl, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookaneer
"Mira T. Lee deeply understands the human need for belonging, and in her compassionate debut, she presents an aching yet hopeful story of characters striving to belong despite vast impediments, and the emotional costs incurred in this quest for a love-filled life."
— Imbolo Mbue, author of the PEN/Faulkner award-winning Behold the Dreamers
"I was steadily drawn into this beautifully-written story of enduring love and family, however family is defined. Mira T. Lee's characters are captivating and very real, illustrating how intractable mental illness marks everyone in its sphere and renders the quotidian both beautiful and threatening. A compelling read."
— Daphne Kalotay, bestselling author of Sight Reading
events
Belmont Books
Fri, March 2, 2018, 6pm - CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER. WILL BE RESCHEDULED.
Book Club discussion hosted by Robin and Emily Homonoff
West Elm, Providence, RI
Palm Beach County Library
Tues, March 6, 2018, 2:30pm
Palm Beach County Library, Lantana Branch
4020 Lantana Rd, Lake Worth, FL
Books And Books
Tues, March 6, 2018, 8pm
Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL
Pete's Candy Store Reading Series
Thurs, March 15, 2018, 7:30pm
Pete's Candy Store Reading Series, 709 Lorimer St, Brooklyn
Barrington Books
Tues, March 20, 2018, 7pm
Barrington Books, 184 County Rd, Barrington, RI
Portland Public Library
Weds, March 28, 2018, 12pm
Literary Lunch, in conversation with LILY KING, author of EUPHORIA
Portland Main Library, 5 Monument Square, Portland, ME
The Muse and the Marketplace
April 6-8, 2018
Palm Beach Book Festival
Sat, April 14, 2018
Palm Beach Book Festival, panel moderated by Leigh Haber
Los Angeles Time Festival of Books
April 21-22, 2018
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Asian American Writers Workshop
Thurs, April 26, 2018, 7pm
With AKWAEKE EMEZI, author of FRESHWATER
Asian American Writers Workshop, 110-112 W. 27 St, Suite 600
New York, NY
Politics and Prose
Sat, April 28, 2018, 1pm
With REBECCA KAUFFMAN, author of THE GUNNERS
Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington D.C.
Trident Bookseller and Cafe
Tues, May 1, 2018, 7pm
Craft on Draft
Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston, MA
Buttonwood Books
Thurs, May 10, 2018, 10am
Coffee with the Authors
Buttonwood Books @ The Lightkeeper's House, 15 Lighthouse Lane, Cohasset, MA
Northshire Books
Fri, May 11, 2018, 6pm
In conversation with RON POWERS, author of NO ONE CARES ABOUT CRAZY PEOPLE
Northshire Bookstore, 4869 Main St, Manchester Center, VT 05255
Past Events
Sunday, October 15, 2017, 10-11am
Stanford Reunion: Asian American Alumni Authors
Reading with fellow alumni authors Vanessa Hua, Minal Hajratwala, and Jane Lin.
Tues, January 16, 2018, 6-8pm
POINT STREET READING SERIES, $5
Alchemy, 71 Richmond St, 2nd Floor, Providence, RI
Fri, January 19, 2018, 7-8pm
EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL Book Launch!
Presented with GrubStreet
In conversation with LISA MILLER, New York Magazine
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
Weds, February 7, 2018, 7-8pm
In conversation with JANE MARTIN, NAMI-Cambridge/Middlesex
Porter Square Books, 25 White St, Cambridge, MA
Mon, February 12, 2018, 7pm
LITERATURE LOVERS' NIGHT OUT
with Cynthia Swanson, David Housewright, & Gregory Blake Smith
Trinity Episcopal Church, 322 2nd St, Excelsior, MN
Tues, February 13, 2018, 7pm
LITERATURE LOVERS' NIGHT OUT
with Cynthia Swanson, David Housewright, & Gregory Blake Smith
Grand Banquet Hall - 301 2nd St S, Stillwater, MN
Thurs, February 15, 2018, 7pm
With ANNE RAEFF, author of WINTER KEPT US WARM
Books Inc, 74 Town & Country Village, Palo Alto, CA
Mon, February 19, 2018, 7pm
In conversation with MARK LUKACH, author of MY LOVELY WIFE IN THE PSYCH WARD
Orinda Books, 276 Village Square, Orinda, CA
Fri, February 23, 2018, 7:30pm
STORIES ON STAGE
Auditorium at CLARA, 1425 24th Street, Sacramento, CA
Thurs, March 1, 2018, 7pm
In conversation with ANNIE HARTNETT, author of RABBIT CAKE
Belmont Books, 79 Leonard Street, Belmont, MA
about
Mira T. Lee's debut novel, Everything Here is Beautiful, was selected as an Indies Introduce title (Top 10 Debut for 2018) and Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association, and named a Top Winter/2018 Pick by more than 30 news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, O Magazine, Poets & Writers, New York magazine, Chicago Review of Books, Seattle Times, Buzzfeed, Marie Claire, Real Simple, and Electric Lit, among others. Her short fiction has appeared in journals such as the Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, the Missouri Review, Triquarterly, Harvard Review, and American Short Fiction, and has twice received special mention for the Pushcart Prize. She has been the recipient of an Artist's Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Missouri Review's Peden Prize.
In her previous lives, Mira has also been known as a graphic designer, a pop-country drummer, a salsa dancing fanatic, and a biology graduate student. Mira is an alum of Stanford University, and currently lives in Cambridge, MA.
MiraTLeeAuthor
Essays & Interviews
Minnesota Public Radio: Author Mira T. Lee on dealing with mental illness in families
Reading Women Podcast: An interview with Mira T. Lee
Tin House: On Arriving at This Novel "About" Mental Illness
LitHub: Lifting Up Overlooked Authors: On Craft, Identity, and Insecurities. Debut Author Mira T. Lee In Conversation with Celeste Ng
Asian-American Writers Workshop, The Margins: Creating as you go, an interview with Mira T. Lee
Bloom: Everything Here is Beautiful: Q & A with Mira T. Lee
Boston Globe: Bibliophiles: Stories that inhabit gray areas attract Mira T. Lee
Los Angeles Review of Books: Multiculturalism and Mental Illness: An Interview With Mira T. Lee
WBUR's Radio Boston: Novelist Mira T. Lee On Responsibility And Loyalty Among Sisters
Leslie Lindsay: Weekend Reading with Mira T. Lee
Shelf Awareness: The Many Perspectives of Mental Illness
F(r)iction: An Interview with Mira T. Lee
Library Journal: Debut Spotlight
Massachusetts Cultural Council: ArtSake Blog
Deborah Kalb: Q & A with Mira T. Lee
connect!
author
miratlee@gmail.com
Mira is available for speaking engagements at literary events and conferences, and with book clubs, mental health groups, and advocacy campaigns.
literary agent
Susan Golomb
Writers House LLC
21 W. 26th Street, New York, NY 10010
212.696.3831
sgolomb@WritersHouse.com
publicist
Rebecca Marsh
Penguin Random House
212.366.2728
rmarsh@penguinrandomhouse.com
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Mira's Facebook page, "Everything Here is Beautiful," presents 365 days of beautiful, wondrous, and amazing things -- one post for each day of 2017. It might be a story, a 3-minute video, or a particularly moving 60-minute podcast; it could be a photograph, a painting, a news article, a book, or book cover, a piece of music, an object, even a snippet of overheard conversation. Take a look, and help create this collection!
mira's recs & faves
books
Light In August (William Faulkner), Laughable Loves (Milan Kundera), Exit West (Mohsin Hamid), My Name Is Lucy Barton (Elizabeth Strout), My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante), You Are Not A Stranger Here (Adam Haslett), The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini),The Association of Small Bombs (Karan Mahajan), A Visit From the Goon Squad (Jennifer Egan), Tenth of December (George Saunders), Let the Great World Spin (Collum McCann), Eleven Hours (Pamela Erens), The Sweet Hereafter (Russell Banks), Difficult Loves (Italo Calvino), Empire Falls (Richard Russo), short stories by William Trevor, Amy Hempel, Raymond Carver,The Trumpet of the Swan (E.B. White), The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster), Gerald and Piggy books by Mo Willems
tv, movies, podcasts
S-Town (podcast), This American Life (podcast), Startup (podcast), Serial (podcast), The Florida Project, Transparent, Downton Abbey, The Wire, Homeland, Friday Night Lights, Six Feet Under, Getting On, Sex and the City, You Can Count On Me, Y Tu Mama Tambien, About Schmidt, Manchester-By-The-Sea, Sing!, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, A Separation, The Guns of Navarone, The Sound of Music, Project Runway, So You Think You Can Dance, The Daily Show
etc.
round bales of hay, big yellow heavy machinery, the understated, wise people, strange places, light, typography, dance, quarter notes on the ride cymbal, rivets, labradoodles, a close game of Scrabble, total absorption, grapefruit scents, Little League baseball, the sound of ball bearings swishing around in a wide bottomed glass
fiction & memoirs that deal with mental illness
Imagine Me Gone (Adam Haslett, 2016), Dear Fang, With Love (Rufi Thorpe 2016), Challenger Deep (Neal Shusterman, YA, 2015), All the Bright Places (Jennifer Niven, YA, 2015), The Shock of the Fall (Nathan Filer, 2013), You Are Not A Stranger Here (Adam Haslett, 2002), I Know This Much Is True (Wally Lamb, 1998), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden ( Joanne Greenberg, 1964), The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath, 1963).
No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America (Ron Powers, 2017), My Lovely Life in the Psych Ward (Mark Lukach, 2017), A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy (Sue Klebold, 2016), The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (Elyn Saks, 2007), Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness (Pete Earley, 2006), Divided Minds: Twin Sisters and Their Journey Through Schizophrenia (Pamela Spiro Wagner, Carolyn Spiro, 2005), Angelhead: My Brother's Descent Into Madness (Greg Bottoms, 2000), Imagining Robert: My Brother, Madness, and Survival, A Memoir - Jay Neugeboren (1997), An Unquiet Mind (Kay Redfield Jamison, 1996), Girl, Interrupted (Susanna Kaysen, 1994)
Multiculturalism and Mental Illness: An Interview With Mira T. Lee
Eleanor J. Bader interviews Mira T. Lee
91 0 0
JANUARY 16, 2018
MIRA T. LEE did not grow up expecting, or even wanting, to be a writer. But then her mother died. Her short story “While We Waited,” a fictionalized chronicle of her mom’s final weeks, appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of The Southern Review. “It was my first published piece, and it was a story I wanted to tell,” Lee said. “After that, I started to get more familiar with storytelling and found that I enjoyed seeing things branch out further and further from my actual life. I loved being able to mold events into what I wanted them to be.”
Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, was chosen by the American Booksellers’ Association as a Top 10 Debut for Winter/Spring 2018. It’s a big book about big issues: sibling love and loyalty, mental illness, immigration, cultural displacement, marriage, childbearing and -rearing, interracial relationships, healthcare delivery, and the limits of love.
Lee sat down with me in a cafe about a mile from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, home she shares with her husband and sons to discuss mental illness, multiculturalism, and the creative evolution of Everything Here Is Beautiful.
¤
ELEANOR J. BADER: Lucia, the younger sister in Everything Here Is Beautiful, suffers from schizoaffective disorder, and the novel tracks her many psychotic breaks with compassion, terrifying realism, and multilayered complexity. Did you know about this disorder from personal experience?
MIRA T. LEE: There is a lot of mental illness in my family, with multiple family members with schizophrenia. I’ve seen breaks from reality, psychotic behavior where people believe the TV is talking to them or that the FBI is bugging their computers. I’ve seen people stop making sense and become unable to string words together to form a sentence.
I’ve dealt with doctors, hospitals, and social workers, and I am very familiar with the frustrations involved in trying to help someone with this kind of illness, so a lot of the emotions I include in the book are emotions I’ve felt. I know what it’s like to walk on eggshells because someone is disoriented and you don’t want to make the situation worse. Manuel, the undocumented Ecuadoran immigrant Lucia lives with after she leaves her first husband, consistently tries to appease Lucia. Through him, I was able to show how scary it is to see the person you love all but disappear.
But I didn’t just rely on my own experiences. I read many memoirs and blogs about mental illness. There are so many! Just Google first-person accounts of schizophrenia and you’ll see tons of stuff written by people who’ve been there. For a while I also researched post-partum psychosis because after Lucia gives birth to daughter Esperanza she is unable to care for either herself or her newborn.
Everything Here Is Beautiful addresses mental illness from many perspectives, so readers not only watch Lucia as her toehold on reality falters, but they also see how Lucia’s older sister Miranda juggles love and frustration, how unprepared Lucia’s first husband Yonah and second husband Manuel are when she becomes psychotic, and how the medical establishment responds to an incurable illness. Was there something you wanted readers to learn from seeing schizophrenia from so many vantage points?
I wanted to present mental illness as something complex and show that there is no right way to help someone. There are often issues around medication and compliance. Anyone who has dealt with a chronic mental illness likely wishes it was simple: you take this pill and you get better. It is really hard and upsetting when you see someone who is ill and you can’t fix them. Sometimes they don’t even realize they’re sick and will rebuff your efforts.
Furthermore, I wanted to present the nuances of mental illness and depict the ways it affects whole families. I have been to support groups and know how these illnesses devastate people. Mental illness is always messy. A crisis will happen just as mom gets sick, there’s a new baby on the scene, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shown up to deport an undocumented family member. Mental illness can’t be compartmentalized. It happens while everyone is simply trying to live their lives and is unpredictable. A psychotic episode will happen out of nowhere, and it’s very rare that a person will just have one episode and be done with it. These illnesses typically don’t resolve, they’re lifelong. They’re scary. They’re bizarre. And they often make people — including friends, relatives, and community members — really uncomfortable.
There was another issue I wanted to highlight, as well. Fairly early on I made a decision not to make the characters white. I have yet to see a story of mental illness that does not involve white, middle-class people, so I decided to create one. I wanted to show that the disease impacts diverse racial and ethnic communities. In addition, since most accounts focus on the onset of the disease in young adults, I wanted to show that schizoaffective disorder occurs in people of all ages.
All of the characters seem like people we might encounter: they are flawed, complicated, and not always likable. Again, was this intentional?
Yes. I wanted the characters to be both sympathetic and imperfect. Lucia is just a person. She is impulsive and she is creative and she is smart. She also has schizoaffective disorder, but that does not change her character in fundamental ways. Likewise, Miranda is doing her best. She could give up her life and stick around to care for Lucia. Her choices are not clear-cut. Should she have stuck closer to home? Was it okay for her to move to Switzerland to be with the man she loves? Her Swiss husband doesn’t know how to help her. Should he tell her to go the United States and support her sister, or to stay in Switzerland and take care of herself?
Yonah, Lucia’s Israeli first husband, is brash. He doesn’t quite get her illness, but he is good at being warm and loving. He has great intentions, but did he hurt Lucia in the long run? It’s not straightforward. What’s evident is that there is no one way to love someone well.
For her part, Lucia wants to be a good mother. She wants it all. She wants romance, a lot of family around her, and a satisfying work life. She wonders what’s best for Esperanza. Once she stops feeling fulfilled by staying home with her child, what should she do? In creating these people, what mattered to me most was that they were rounded and real. I hope I succeeded.
Multiculturalism is writ large in Everything Here Is Beautiful. All of the characters are in relationships with people who are different from them. Miranda and Lucia were born in China and came to the United States as children. Yonah is from Israel and Manuel, the father of Lucia’s daughter Esperanza, is from Ecuador. Like does not attract like in the novel. What were you trying to say?
This was actually based on my own experience with the people who’ve moved in and out of my life. It’s true to my world. Everyone I know who is in a relationship is with someone from somewhere else or is in an interracial pairing. For Lucia, relationships with Yonah and Manuel made sense; both fit her character. It also fit Miranda to marry a Swiss man. This is who they are as women.
Immigration, both legal and not, is a theme throughout the book, and readers see this issue from several angles. Yonah and Manuel are newcomers to the United States and Lucia is an American in Ecuador. Did you anticipate this being such a timely issue?
No. I developed the characters a long time ago and had no idea what the political climate would be like when the book was published. I certainly hope readers will view the struggles the characters go through with empathy and compassion.
Manhattan’s East Village, the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, and Cuenca in Ecuador are vividly presented. Are these places you’ve lived or known?
I lived in New York City from 1999 to 2000 and spent a lot of time there before and after so it’s a place I know. I never lived in the Hudson Valley but at different phases of my life I’ve spent time with friends who have settled in that area. These places were drawn based on my own connection to them. I traveled to Ecuador before I started writing the book but that was not enough so I read a lot of travel blogs. They were incredibly helpful to me in creating towns and villages I did not know particularly well. Thankfully, there are many American expats in Ecuador who blog about living there.
Did the book go through many revisions?
I started writing Everything Here Is Beautiful in 2013 and did four drafts in two and a half years. Once I got an agent and the book was sold, the editors at Viking asked for revisions, which I spent a year on.
It’s been an interesting process. Lucia and Miranda did not start off Chinese, and the mental-illness piece was initially a lesser theme. My first draft told the story of a woman who went to Ecuador with a guy, had a baby with him, and found herself becoming dissatisfied with the life she was living. One of my first readers asked me how this was different from other books that told a similar story. She urged me to focus more on Lucia’s mental illness and ethnicity. Even though this is not a book about race, the main characters are Chinese; the story is about who these women happen to be.
There was also less of Miranda in early drafts. She was peripheral when the book started out and her character developed as I revised the novel. The backstory about their mother’s life in China was also added later because my editor thought readers needed to know about the sisters’ earliest years and emigration to the United States.
What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
I want readers to understand the complexity of taking care of someone with a mental illness and see that mental illnesses occur in nonwhite populations. I also hope the book reaches people who might not read a memoir, news story, or blog post about mental illness and break through the shame, stigma, and silence that persist in many cultures when someone suffers from a psychological disorder.
Then there is an issue that has nothing to do with mental illness. I want people to see having relationships that mix ethnicity and class as desirable and possible. Usually, when a story focuses on Asian-American characters, the narrative is kept within the frame of an “Asian story.” There are not a lot of stories or novels with interracial couples or people who live in a totally mixed community. My world is filled with all kinds of cultural mixing, and not seeing this depicted in fiction is weird and troubling.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on bits and pieces of a lot of different things and doing some graphic design work, which has been my day job for many years. I’m thinking about a lot of stuff and would like to write another novel. It is really satisfying to be in the middle of creating something large and new.
¤
Eleanor J. Bader teaches English at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, and writes for Lilith, Theasy.com, Truthout.org, Kirkus Reviews, and other online and print publications.
Mira T. Lee, Author of Everything Here Is Beautiful BookOn February 15, 2018 | 0 Comments
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In Conversation with Anne Raeff
About the Book:
EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL is a tale of two sisters—as different as night and day, but tethered by an unshakable bond, even when they are half a world apart. Miranda, the older, is straitlaced and serious, responsible because she has to be; Lucia, the younger, is headstrong and impulsive, and struggles with schizophrenia. Their connection, and the ways in which it is tested, is at the heart of EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL, an unforgettable debut novel from a breakout new literary voice, and a dazzling, deeply felt tale about the lengths we go to for those we love. When Lucia’s lucidity begins to falter and she starts hearing voices, Miranda must find a way to save her sister without losing herself in the process. The push-and-pull between the sisters, as they struggle to do the right thing for themselves and for each other, yields an intimate and powerful family drama. But Lee also deftly tackles the big issues they face: mental illness and its treatment; immigration and cultural displacement; interracial relationships; marriage; parenthood; and more—all with compassion and realism.
EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL is a poignant, multilayered, and skillfully wrought narrative that explores the boundaries of our responsibilities to our loved ones.
About the Author:
Mira T. Lee’s work has been published in numerous quarterlies and reviews, including The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review, and Triquarterly. She was awarded an Artist’s Fellowship by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2012, and has twice received special mention for the Pushcart Prize. She is a graduate of Stanford University, and currently lives with her husband and two children in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is her debut novel.
BIBLIOPHILES
Stories that inhabit gray areas attract Mira T. Lee
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LIZ LINDER PHOTOGRAPHY
JANUARY 05, 2018
Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, “Everything Here Is Beautiful,” has landed on some of the most-anticipated books for 2018 lists. The Cambridge resident tells the story of two sisters, one who is mentally ill and the other who is her protector. She reads from her book at 7 p.m. Fri., Jan. 19, at the Harvard Book Store and 7 p.m. Wed., Feb. 7, at Porter Square Books.
BOOKS: What are you reading?
LEE: I just finished “My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward” by Mark Lukach, a memoir about his wife going through psychosis. It’s really well done. I try to keep up with books on mental illness, especially severe ones like schizophrenia because the subject matter is deeply personal to me, and because there are so few portrayals of these illnesses in literature — though perhaps that is slowly changing. I also recently finished “An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones, which comes out in February. I like stories with that kind of grayness, where no one can win. I just started “Turtles All the Way Down” by John Green and “Home Fire” by Kamila Shamsie. I’m often in the middle of two books. It’s probably not a great habit.
BOOKS: Which books that touch on mental illness would you recommend?
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LEE: My favorite fiction is “You Are Not a Stranger Here” by Adam Haslett, a collection of short stories. His novel, “Imagine Me Gone,” is also great. His writing is not fussy, but so right on. Last year Ron Power came out with “No One Cares About Crazy People,” which is part memoir and part history of this country’s mental health system. It tackles a difficult subject but including his story made it easier to read. Then Kay Redfield Jamison’s memoir “An Unquiet Mind” is a classic.
BOOKS: Are you a fast reader?
LEE: I’m very erratic with my reading. This fall I left my husband and kids behind and went to Vermont for a couple of days to write. It had been taking me so long to get through books. Up there I read one a night. I would sit there for six or seven hours and read. I was like, “Wow, I can do this.” My head just has to be in the right place.
BOOKS: What was the highlight of that spree?
LEE: I read Angie Thomas’s “The Hate U Give.” I read a bunch of YA books, which I thought were great, including Nicola Yoon’s “Everything, Everything” and John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars.” I went to the bookstore and said, “Give me your best YA books.’’ I just plowed through them.
BOOKS: How did you get started on YA?
LEE: I read R.J. Palacio’s “Wonder” because everyone was going on about it. I thought it was as close to perfect as a book could come. It made me think I should check out more YA.
BOOKS: Who are your favorites among the literary greats?
LEE: I love Faulkner’s “Light in August.” I love Milan Kundera. I read “The Unbearable of Lightness of Being.” Then I read everything he wrote, including his short story collection, “Laughable Loves.” I took a Russian lit class in college that I liked. I like the simplicity of language in translation. I loved Italo Calvino’s short story collection “Difficult Loves.”
BOOKS: Is there a book you recommend a lot?
‘I like stories with that kind of grayness, where no one can win.’
LEE: My favorite book this year is “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid. I loved the language and the little bit of magical realism. I feel like when people ask [for a recommendation] they want something recent. In the past I recommended “The Association of Small Bombs” by Karan Mahajan. I was awed by the sheer ambition.
BOOKS: Is there a book you were surprised to like?
LEE: Yes, “Eleven Hours” by Pamela Erens. A writer friend of mine told me to check it out. It’s not something I would have picked up, but it really blew me away. The story was so well woven together.
BOOKS: What are you reading next?
LEE: The new George Saunders and Elizabeth Strout. I have Shanthi Sekaran’s “Lucky Boy” and Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko.” I’m interested in Chloe Benjamin’s “The Immortalists.’’ I haven’t read the new Jesmyn Ward. There’s just an endless amount of books.
AMY SUTHERLAND
Interview was edited and condensed. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter @GlobeBiblio.
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Creating As You Go: An Interview with Mira T. Lee
The author of Everything Here is Beautiful speaks about sisterhood, refusing categorization, and writing about mental health.
Photo by Liz Linder, image design by Axel Jenson
By ANGIE KIM
FEBRUARY 7, 2018 | ANGIE KIM, EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL, MIRA T. LEE, INTERVIEW
MEDIA GALLERY
Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, begins with two sisters on a summer morning. Four-year-old Lucia points to a spider web. Eleven-year-old Miranda tells her sister not to be scared, explains how spiders use their sticky silk to catch and eat bugs. But Lucia isn’t scared. She beckons her older sister to keep looking, to see the morning light sparkling off the strands, to see its beauty.
I kept returning to this scene over and over again throughout the novel as the sisters grow older and pass through milestones in their lives—dealing with Lucia’s mental illness, meeting and loving men with cultural and ethnic backgrounds vastly different from their own Chinese American upbringing, making decisions about parenthood, moving to different countries to build lives wholly independent from each other—as the bond between them stretches thin, to the point of breaking. And as with the spider web, moments of wonder and beauty interweave with danger.
Mira and I recently became acquainted when we discovered we share the same literary agent—and subsequently, that we both attended the same college, moved to Boston afterward (though we never met), and are now both “later-in-life” writers and mothers of boys. Mira’s novel also happens to be my favorite type of read: a multi-faceted story that touches on many compelling issues that resonate with my own life, from being an Asian immigrant in the United States to trying to reconcile motherhood with a career. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child, but I’ve always been fascinated by stories of close sibling relationships, and this story of the bond and conflict between Miranda and Lucia is particularly poignant because Miranda is the only person who truly understands, and is willing to deal with, the seriousness of Lucia’s mental illness.
—Angie Kim
Angie Kim: As an Asian American, I was struck by the multiculturalism which is fundamental to the novel: all the major characters are immigrants who end up with partners from cultures different than their own. Miranda and Lucia are from a Chinese American immigrant family, Lucia’s husband Yonah is a Russian Jew with family in Israel, and both sisters end up with men from other countries—Switzerland and Ecuador—and move to those countries. How did this come to be? Is this something you set out to do from the beginning?
Mira T. Lee: I didn’t set out to write a “multicultural” novel, but I guess it came out that way because that’s the world I know. My parents were first-generation immigrants (born in China, before moving to Hong Kong.) Growing up, I lived abroad for three years in Hong Kong and attended a British school. In my twenties, I lived with roommates from all over the place: first, with a Korean guy from Guam and a Salvadoran, then with an Israeli American and a German visiting scholar (at one point, we had thirteen Irish guys crashed out on the floor of our eleven hundred square-foot apartment!). For awhile I was obsessed with the drums; I took classes at the Berklee College of Music, and everyone I met was an international student. I spent time in NYC and everyone was an immigrant. And of course there were cross-cultural romances of every kind! None of it felt particularly unusual—this is the America I know, and my characters and plot lines grew organically from my own experiences. At one point, I did wonder, should I make my characters white? But I’m glad I stuck with my gut. My characters might appear different on the surface, but they are siblings and parents, daughters and sons, spouses and lovers, just like anyone else.
Absolutely! But apart from adding another layer to your book, which is multi-faceted in so many other ways, I think having this diverse crew of immigrants and expatriates is an interesting choice for a novel that explores mental illness. I’m a Korean immigrant, and my family (both in the US and in Korea) is highly secretive about and ashamed of mental illness of all kinds. Have you seen that in your own experience? Is this intersection of Asian/Latino culture and mental illness something you set out to explore?
Psychiatric illnesses carry an enormous amount of stigma, especially in communities of color, and I think this carries over into literature as well. We’ve seen a growing number of high-profile narratives of mental illness (both fiction and memoir) in recent years, but these have predominantly been within the context of white, middle-class families. Yet we know mental illness afflicts communities of every class and color. It’s touched my own family, too. I didn’t set out to explore mental illness in non-white cultures, but these are the worlds I inhabit, and I hope conversations around the topic become less taboo. I also think it’s important to see stories starring people of color that don’t necessarily fit into the expected frameworks, for example, of a typical “Asian American story” or a “cultural novel.”
Another aspect of mental illness that your novel does an amazing job of exploring is the extent to which it can create conflict in the relationship between the person with the illness and the primary caregiver. Is this something that you’ve experienced in your own life?
I’ve dealt with mental illness in my family, and have seen up close how terrifying psychosis can be, and how hard it is to help someone when they’re in the grips of a delusion and can’t recognize that they’re ill. This lack of insight has a clinical name: “anosognosia,” whereby a person is impaired in such a way that they cannot perceive their own illness. It can lead to a tremendous amount of conflict—around obtaining treatment, medications, compliance, follow-up care—and this can be devastating for families. I knew I’d have to educate the reader about some of these issues in order for them to better relate to my character’s frustrations, particularly those of Miranda and Manny (both called upon to be Lucia’s caregivers), but also Lucia herself.
One aspect of Lucia’s mental illness that intrigued me is that it feels incredibly specific, with the names of medications and symptoms, but I don’t think the actual diagnosis is ever named. Is this a choice you made, and why?
Yep, two reasons: first, diagnoses for psychotic illnesses are often unclear and evolve over time, and many experts now consider schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar with psychotic features to be in the same “spectrum” of illnesses. Second, I didn’t name Lucia’s illness because I didn’t want the book to be labeled “a schizophrenia book” or Lucia to be thought of as “that schizophrenic woman.” When there’s no clearly defined label, sometimes people are more open-minded, more willing to see the whole individual. It was important to me that Lucia be viewed as more than just her illness, and that her illness be seen in the context of her entire life (as well as in the lives of those who love her). I do hope this book might reach readers who wouldn’t normally pick up a book “about mental illness.”
The writer side of me was intrigued by your choices in narrators and points of view. We get chapters from Miranda, Lucia, Manny, and Yonah, in both third- and first-person voices, sometimes back-to-back. In addition, a few chapters are told in an omniscient point of view of a particular setting, such as a psychiatric ward and a Minnesota town. Was it difficult to go back and forth in this way, and how did you decide what chapters to tell in which POV?
Originally, I thought I’d just have each of my main characters narrate one section, four sections in all, boom, done! But yeah, that didn’t really work out. I got stuck when Lucia landed in the hospital. I tried writing from the POV of the nurse, the social worker, another patient, but none of them had a wide enough lens. So I switched to third-person omniscient and wrote something, which was better than nothing. In the next chapter, I knew Lucia had to tell her side of the story, so I switched back to first person. That was tough because I’d always envisioned her as wittier and more brilliant than I am, and for awhile, her voice felt too generic. But again, I wrote something to move the story forward. Later, there were plot points I knew I couldn’t pull off from Lucia’s POV, so I switched again to close third. I worried about breaking all these “rules,” but honestly, I just did whatever I needed to get through that first draft! Now I’m glad there are all these different voices and perspectives—it fits with the chaotic nature of Lucia’s illness, as well as the overall feeling of the book. I think lots of great things in writing happen as accidents—because you’re not transcribing something inside of your head onto paper, you’re actually creating as you go.
On that note of creating as you go, how did you come up with the title? I noticed two times when a character says “Everything here is beautiful.” Had you written those lines before you decided to make that the title, or vice versa? And what does that title mean to you?
The line was always there, but it wasn’t my original title. In fact, we rejected at least 150 titles before my editor and I agreed on that one! But once it was settled, I found lots of opportunities to enhance the images and themes of beauty throughout the manuscript, which helped the story gel as a whole. I like that it’s a bit ironic, but also optimistic. I do think it captures something of Lucia’s essence.
Earlier, we talked about the element of ethnic and racial diversity in the novel, but I think the title brings into focus the geographic breadth as well. At one point, Miranda says, “Our mother might’ve said this: that immigrants are the strongest, that we leave our homes behind and rebuild. Everywhere we go, we rebuild.” Yet this isn’t your traditional “immigrant story.” Can you talk about the role that cultural displacement plays in the novel?
I liked exploring the reasons people choose to leave their home countries, how sometimes they’re moving towards something—opportunity, promises, love, family; but sometimes they’re also running away—from their pasts, their secrets, their families, expectations. My characters all experience periods of cultural displacement, no one ever feels quite grounded—even when one character was “home,” their spouse/partner wasn’t, which set up lots of natural conflicts.
You’ve mentioned that you don’t think of this as an “Asian American story” or a “cultural novel,” but “mental illness book” or “immigrant story” don’t quite fit, either. So I wonder: how would you categorize it?
I guess I’d say it’s first and foremost a family drama, about complicated relationships, and how tricky it can be to do right by the people we love most. It may be a cobbled-together family, the main conflicts may be over mental illness, and cultural and immigration pressures may exacerbate the problems, but at its core is familial love. I wanted to explore conflicting emotions, conflicting desires, conflicting allegiances, and how we balance those—sometimes well, sometimes poorly. One of the wonders of fiction, I think, is its ability to shine a spotlight on humble, unglamorous, overlooked lives, the “underdogs” who rarely draw public attention in real life, yet whose stories exemplify our humanity. And maybe we don’t need to try to pigeon-hole stories into neat little boxes, maybe it’s okay if they’re big and messy, about lots of things all at once, kind of like… life?
What authors or books have influenced your own writing? Any books you’d recommend?
So many! Raymond Carver, William Trevor, Elizabeth Strout, William Faulkner’s Light In August, Adam Haslett’s You Are Not A Stranger Here, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. In 2017, I loved Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, and I just started Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and can’t wait to get back to it. For some reason I feel guilty about reading fiction when it’s light out (unless I’m on vacation)!
Me, too! I think the guilt is due to my feeling like I should be writing, not reading (which is so pleasurable). Speaking of which, have you started writing your next novel? If so, can you tell us anything about it?
I have bits and pieces of a few different projects. I might turn them into short stories. It feels less intimidating that way!
Any writerly resolutions for 2018?
Well, I definitely need to set more limits on social media, which has been sucking me into its black hole at an alarming rate! I’ve also been thinking about my new “identity” as a writer. In a profession where success is so often measured in relative terms—who’s made which list, who’s won what award, who’s selling the most copies, who has earned more stars—it’s easy to continually feel insecure and “less-than.” To that end, my resolution is to stay grounded in knowing that I wrote the book I wanted to write, and to cheer on others who are pursuing their dreams.
From Everything Here is Beautiful
MIRANDA
Lucia said she was going to marry a one-armed Russian Jew. It came as a shock, this news, as I had met him only once before, briefly, when I was in town for a meeting with a pair of squat but handsome attorneys. His name was Yonah. He owned a health food store in the East Village, down the street from a tattoo parlor, across from City Video, next door to a Polish diner, beneath three floors of apartments that Lucia said he rented out to the yuppies who would soon take over the neighborhood. He had offered me tea, and I took peppermint green, and he scurried around, mashing Swiss chard and kale in a loud, industrial blender, barking orders to his nephews, or maybe they were second or third cousins (I never knew, there were so many), because they were sluggish in their work of unloading organic produce off the delivery trucks. He yelled often. I thought, This Yonah is quite a rough man.
He dusted the wine, mopped the floor, restocked packages of dried figs and goji berries and ginseng snacks on the shelves. He was industrious, I could see, intent on making his fortune as immigrants do. Lucia said he played chess. I’d never known my sister to play chess, though she was always excellent at puzzles as a child. Yonah didn’t seem to me the kind to play chess either, nor to drink sulfite-free organic wine or eat goji berries. But as they say, love is strange. And I wouldn’t begrudge my sister love, nor any stranger, not even one who smoked, and was the kind of man who looked disheveled even fresh after a shower, and would leave his camo briefs lying around on the bathroom floor. I admit I was disturbed, creeped out, by his prosthetic arm, which he wore sometimes, though more often I’d find it sitting by itself in a chair.
Lucia brought him to visit our mother, who was dying. Our mother was tilted back in a green suede recliner, wrapped in cotton blankets, watching the Three Tenors video we’d given her the previous year. She took a long look at this man—his workingman’s shoulders, his dark-stubbled jaw, his wide, flat nose. Her Yoni had the essence of a duck, Lucia said (endearingly), or maybe a platypus, though she’d never seen one up close. My sister liked to discern people’s animal and vegetable essences. In fact, she was usually right.
Our mother winced as her gaze settled upon his left arm, a pale, peachy shade that did not match the rest of him.
“What happened to your arm?” she said.
“An accident, when I was twenty-one.” He said it quietly, but without any shame.
“In Soviet Union?”
“In Israel. I moved there when I was teenager.”
“You are divorced,” she said, and I tried to read his thoughts in the fluttering of his blue-gray eyes. I wondered if Lucia had warned him that our mother was like that. I wondered what had been shared, what omitted, when the two of them exchanged stories over chess, over wine. I wished to say to this man: Do you really think you now know our Lucia?
“Thirteen years,” he said. “I have been divorced for thirteen years.” Our mother winced again, though it could’ve been from the pain shooting through her bowels, or her bones, or her chest.
“You are Jewish,” she said. “Jewish are so aggressive. You have children?”
“Two,” he said. “They are with their mother, in Israel.”
At the mention of the other woman, our mother spat. Once, I suppose, she would have wanted to know more, like what did he do, or how old were the children, or what were their names, or did they play musical instruments, and we might have told him that Lucia could recite twenty Chinese poems by the time she was three, or that she was a real talent on the violin, or that she’d suffered a terrible bout of meningitis at age six and nearly died.
“Why are you divorced?” she asked.
“We were married too young,” he said. The skin of his face seemed to hang off his cheekbones. A basset hound, I later said to Lucia.
“This is life,” he said to our mother.
She did not seem quite satisfied with this answer, though she nodded, expelled a heavy sigh. “Take care of my daughter,” she said.
But she was not looking at him. She was looking at me. She fell asleep. Two weeks later, she was gone.
Excerpted from Everything Here Is Beautiful, published by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Mira T. Lee, 2018.
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EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL
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Full Text:
EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL
By Mira T. Lee
Pamela Dorman $26, 368 pages ISBN 9780735221963 Audio, eBook available
DEBUT FICTION
An inveterate free spirit, Lucia Bok is a dreamer and a seeker. It seems her brain and body never stop
wandering, taking her from her first breaths in Tennessee to college in New York City and itinerant stints
abroad in Latin America and Vietnam. But to what end? During her South American travels, she stumbles
across the answer: The object of her quest is encapsulated by a Spanish word, querencia, which means "a
place we're most comfortable, where we know who we are, where we feel our most authentic selves." This
one word will define the rest of Lucia's life and the battle she faces when her capricious eccentricities
transform into full-blown psychoses, forcing her and her loved ones to discover where Lucia--and her
illness--truly belongs in the world.
Mira T. Lee's debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, is an astonishing and imaginative chronicle of
mental illness and the unbreakable bonds of family. Taking readers on a journey from the halls of a
psychiatric ward to the remote countryside of Ecuador, Lee examines the enigma that is Lucia through
various perspectives, bringing together in a discordant symphony the voices of her sister, her husband, her
lover and even Lucia herself (in both her lucid and agitated states). In shimmering prose, Lee nimbly
unfurls a story that slithers like a serpent back and forth through time and across the threshold between what
is perceived and what is real, producing a nuanced view of a complex woman and what it means to love her.
Everything Here Is Beautiful boldly delves into mental illness's profound impact on love and relationships,
exploring tricky quandaries like to whom the burden of responsibility falls and whether it is possible to
separate an individual from her illness. There are no easy answers to these questions, and Lee does not
pretend otherwise. Instead, she presents us with a sensitive and elusive story of sisterhood and
schizophrenia that is brimming with another one of Lucia's favorite words: saudade, a deep, melancholic
longing for a person or state that is absent.
This electrifying first novel is wistful, wise and utterly unforgettable.
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Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Harrison, Stephenie. "EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL." BookPage, Jan. 2018, p. 16. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A520055893/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=90fc4f46. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A520055893
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Lee, Mira T.: EVERYTHING HERE IS
BEAUTIFUL
Kirkus Reviews.
(Dec. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Lee, Mira T. EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL Pamela Dorman/Viking (Adult Fiction) $26.00 1, 16
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2196-3
The tumult of loving someone with a chronic mental illness can exhaust even the most caring person.
Just ask Miranda, elder sister to Lucia, a brash, brilliant journalist whose periodic descent into severe
psychosis has taxed their relationship and forced Miranda to confront the limits of family loyalty. Of course,
she knows that Lucia can be attentive, charming, and kind, drawing in friends and colleagues--at least until
the inevitable delusions take hold. It's scary stuff. To Lee's credit, Lucia, the more compellingly drawn of
the two siblings, never seems like a psychological case study. Instead, we get inside her head--perhaps even
inside her soul--to grapple with the challenges she faces. Her loving first marriage, to an older Israeli East
Village shop owner named Yonah, begins and ends abruptly, revealing the magnitude of Lucia's impetuous
nature. Later, she hooks up with Manuel, an undocumented Ecuadoran immigrant working odd jobs in
Westchester Country, New York, and has a baby. A move to Ecuador, where Lucia, Manuel, and baby
Esperanza live in close proximity to Manuel's family, is both comforting and stifling and raises questions
about the cultural assumptions governing gender, parenting, and assimilation. In addition, what it means to
live outside one's country of origin is explored from both Manuel's and Lucia's perspectives. The book also
exposes the helplessness of family members wishing to fix a fraught situation; the class dimension of health
care delivery; and the rampant misinformation surrounding the treatment and diagnosis of illnesses like
schizoaffective disorder. Lastly, vivid descriptions of the gentrifying Lower East Side of 1990s New York
City, the heavily immigrant towns along the Hudson River, and several communities in Ecuador ground the
characters in distinct locations.
An evocative and beautifully written debut.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lee, Mira T.: EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A516024481/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fd10cc2b.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A516024481
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Everything Here Is Beautiful
Publishers Weekly.
264.43 (Oct. 23, 2017): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Everything Here Is Beautiful
Mira T. Lee. VIking/Dorman, $26 (368p)
ISBN 978-0-7352-2196-3
At the opening of Lee's promising debut, Chinese-American Lucia Bok marries a coarse yet charming
Russian-Israeli Jew named Yonah. The newlyweds quickly settle into a life in Manhattan's East Village,
where Yonah runs a health food store and Lucy writes features for a Queens newspaper. But then, in quick
succession, a mental illness Lucy thought had been cured returns and she realizes she wants a child. Those
catalysts launch the rest of the novel's sprawling turbulence as characters deal with love, duty, the medical
establishment, heritage, and the difficult choices that shape a life. Lee tells the story from several points of
view, and the section from Lucy's perspective is the stand-out: Lucy is funny, observant, and emotionally
intelligent. Her descriptions buzz with the unexpected: "They said I 'suffer' from schizoaffective disorder.
That's like the sampler plate of diagnoses, Best of Everything." The other sections are staid by comparison,
and the prose is occasionally marred by awkward, clipped constructions, as well as some distracting
overreaches. But Lee handles a sensitive subject with empathy and courage. Readers will find much to
admire and ponder throughout, and Lucy's section reveals Lee as a writer of considerable talent and power.
(Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Everything Here Is Beautiful." Publishers Weekly, 23 Oct. 2017, p. 61. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512184158/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=63686288.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512184158
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Everything Here Is Beautiful
Margaret Quamme
Booklist.
114.5 (Nov. 1, 2017): p29.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Everything Here Is Beautiful.
By Mira T. Lee.
Jan. 2018. 368p. Viking/Pamela Dorman, $26 (9780735221963).
Two sisters face the consequences of one's mental illness in Lee's insightful debut novel. With their parents
dead by the time the sisters reach early adulthood, the two young immigrants from China depend on each
other. Conscientious older sister Miranda and free-spirited Lucia manage well until Lucia begins exhibiting
signs of what is variously diagnosed as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for which she is hospitalized
several times. Lee follows the sisters through their forties, broadening out the story to take in the points of
view of the gregarious Yonah, Lucia's Israeli immigrant first husband, and hard-working Manny, the
Ecuadorian father of her child. While at times the novel loses focus and momentum, it also avoids
oversimplifying Lucia's life or turning into a case study, and the tense but loving relationship between the
sisters provides structure when the story begins to ramble. The interaction of cultures, with the inevitable
misunderstandings that accompany it, forms a vibrant subtheme, and as the novel branches out from New
York to Ecuador and then Minnesota, its sense of place deepens. --Margaret Quamme
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Quamme, Margaret. "Everything Here Is Beautiful." Booklist, 1 Nov. 2017, p. 29. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A515382992/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d70441d8.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A515382992
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Everything Here is Beautiful
Mira T. Lee
Library Journal.
142.11 (June 15, 2017): p4a.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
A dazzling novel about a young woman's quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness.
An unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone--and when loyalty to
one's self must prevail over all.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
978-0-7352-2196-3 | $26.00/$35.00C | 50,000
Pamela Dorman Books | HC | January
* 978-0-7352-2198-7 | * AD: 978-0-525-49747-9 | * CD: 978-0-525-49746-2
* LP: 978-0-525-50132-9
CONTEMPORARY WOMEN'S FICTION
Social: Facebook.com/MiraTLee RA: For fans of Celeste Ng, Wally Lamb, and Elizabeth Strout RI: Author
lives in Cambridge, MA
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Lee, Mira T. "Everything Here is Beautiful." Library Journal, 15 June 2017, p. 4a. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495668156/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=792deaab.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495668156
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What Were READING
Samantha Irby
Marie Claire.
24.12 (Dec. 2017): p122.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Hearst Communications. Reprinted with permission of Hearst.
http://www.hearst.com
Full Text:
1. THREE DAUGHTERS OF EVE
by Elif Shafak (Bloomsbury)
Close friends Peri, Shirin, and Mona find themselves at odds over the divination teachings of their Oxford
professor. In later years, against a backdrop of the threat of terrorist attacks in modern-day Istanbul, a brutal
act reminds Peri of their dissolved relationship. Switching perspectives between the present and Peri's past,
this novel from the award-winning Shafak is, at its core, a beautifully rendered tale of homeland and faith.
2. THE AFTERLIVES
by Thomas Pierce (Riverhead)
Jim was technically dead for five minutes. During that time, he met no God, was serenaded by no angels,
and saw no beams of white light. Back on the life side, he and his newlywed bride are in search of a
possible ghost. What ensues is a quirky, hilarious, and heartrending journey to answer the question of what,
if anything, happens when we transition from this life to the next.
3. EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL
by Mira T. Lee (Pamela Dorman Books)
Told from alternating viewpoints, this is the story of two deeply bonded sisters pursuing love, family, and
belonging while also caught in the firm grasp of one sister's mental illness. In the shadow of their mother's
recent passing, Miranda (older, responsible) and Lucia (reckless, impulsive) struggle to find their footing.
Lee's debut novel is a profoundly relatable drama about how far you would, or should, go for family.
4. DANGEROUS CROSSING
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by Rachel Rhys (Atria)
As World War II looms over Europe, Lily, a young servant trying to leave her past behind in England, takes
a trip to Australia on an ocean liner. After the prologue hints at malice forthcoming, what follows is a
vividly descriptive ride from this enticingly mysterious author (Rhys is a pen name), leading up to a killer
ending we did not see coming.
5. RED CLOCKS
by Leni Zumas (Lee Boudreaux Books)
In an alarming peek into a dystopian future, a group of women navigates family and motherhood in an
America that has outlawed abortion, in vitro fertilization, and adoption by single women. Each of the
interwoven story lines is complex and heartbreaking in its own way, and overall, it's a fascinating and
unsettling exploration of the limits society can place on women's bodies.
By SAMANTHA IRBY
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Irby, Samantha. "What Were READING." Marie Claire, Dec. 2017, p. 122. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A518742349/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f6a20cd5.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A518742349
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Fiction
Library Journal.
142.14 (Sept. 1, 2017): p101+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Bailey, Sarah. The Dark Lake. Grand Central. Oct. 2017.400p. ISBN 9781538759905. $26; ebk. ISBN
9781538759912. F
DEBUT When Rosalind Ryan's body is found floating in a lake surrounded by roses, Det. Gemma
Woodstock must face a past she'd hoped would remain buried. The beautiful Rosalind, whom Gemma
envied in high school, was a teacher and writer/director of a successful school play, murdered on the
production's opening night. The locals believe that to be violated so brutally, strangled, and dumped, she
must have been involved in something sinister. It is up to Gemma to untangle the list of suspects, including
Rosalind's strange-acting older brothers, the overly emotional school principal, and maybe even a student
with ties to Gemma. The detective insists that the case isn't personal, but threats to her family and secrets
surfacing from the past prove otherwise. Australian author Bailey's first novel weaves a tale of deception,
family secrets, and flawed but relatable characters. VERDICT While the ultimate plotline is fairly
predictable, several smaller mysteries and background characters make this a worthwhile read for fans of
fellow detective-focused authors Tana French and Lisa Gardner.--Natalie Browning, J. Sargeant Reynolds
Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, VA
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Balson, Ronald H. The Trust. St. Martin's. Sept. 2017. 368p. ISBN 9781250127440. $26.99; ebk. ISBN
9781250127464. F
Making his fourth appearance (after Karolina's Twins), PI Liam Taggert has not been back to his home in
Northern Ireland since the 1990s. When he gets the call that his Uncle Fergus is dead, he agrees to return
and soon learns that Fergus was murdered, leaving the administration of his estate to Liam. The terms of the
will prohibit its distribution until the murderer is found. Did Fergus know his killer? The police suspect
Fergus's family, and Liam is sucked back into the personal and political conflicts that drove him away. Not
far from the surface of daily life in Antrim, the Troubles still smoulder, and violence is sparked if too many
questions are asked. As Liam does his best to follow his uncle's wishes, he steps into a firestorm that
endangers his wife, his child, and the family with whom he has just reconnected. VERDICT This top-notch
thriller will keep readers riveted to the very last page. The Northern Irish setting will appeal to fans of
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Adrian McKinty and Stewart Neville, and the familial and political issues will attract psychological thriller
addicts.--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA
"5' Bergmann, Emanuel. The Trick. Atria. Sept. 2017. 384p. ISBN 9781501155826. $26; ebk. ISBN
9781501155840. F
DEBUT Bergmann's first novel tells the story of Moshe Goldenhirsch, the son of a rabbi in Prague who, in
the years after World War I, runs away from home to join a circus and becomes a magician performing as
the Great Zabbatini. In alternating chapters, a second story line focuses on ten-year-old Max Cohn, whose
parents are getting a divorce in 21st-century California. Max has discovered an old vinyl record of
Zabbatini's greatest tricks and is sure the magician can perform a spell of eternal love to reunite his parents.
The plot thickens with the impending Holocaust that is likely to destroy Zabbatini. VERDICT How Moshe
survives to be discovered in his old age by Max and how a link is found between the Cohn family and the
Great Zabbatini turn this novel into a magic trick of its own. Bergmann's ability to create appealing, welldrawn
characters and tell a gripping story is impressive. [See Prepub Alert, 3/27/17; "Editors' Fall Picks," p.
34.]--Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Burton, Jeffrey B. The Eulogist Permanent. Oct. 2017.360p. ISBN 9781579625023. $29. F
FBI agent Drew Cady, recovering from injuries sustained during a case involving a serial killer, has been
transferred to Minneapolis where he's working in a Medicare fraud unit. He has also married a resort owner
and is enjoying the calmer life. But attending a conference in Washington, DC, he succumbs to his former
boss's plea for help. Sen. Taylor Brockman has been stabbed in the heart, killed in the same manner as a
drug addict he had pardoned a decade earlier as governor of Virginia. Drew and colleague Liz Preston
realize the connection also involves an international pharmaceutical company. When Liz is killed while
chasing a Canadian assassin, Drew must finish the case on his own, aided by a loner computer genius he's
tricked into helping him. VERDICT This third entry in Burton's "Drew Cady" series (after The Chessman
and The Lynchpin) is an action-packed thriller with a high body count. However, the assassin is more
intriguing than the hero, and the writing is marred by awkward explanations ofbureaucratic acronyms. Still,
the plot grabs readers from the start, twists abound, and good triumphs--mostly.--Roland Person, formerly
with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
*Diaz, Hernan. In the Distance. Coffee House. Oct. 2017. 272p. ISBN 9781566894883. pap. $16.95. F
DEBUT After immigrating to America from Sweden in the 1840s, young Hakan Soderstrom is separated
from his brother in New York and inadvertently boards a ship bound for California, arriving during the Gold
Rush. He befriends a family of Irish immigrants and join them in the goldfields until he is captured by
vigilantes, taken to a nearby town, and made a virtual prisoner. Hakan's escape begins many years of
adventures across the West. He first falls in with a naturalist who teaches him about science, then with a
group of settlers, killing religious zealots who attack their wagon train, becoming a legend-and a wanted
manacross the West. 'While set in the American West, trus is no conventional Western, as it turns the genre's
stereotypes upside down, taking place on a frontier as much mytruc as real with a main character traveling
east. In this world, American individualism becomes the isolation that is its shadow and the dream 'of
freedom devolves into anarchic violence. And while Hakan longs for community, he fmds rumself a
stranger everywhere. VERDICT Resonant historical fiction with a contemporary feel.--lawrence Rungren,
Andover, MA
*Dressier, M. The Last To See Me. Skyhorse. Sept. 2017. 272p. ISBN 9781510720671. $22.99; ebk. ISBN
9781510720688. F
In a picturesque village along the coast of Northern California, mysterious events are occurring, and a
professional ghost hunter is called in to purge the old Lambry estate of malevolent spirits and help secure
the sale of the cliffside property. But the ghost of Emma Rose Finnis, strong and relentless, has been lurking
for more than 100 years and is not ready to give up her secrets. As a child, Emma was a humble servant at
the estate. When she and one of the young Lambry men fell in love, the family saw to it that their
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relationship was crushed. Now the ghost hunter and the real estate agent must work together to expose
Emma Rose, but as they do, their own life stories begin to unravel. VERDICT In this rughly atmospheric
and beautifully crafted novel, the movements of the ghost of Emma Rose are both palpable and fascinating.
This latest from Dressler (The Deadwood Beetle) is spellbinding from page one.--Susanne Wells,
Indianapolis P.L.
Duenas, Maria. The Vineyard. Atria. Oct. 2017. 544p. tr. from Spanish by Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garcia.
ISBN 9781501124532. $26; ebk.ISBN 9781501124556. F
The author of The Heart Has Its Reasons and The Time in Between returns with this sweeping 19th centuryset
historical. The bold Mauro Larrea has worked his way up from the dire poverty of his early years in
Spain by becoming a miner and eventually a mine owner in Mexico. But now he stands to lose rus hardwon
fortune. Circumstances bring him to a desperate gamble in a wild game ofbilliards in Havana, Cuba,
winning him an abandoned house and vineyard back inJerez, Spain, where the sherry trade i just starting to
thrive. There Mauro meets the beautiful Soledad Montalvo, whose family previously owned the vineyard
before misfortune struck. We can see where this story is going, but there are many twists and tU1'l1S along
the way, as well as lots of lively characters, including a few villains, and vivid scenes from Mexico City,
Havana, and Jerez. VERDICT This sprawling fanlily saga is filled with romance, intrigue, adventure, and a
bit of melodrama. It's a leisurely yet always entertailling read that will appeal to lovers ofIsabel Allende's
Zarro. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/17.]--Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA
*Egan, Jennifer. Manhattan Beach. Scribner. Oct. 2017. 448p. ISBN 9781476716732. $28; ebk. ISBN
9781476716756. F
The latest from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Egan (A Visit from the Coon Squad) centers on the Brooklyn
Naval Yard during World War II. Anna Kerrigan lives with her mother and disabled sister, Lydia, her' father
having disappeared years earlier. She works measuring ship parts at the yard but longs to be a diver, doing
salvage and repair underwater. At fIrst by chance and later by design, she encounrers Dexter Styles, a
gangster who may know something about her father's disappearance. Along the way, Anna usually takes the
most reckless path, rarely considering the long-term consequences. The setting is rich and textured, and
unexpected turns of phrase, such as a male naval officer being described as petite, starile and delight. Egan
offers thrilling accounrs of shipwreck and of Anna's diving training, avoiding ITlOSt cliches in her
depictions of the criminal underworld inhabited by Dexter and Anna's f.lther, as well as the motivations and
conflicted loyalties that that life brings. VERDICT This large, ambitious novel shows Egan at the top of her
game. Anna is a true feminist heroine, and her grit and tenacity will make readers root for her. Highly
recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 4/19/17.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs.,
Minneapolis
Graham-Felsen, Sam. Green. Random. Jan. 2018. 320p. ISBN 9780399591143. $27; ebk. ISBN
9780399591150. F
DEBUT As a member of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign staff, GrahamFelsen helped articulate
Obama's message of empathy and cooperative change across social media outlets. Here, in his debut novel,
he weaves those tQemes into a story about two friends navigating adolescence across the racial divide.
Nicknamed Green, Dave is one of the few white lcids attending Martin Luther King Middle School in
Boston. His life is occupied with a daily struggle to fIt in, which extends from his clothing to his demeanor.
Through a shared admiration for Larry Bird and the Celtics, a black classmate named Marlon becomes one
of Dave's only friends and allies. Together, they manage the awkwardness of nliddle school under constant
pressure to succeed from parents, teachers, and the larger community. As Marlon and Dave f01'l11 their
own individual identities, however, their similarities slowly become eclipsed by their di fferences, from
family backgrounds to life goals. VERDICT Based on Graham-Felsen's childhood in Bos~ on in the 1990s,
this work poignantly captures the tumultuous feelings of adolescence against the historical backdrop of a
racially segregated city and country. [See Prepub Alert, 7/31/17; "Editors' Fall Picks," p. 35.]--Joshua
Finnell, Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY
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Harrison, Phil. The First Day. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2017. 224p. ISBN 9781328849663. $23; ebk. ISBN
9781328849670. F
DEBUT Belfast preacher Samuel Orr seems to embody the Gospels, with his honesty about his own failings
and struggles with faith. But he shatters his fanlliy and upends his community when he has an affair and
then a child with teacher Anna Stuart. The unexpected death of Samuel's wife devastate Philip, his eldest
son, whose despair feeds into resentment toward his father. Affection for his half-brother Sam and a fragile
friendship with Anna seem to afford Philip solace, but when he deliberately disfigures Sam, he slashes the
veneer of equilibrium achieved between Anna and his family.
Though Philip disappears, his crime defines Sam's life. Thirty-five years after the incident, Sam lives in
New York and runs into Philip. Their encounter sets in motion a suspenseful and ultimately violent series of
events that change both men and their father forever. VERDICT Screenwriter Harrison's absorbing debut
will surprise readers with its ingenious plot twists and nuanced characters. Though compared with the work
ofAlbert Camus and D.H. Lawrence, Harrison's cinematic first novel stands on its own.--John G. Matthews,
Washington State Univ. libs., Pullman
Hasbun, Rodrigo. Affections. S. & S. Sept. 2017. 144p. ISBN 9781501154799. $23; ebk. ISBN
9781501154812. F
One of Grantas, 22 Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists, Bolivian-born, Texas-based Hasbun makes
his Englishlanguage debut. In Part 1, set in the late 1950s, ex-Nazi filmmaker Hans Ertl moves with his
family to Bolivia and embarks on an expedition to unearth a lost Incan city in the Amazon jungle.
Accompanied by his two older daughters and two scientists, he finds some ruins but immolates their base
camp. Part 2 jumps ahead to the decade of the Marxist guerrilla warfare ravaging the country. Hans's wife
has died, and daughters Monika, Heidi, and Trixi have gone their separate ways. Most notably, the oldest,
Monika joins the Marxist Resistance with disastrous results. This relatively brief novel is split among seven
narrators (with the daughters' voices repeating), and the fast pacing and sparse narration mean a greater
focus on events than on development of the characters. The ironic title reflects the lack of real affection
among the characters, save perhaps for their quixotic causes. VERDICT Tracing the progress of two
generations of a dysfunctional Bolivian family set during a violent historical period, this novel captures
events in a country largely unfamiliar to most American readers. [See Prepub Alert, 3/13/17]--Lawrence
Olszewski, North Central State Coll., Mansfield, OH
Hayes-McCoy, Felicity. The Library at the Edge of the World. Harper. Nov. 2017. 368p. ISBN
9780062663726. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062663733. F
DEBUT The "edge of the world" is the southwestern coast of Ireland, on a fictional peninsula (think
Dingle). Librarian Hanna Casey, who has returned to her Irish hometown after discovering her English
husband's infidelity, drives the mobile library van among the villages of the Finfarran Peninsula. But all is
not sunshine in this beautiful, remote region. Developers and business interests plan to close the local
library, consolidating services distantly, further fragmenting the social interaction of the area's local
residents. When the plan is disclosed, Hanna finds herself leading the community's pushback. Nuns,
fishermen, senior citizens, young entrepreneurs, crusty curmudgeons, the local rich family recluse, and
library patrons band together to bolster their common purpose. VERDICT Making her fiction and U.S.
debut, the author of The House on an Irish Hillside delivers an appealing novel that will delight Maeve
Binchy fans. There are plenty of good discussion points about the nature of community for book clubs and
thoughtful readers.--Mary K. Bird-Guilliams, Chicago
*Hoffman, Alice. The Rules of Magic. S. & S. Oct. 2017. 384p.ISBN 9781501137471. $27.99; ebk.ISBN
9781501137495. F
Hoffman weaves a spell around the three Owens children--Franny, Jet, and Vincent--as she provides the
backstory to her best-selling Practical Magic. The family of witches has been cursed since the 17th century,
and as the Owens siblings come of age during 1960s, their second sight, magic potions, and other
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supernatural abilities are not enough to keep them from the danger of falling in love and seeing their
beloved die. How each deals with the consequences and learns to fight the curse by loving more, not less, is
the key to freedom from the spell and an instruction to readers. Hoffman deftly weaves in dramatic events
from the era, including the Vietnam War and protests against it, without sacrificing the fairy-tale feeling of
her story. VERDICT Admirers of Practical Magic and readers who enjoy a little magic mixed in with their
love stories and prefer to be kept at something of a remove from the grittiness of life's tragedies will relish
this book. [See Prepub Alert, 5/3/17.]--Sharon Mensing, Emerald Mountain School, Steamboat Springs, CO
Ide, Joe. Righteous: An IQ Novel. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Oct. 2017. 336p. ISBN 9780316267779. $26;
ebk. ISBN 9780316267762. F
Isaiah Quintabe,"IQ," the Sherlock Holmes of East Long Beach, CA, uses his inductive reasoning skills to
investigate crime and has taken payment in the form of live chickens and baked goods. His Achilles heel is
an obsessive need to know who drove the car that killed his brother Marcus a decade ago. When Marcus's
old girlfriend Sarita asks IQ to help extricate her sister from a crushing gambling debt in Vegas, he can't
refuse. He has always been in love with Sarita and envisions this case ushering in their new life together. IQ
once again enlists the help of Dodson (Watson to his Sherlock) who has a pregnant girlfriend and a day job
in an attempt to go legitimate. Dodson's witty banter and dynamic personal life provide a piercing contrast
to IQ's solitary and sterile existence, and the scenes between the two are notable in this brilliantly executed
novel. Deftly weaving the search for Marcus's killer with various escapades in Vegas, Ide employs a clever
mixing of time lines that will keep readers guessing until the explosive, bloody denouement. VERDICT A
winning combination of skillful writing and flawless pacing, this second series outing is packed with
adrenaline-inducing scenes along with a colorful cast of violent and treacherous villains. [See Prepub Alert,
4/10/17; "Editors' Fall Picks," p. 32.]--Amy Nolan, St. Joseph, MI
*Keneally, Thomas. Crimes of the Father. Atria. Oct. 2017. 352p. ISBN 9781501128486. $26; ebk. ISBN
9781501128509. F
Perhaps best known for the Booker Prizewinning Schindler's Ark, released here as Schindltr's List and later'
adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, Australian novelist Keneally's literary career spans six
prolific decades and more than 30 novels. This book harkens back to both a theme in his first novel, The
Place at Whitton, and to his career path before becoming a writer: the Catholic priesthood..The novel opens
with Father Frank Docherty in a cab, returning to his hometown ofSydney, Australia, to visit his elderly
mother after being sent to Canada for his outspoken views. A terse and confrontational conversation with
the cab driver uncovers a sexual abuse scandal centered on the church's revered defender, Monsignor Leo
Shannon. As Docherty identifies the victims and reveals the truth, he begins challenging a hierarchy and
power structure that has sanctified and defined his own existence. VERDICT Through the mind of his
aggrieved and conflicted protagonist, Keneally pens an unf1inching meditation on the ways in which
canonical scripture, sacred tradition, and human conscience often coalesce to distort basic moral truths. [See
Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]--Joshua Finnell, Colgate Univ., Hamilton, NY
King, Stephen & Owen King. Sleeping Beauties. Scribner. Sept. 2017.720p. ISBN 9781501163401. $32.50;
ebk. ISBN 9781501163425. F
Women worldwide are falling prey to an unusual sleeping sickness that shrouds them in a white cocoon.
Anyone who tries to interrupt their otherworldly slumber are killed, as the somnambulic women turn
murderous. In a small, economically depressed Appalachian town, Evie emerges half-naked from a trailer
park to smite an abusive drug dealer before she's arrested and put in the local women's prison just as the
outbreak reaches a fever pitch. While the males ponder a world without women, the enigmatic Evie remains
unaffected. Meanwhile, the sleeping women are in an alternate dimension, a near-postapocalyptic version of
their hometown. Following the renewed interest in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and an
increasing climate of wolf-whistle politics, this examination of gender stereotypes, systems of oppression,
and pervasive misogyny within American culture feels especially timely, though the exploration is centered
in a cisgender, fairly heteronormative experience. VERDICT Violent, subversive, and compulsively
readable, this latest novel from King (Mr. Mercedes), collaborating here with son Owen (Double Feature),
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derives more horror from its realistic depiction of violence against women than from the supernatural
elements.--Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal and Library Journal
Lee, Mira T. Everything Here Is Beautiful. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Jan. 2018. 368p. ISBN
9780735221963. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780735221987. F
DEBUT Sisters Miranda and Lucia grow up as first-generation Chinese Americans in a loving, singleparent
home. Older sister Miranda is stable and hardworking; Lucia is more unpredictable. During college,
she travels the world, living in hostels and teaching English, unable to settle in any one place. After their
mother battles cancer and dies, Lucia begins to act even more impetuously, marrying an older man and
moving to New York City. She leaves him suddenly and takes up with a young, Latino immigrant, and they
have a baby together before Lucia suffers a mental breakdown. When recovered, she and her family move
to her partner's village in Ecuador. While maintaining her own life in Switzerland, Miranda attempts to get
her sister the medical help she needs, efforts Lucia does not always appreciate. In the end, Lucia must
decide her own fate. VERDICT First novelist Lee's story of mental illness and its effects on Lucia and those
who love her alternates points of view from among various characters. The portrayal of sisterly love and its
limits is visceral. A solid choice for general fiction readers.--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs.,
Providence
McAfee, Annalena. Hame. Knopf. Sept. 2017. 592p. ISBN 9781524731724. $30; ebk. ISBN
9781524731731. F
In the wake of her failing marriage, Mhairi McPhail, armed with a book deal and her nine-year-old
daughter, sets out for the Scottish island of Fascaray to write a biography of Grigor McWatt, its most
famous son, and to establish a museum celebrating his life and works. A poet and tireless chronicler
ofisland life and Scottish history and politics, McWatt was best known for one small ballad, "Hame tae
Fascaray," which became something of a national anthem recorded by the likes of Bob Dylan and the Three
Tenors. In spite of her archival training and family connection to the island, Mhairi faces a formidable
challenge as she pores through McWatt's voluminous oeuvre and attempts to penetrate his fiercely guarded
private life. His relationship with the devoted Lilias Hogg was well documented, but there's still much to
discover about another woman, the elusive "Bonny" Jean. VERDICT If McWatt were a more compelling
character, or his story had a little more drama, it might have warranted McAfee's (The Spoiler) over-longish
treatment (complete with footnotes, glossaries, inventories and a bibliography). As it is, there is still
something to admire in this prodigiously imagined life. [See Prepub Alert, 3/13/17.]--Barbara Love,
formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.
*McGregor, Jon. Reservoir 13. Catapult. Oct. 2017. 336p. ISBN 9781936787708. pap. $16.95; ebk. ISBN
9781936787715. F
While on a winter vacation with her parents in a northern England village, a 13-year-old girl goes for a walk
on the moors alone and disappears. This event, plus the intrusive police investigation and fruitless search of
the area's multiple reservoirs and surrounding territory, shock the townspeople, lending the story its tense
tone. But the presumed crime remains unsolved, and though the teen is not forgotten, life goes on. As the
novel unfolds, an unrelenting accretion of declarative sentences describe the village residents, their local
traditions, the weather, the seasons, and even the wildlife, the narrative deftly getting us inside the lives of
the many characters, allowing us to understand their isolation and interdependence. Years slowly pass
within the tale yet go all too quickly--as in real life. McGregor's (This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens
to Someone Like You) writing is extraordinary, and while the narrative technique is initially wearing in the
way village life can be--the monotony, the knowledge of everybody's business--it coheres remarkably into a
knowable, comforting, ultimately compelling world. VERDICT This treatise on timelessness and human
nature was recently long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Highly recommended.--Reba Leiding, emeritus,
James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
Macmillan, Gilly. Odd Child Out Morrow. Oct. 2017.448p. ISBN 9780062697837. $25.99; pap. ISBN
9780062476821. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062476852. F
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*Macmillan's third novel (after What She Knew and The Perfect Girl) reveals the story of the friendship
between two 15-year-old boys and the issues each face through the police investigation into their
involvement in what appears to be a tragic accident. Noah Sadler, an only child from a privileged family, is
pulled from a canal with serious injuries while his Somali-born friend, Abdi Hasad, looks on. Brought in to
investigate the matter, Det. Jim Clemo finds that it may not have been an accident and, with social tensions
in Bristol already high and a reporter determined to use the story to ratchet them even higher, learning what
really happened becomes increasingly urgent. VERDICT With characters who are sympathetic and
believable, Macmillan's latest will keep readers in suspense to the very end. Highly recommended.--Lisa
0'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg
Mercier, Pascal. Lea. Grove. Sept. 2017. 304p. ISBN 9780802121660. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780802189301. F
Martijn van Vliet and Adrian Herzog meet accidentally in a cafe in Provence, France. Both have daughters,
both have lost their wives, and both are casting about for a reason to continue living. Martijn befriends
Adrian so he can tell him his story. His daughter Lea was lost in grief after her mother's death until she
hears a violin played in a train station. The performance captivates her, and she declares that she would
learn to play the violin. Her latent talent is revealed, sweeping her into a world of performance and practice.
Her father neglects his career to support her and remain close to her. But cracks begin to appear in her
mental stability, and her father, concerned for her welfare, carries out a daring and illegal plan to bring her
back from the brink of collapse. Mercier (Night Train to Lisbon) tells a heartbreaking story of a father's love
for his child. His two main characters emphasize the parallel lines in the lives of men and the differences
that make their experiences unique. VERDICT This tragedy, told in the style of Somerset Maugham, will
appeal to serious fiction readers.--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
*Namdar, Ruby. The Ruined House. Harper. Nov. 2017. 528p. tr. from Hebrew by Hillel Halkin. ISBN
9780062467492. $29.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062467508. F
Winner of the 2014 Sapir Prize, Israel's equivalent of the Man Booker Prize, this artfully translated work
features Andrew Cohen, a 52-year-old professor of cultural studies at New York University. Urbane and
sophisticated, the divorced Cohen lives a stylish, carefully curated existence on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan at the turn of the millennium. Though he considers himself a rational, secular, intellectual Jew,
with disdain for the garish religiosity of his ancestors, he begins experiencing strange visions involving the
ancient Temple in Jerusalem. This existential crisis takes on nightmarish qualities, as his hallucinations as
well as his daily encounters begin to offer incessant and tormenting glimpses of death and decay. As the
dated chapters move toward what the readers know will be a contemporary slaughter, the tension and horror
multiplies. VERDICT Though Cohen's relentless, inexorable decline can get a little repetitive, and the
conclusion feels somewhat anticlimactic, this is an imaginative and visionary work about one man's
spectacular mid-life crisis, framed by sacred texts and filled with poetic and portentous passages.
Reminiscent of the work of Nicole Krauss.--Lauren Gilbert, Sachem P.L., Holbrook, NY
Roberts, Paige. Virtually Perfect. Kensington. Sept. 2017. 352p. ISBN 9781496710093. pap. $15; ebk.
ISBN 9781496710109. F
DEBUT When her famous cooking show Healthy U is canceled, followed by her monthly magazine column
and cookbook deal, Lizzie Glass quickly becomes a hasbeen, leaving New York City and moving in with
her mother. But her Aunt Linda pulls some strings and lands Lizzie a summer job as a personal chef to her
boss's family, the wealthy Silvesters. From their outlandish beach house on the Jersey Shore to summer
parties that put celebrity shindigs to shame, the Silvesters are not ashamed to flaunt their luxurious lifestyle.
However, the more Lizzie learns about the family, in particular their daughter Zoe, the more she learns how
looks can be deceiving. Roberts's spot-on debut novel delves into the virtually perfect facade of an
internally imperfect family. The author also eloquently splashes.in a dash of humor, from scenes of an
overweight, overly tanned, and chauvinistic family friend who ends up drunk in the ER, to an Eagle ice
sculpture with an oversight. VERDICT Readers who enjoy novels with cooking themes will laugh and
commiserate with Lizzie as she sweats her way through a summer of gourmet requests, grandiose demands,
and secrets she learns about almost too late.--Erin Holt, Williamson ety. P.L., Franklin, TN
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*Scott, Sophfronia. Unforgivable Love: ARetelling of Dangerous Liaisons. Morrow. Sept. 2017. 544p.
ISBN 9780062655653. pap. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062655677. F
Scott (All I Need To Get By) reimagines Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 18th-century French classic Les
Liaisons dangereuses setting it in 1930s Harlem. The manipulative Marquise de Merteuil is played here by
Mae Malveaux, an heires used to getting her way. The unprincipled Vicomte de Valmont is Valiant Jackson,
who could have any woman, but Mae is the one he desperately wishes to possess. Much to his chagrin, Mae
poses a bargain ofsorts: to seduce her innocent cousin Cecily and ruin her engagement' with Frank
Washington. As a reward, Mae promises Jackson that she will spend a night with him. ButJackson has plans
of his own: to entice the married, church-going Elizabeth Townsend. Her faith in his good character will be
Elizabeth's downfall. VERDICT Readers of classic and historical fiction will find this fresh retelling a
fascinating read.--Adriana Delgado, Palm Beach Cty. Lib., Loxahatchee, FL
*Thien, Madeleine. Dogs at the Perimeter. Norton. Oct. 2017. 272p. ISBN 9780393354300. pap. $15.95;
ebk. ISBN 9780393354317. F
Mei, a Cambodian war refugee from Phnom Penh, relates a harrowing story of genocide under the rule of
the Khmer Rouge regime. She and her family are torn apart as they are thrust into this reign of terror.
Family members "disappear"; food, housing, and medicinal supplies are scarce, making life a daily struggle
for survival; and everyone lives in constant fear. Escaping to Canada, Mei becomes Janie, changing her
name in a desperate act to start a new life. In stream-of-consciousness style, Canadian author Thien offers a
perceptive look into a truly nightmarish world, effectively capturing the essence of someone suffering from
prolonged posttraumatic stress. Janie's need for family, memories, and fulfillment ofher desi res have been
superseded by a crushing, despotic regime that kills not only people but souls. VERDICT First published in
Canada in 2011 and released here after the success ofDo Not Say We Halle Nothing, which was short-listed
for the Man Booker Prize, this second novel by Thien is a moving, powerful, beautifully written study that
illuminatesJanie's reality. An important addition to the canon ofdiaspora and refugee literature.-Lisa
Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L.,OH
*Todd, Jack. Rose & Poe. ECW. Oct. 2017. 248p. ISBN 9781770413993. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN
9781773051017. F
Todd's innovative novel (after Rain Falls Like Mercy) is loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest but
can be appreciated by those unfamiliar with the play. Instead of a magical island, the story takes place in
isolated Belle Coeur Valley. Prospero Thorne has been forced from his law practice by partner Anthony
Coyle; his daughter, Miranda, attends Harvard Law School but returns during breaks to the valley people
she's loved and known since childhood. Such a friend is Poe Didelot. This giant, simple man lives with his
protective mother, Rose, tends his small herd of goats, and meticulously builds a magnificent stone wall for
Thorne. Enter Sebastian Coyle, the son of Thorne's former partner, who befriends Miranda. She foolishly
thinks they can bring the families together. Instead, Sebastian assaults her, leaving the country to avoid
justice, and Sheriff Dunn reluctantly arrests Poe because he was found at the scene. After the trial verdict, a
fierce rainstorm floods the area, which Thorne is convinced he has caused. VERDICT Todd offers
fascinating embellishments to Shakespeare's story, and as elements of magic filter through this modern
retelling, his own plans for his characters shine through. Ultimately upbeat, this story stands on its own and
is splendid from start to finish.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO
Westbrook, William. The Bermuda Privateer. McBooks. Sept. 2017. 328p. ISBN 9781590137444. $22.95. F
DEBUT In the late 1700s, the wry and often contemplative Capt. Nicholas Fallon commands The Sea Dog,
a privateer schooner that protects his employer's lucrative salt trade in the Caribbean. With first mate and
longtilne childhood friend Beauty McFarland, he tangles with the notorious pirate Wicked Jak Clayton,
which begins the adventure of a lifetime. From heated sea battles to falling in love, Westbrook's novel
details the peril of maritime life in the 18th century as empires sparred for trade and riches. While this title
will satisfY nautical fiction enthusiasts, it doesn't belabor historical minutiae and terminology but
seamlessly weaves those details into the story line while jumping right into the action. Westbrook's captain
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and crew are the embodiment offriendship, courage, and allegiance on the high seas. VERDICT Full of
adventure and intrigue, this first novel will be a solid entry point to a compelling series in the making. A
strong choice for Patrick O'Brian fans.--Ron Samul, New London, CT
*Whittall, Zoe. The Best Kind of People. Ballantine. Sept. 2017. 448p.ISBN 9780399182211. $28; ebk.
ISBN 9780399182228. F
Accusations ofsex crimes with students send local hero and former teacher of the year George Woodbury
and his family into a spiral of disruption and psychological damage that changes their lives forever. The
wealthy Woodburys, pillars of the community, are rocked to the core, as no one truly knows whether
George is innocent or guilty. His wife, Joan, stumbles through denial, anger, rage, and finally a degree
ofacceptance with the help of her work as a trauma nurse, her therapist, and a support group. Daughter
Sadie, 17, escapes to her boyfriend's house, where she numbs her pain with marijuana and lots ofsex. Older
son Andrew struggles to support his father while reliving the ostracism he suffered when he came out as gay
in their small, close-knit community. Whittall's writing is so strong and heartfelt that readers will wonder
how such a young writer is able to offer this depth of emotion and psychological insight. This Giller Prize
finalist is the Canadian author's first work to be published in the United States. VERDICT Sure to provoke
debate and send book discussion groups into overtime.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH
SHORT STORIES
Bae Suah. North Station. Open Letter. Oct. 2017. 320p. tr. from Korean by Deborah Smith. ISBN
9781940953656. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN 9781940953700. F
One word describes Bae's latest: enigmatic. The seven stories that comprise her first translated-into-English
collection (and her third collaboration with prolifically adroit British translator of choice Smith) are more
fragments than linear narratives. In the opening "First Snow, First Sight," unreliable memory between two
people separated for eight years is di sected and reconstructed. "Owl" conflates books, stories, and dreams.
The title story features a couple longing to stop tinle to avoid parting. "The Non-Being of the Owl" is a
meditation on death, while "MollSon" discusses travel and encounters along the way. Representation and
identity are examined in "Dignified Kiss of Paris Streets," the title of a photograph that in fact depicts the
narrator's respiratory system. Even more than her novels (Recitation; A Greater Music), Bae's short works
den1.and deliberate attention as her words and sentences diverge, detour, elide, and suddenly (sometimes)
resume an abandoned narrative path. VERDICT Intrepid readers ready for a labyrinthine literary challengethink
Borges, Kafka, Faulkner-will enjoy deciphering Bae's quizzical, uncommon stories.--Terry Hong,
Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
*Eugenides, Jeffrey. Fresh Complaint. Farrar. Oct. 2017. 304p. ISBN 9780374203061. $27; ebk. ISBN
9780374717384. F
Among our most highly regarded contemporary writers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Eugenides (Middlesex;
The Marriage Plot) offers his first collection of short fiction. Not unexpectedly, the work is superb, but
perhaps most noteworthy is the compassion and generosity of spirit that informs it. Notable also is
Eugenides's ongoing focus on the fluid riature of personal identity and the transitional moments in our lives
when we must grapple with who we are, who we wish to be, and who we find ourselves becoming. The title
story is a disturbing portrait of a 16-year-old Indian American woman who goes to extraordinary lengths to
avoid an arranged marriage. "Find the Bad Guy" is a humorous story about a divorced husband and father
who is irresistibly drawn back to his home and family despite a temporary restraining order. "Complainers"
tells a beautiful, heartbreaking story about the end ofa 40-year friendship. These stories skillfully explore
the often elusive quest for happiness and self-knowledge, along with the many complexities that atend
relationships with family, friends, and lovers. VERDICT Es ential for all fans ofliterary fiction. [See Prepub
Alert, 4/24/17.]--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coli., CT
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
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"Fiction." Library Journal, 1 Sept. 2017, p. 101+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504090942/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=19d89fc0.
Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504090942
Two sisters, bound by love and mental illness, in 'Beautiful' debut novel
Steph Cha, Special to USA TODAY Published 1:43 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2018 | Updated 7:28 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2018
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(Photo: Pamela Dorman/Viking)
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No man is an island, as the poet says. To be human is to bond, and to bond is to share — happiness and plenty, but also hardship and misery. We are all at the mercy of the people we love, whatever misfortunes they meet or bring upon themselves.
That’s the power of family, awful and wonderful, and this power ripples through the pages of Mira T. Lee’s extraordinary debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 368 pp., ★★★½ out of four). If you love anyone at all, this book is going to get you.
Lucia Bok is a magnetic woman who approaches life with a sparkling grandiosity, childlike and impulsive. Born and raised in America, the second daughter of a Chinese immigrant single mother, she departs from the more conventional path of her older, more responsible sister, Miranda.
After spending her early 20s indulging her wanderlust in Latin America — “Those days were forever, life pouring into me all thick and spicy and I was bottomless. It’s like this, I think, to be happy” — Lucia falls in love with Yonah, a middle-age, semi-illiterate, one-armed, huge-hearted Russian Jewish immigrant who owns a health food store in New York’s East Village.
Within the first 10 pages, Lucia and Miranda have lost their mother to cancer, and Lucia has married Yonah at City Hall, Miranda their only witness. Not long after the wedding, Lucia starts losing her grip on reality — an episode of the incurable mental illness that will plague her adult life. Yonah and Miranda clash over her treatment, but are united as family in their love for Lucia. “Our mother might’ve said this,” notes Miranda. “That immigrants are the strongest, that we leave our homes behind and rebuild. Everywhere we go, we rebuild.”
Author Mira T. Lee.
Author Mira T. Lee. (Photo: Liz Linder)
When Lucia decides she wants a baby, she leaves her unwilling husband and meets Manuel, a younger man from Ecuador, and moves into the house he shares with 10 other immigrants. She becomes pregnant, and Manny becomes family, tied to Lucia and her illness through their daughter and his stolid sense of duty.
Lucia moves frequently: from home to hospital, from country to country; sometimes with family, sometimes alone. She battles her illness while trying to be a good mother, to live a fulfilling life.
Meanwhile, Miranda builds her own life in Switzerland. The sisters find bitterness and distance between them, even as Miranda remains on call, ready to fly across the world to make Lucia take her pills, in constant fear that “the line between her sister and the illness was becoming irrevocably blurred.”
The novel covers decades at a swift clip, but it never feels rushed or lightly explored. There’s a lifelike texture to the fast passage of time, each relationship painted with deep, efficient strokes. Lee is a cogent, controlled writer, hitting big themes — immigration, mental illness, romance, family — while avoiding the usual traps of mawkishness and emotional manipulation. (The one misstep being the neat little epilogue.)
“This is not some fairy tale,” says Miranda. “Things don’t turn out okay just because you want them to.” Everything Here Is Beautiful is no fairy tale. It springs from the rich mess of love and pain and humanity, the restlessness of real life that ensures nothing is fixed ever after.
—————
Steph Cha is author of the Juniper Song mysteries.
From real-life political thrillers, juicy memoirs and the life of our American Princess, here’s a sneak peek at the some of the most anticipated books of 2018. Wochit-All
BOOK REVIEW
A shattering debut about mental illness and the bond between sisters
0
ANNA PARINI/THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Caroline Leavitt GLOBE CORRESPONDENT FEBRUARY 02, 2018
Sisterly ties take on brilliant nuance in Mira T. Lee’s shattering debut about love, loss, psychosis, and what we owe ourselves and the family we love. “Everything Here Is Beautiful’’ focuses on everything that is most definitely not, from the dangers facing illegal immigrants in America to the relentless poverty in Ecuador, to the punishing scorch of mental disorders.
Older by seven years, Chinese-American Miranda has always protected her quirky and brilliant baby sister, Lucia. But after their mother’s death, fault lines begin to quake. In college, Lucia starts to hear voices, requiring her to reluctantly take medication. Of course, Miranda is there for her, caretaking as usual. (“That’s not her. That’s her illness,” Miranda says defensively.) But Lucia’s mental state roller-coasters, with intermittent peaks of hope that quickly plunge to despair. Lucia, when relatively well, is able to regroup and write feature articles for a newspaper in Queens and to even have a relationship, marrying Yonah, a deeply loving Russian Jew who knows only that Lucia is perfect for him. Believing her sister is in good hands, a relieved Miranda finds her own lover and moves to Switzerland to finally live her own life. But can she? Or will her love and loyalty for her sister always be pulling her back?
Lucia soon begins to hear voices again, and Yonah calls Miranda back to America to help. But over and over in this exquisite novel, we see the rubble that mental illness can leave in its wake. Lucia wants a job, a child, and refuses to be stopped in her attempt to get them. Yonah is long-divorced, already has two children in Israel, and, in his mid-40s, struggles physically and financially. He tells her more children would be too much for him.
She moves in with another outsider, Manuel, a doting Latino immigrant without a green card who hopes Lucia might marry him so he can bring family to America. Instead, Lucia has a gorgeous little girl, Esperanza, and moves back to Ecuador with Manuel. But jobless, hopeless, confined to boring and lonely farm work, Lucia founders. Desperate to escape and find a future she can live in, she turns, as always, to her sister, and to a person from her past, with wrenching results.
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As beautifully written as it is bleak, the book is told from the alternating points of view of Lucia, Miranda, Yonah, and Manuel, but therein is a prominent fault.
From the outset, we hear about Lucia primarily from Miranda’s point of view, even as Miranda can no longer decipher what is happening in Lucia’s head or know what her motivations might be. We don’t truly get to know Lucia until halfway through the book, when Lee lets her speak and tell her own story, and then the novel roars alive and lets us experience Lucia’s illness right along with her. Palpable with longing and grief, Lucia then becomes heroic in grappling with a relentless disease, and we come to understand why she might hate her sister as well as love her — and why her sister might do the same.
Lee’s portrait of schizophrenia is compassionate and harrowing. “When Esperanza was born, a pair of serpents lived in my head,” Lucia says, and those snakes comment on her every action. She calls out “the crescendoing voice, buzzing of mosquitoes, everything too loud, too many words, and she covers her ears to stem the drain of energy from her head, because this is what they want: to drain her, to muzzle her, to take away her power, her feelings, her desires, her will, to shut her up and stuff her into a shoe box and stick it on a high shelf, where she will sit and sit and gather dust quietly like the mental patients of yore.”
Most movingly, Lucia knows how she affects her baby. Though schizophrenia makes her believe Esperanza is communicating with her telepathically, she also is painfully aware of the cost. After being locked up for 40 days in a hospital ward, she realizes with great pain, “I missed my baby’s first laugh, first solid foods, first tooth.”
With expert grace and compassion, Lee moves her cast of characters through the years, ending with 10-year-old Esperanza and a soupçon of hope. “[L]ove is everything,” Lucia says, and in this blistering novel about the persistence of bonds despite tragedy, readers can’t help but feel that Lucia just might be right.
EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL
By Mira T. Lee
Viking, 360 pp., $26
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Caroline Leavitt’s latest novel is “Cruel Beautiful World.’’
EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL
by Mira T. Lee (Jan. 16)
This debut novel is rooted in the relationship between two sisters, exploring the way love turns into duty when mental illness strikes in a family. Lucia stops sleeping, she laughs in the shower all night, she hears voices. After leaving her husband, she has a baby with a Latino immigrant and briefly moves from the U.S. to Ecuador. Older sister Miranda returns to her erstwhile role—the protector trying to save her younger sibling, who suffers from a mental disorder that doctors can’t diagnose. “The policeman said when they found her, she was calling for a young girl to come down from a tree,” Ms. Lee writes, recounting one of Lucia’s episodes. “‘Please, Miss,’ said the policeman. ‘Pardon, Señorita. Do you speak English?’ She turned to the policeman and said, ‘Excuse me, sir, I speak Cyberspace.’ And then she screamed and screamed.”
Read an excerpt from “Everything Here Is Beautiful.”
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Mira Lee’s ‘Everything Here Is Beautiful’ tells of two sisters and a legacy of mental illness
Originally published January 28, 2018 at 7:00 am
Lee’s impressive debut depicts the way mental illness shapes family dynamics.
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By Ellen Emry Heltzel
Special to The Seattle Times
“Everything Here Is Beautiful”
by Mira Lee
Viking, 360 pp., $26
Mira T. Lee’s impressive debut novel, “Everything Here Is Beautiful,” is a tale of two sisters who, each in her own way, is victim of the same disease. That disease is mental illness, and it forms the yin to the yang of the book’s title because, doubtful though it may sound, Lee’s story is not the heavy lift you might expect it to be.
The two sisters at the heart of this book are daughters of a Chinese immigrant who came to America as a poor widow and ended up building a decent life for herself in New Jersey. Miranda, her older child, follows her mother’s suit: She’s as steady and solemn as a ship cruising calm seas. But Lucia, the younger, speeds through life’s waters with abandon. The hint of their dead father’s mental problems lingers in the background.
As might be expected, Miranda becomes the one with a good career and steady marriage to Stefan, a Swiss doctor. She’s so rigidly focused, in fact, that when Lucia asks her, “Do you believe in happily ever after?,” the younger sister answers her own question with a sigh, adding, “You could at least try to believe.”
For better but increasingly ill, Lucia displays enough imagination for both of them. She marries Yonah, a one-armed Israeli shopkeeper who runs a health-food store in Lower Manhattan. She leaves him to have a baby with Manny, an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador. Meanwhile, her free spirit increasingly totters on the erratic, putting her on the spectrum between bipolar and schizophrenic.
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With the birth of her daughter, Esperanza (meaning “hope”), she slides into full-blown depression and delusions. She’s hospitalized, but now, with a baby in her care, the threat of losing Esperanza looms. Yonah is in the rearview mirror, and Manny’s undocumented status makes him a poor advocate. So, true to form, it’s Big Sister to the rescue.
This is the pattern that frames the story but, fortunately, doesn’t define it, because the relationship between the two sisters has devolved into its own dysfunctional form. Miranda’s way of looking at the world carries a whiff of Nurse Ratched: She’s all about getting her sister to take her pills. But, then, what do you expect from someone stuck in the role of perpetual watchdog? Even after Lucia moves to Ecuador, Miranda is the one who takes the call when her sister loses touch with reality.
It’s to Lee’s credit that she divides her sympathies between Lucia and those who care about her. Yes, her book is about the bond between two sisters, as indicated on its cover. But its real achievement goes beyond that relationship and depicts the way mental illness shapes family dynamics no matter how that bond is formed. Manny and Yonah count, too.
Lee seems to understand her subject matter firsthand, as indicated by her acknowledgments and her book’s dedication to “the families,” where she writes, “Let us be humble in the knowledge that one may never fully understand the interior lives of others — but let us continue to care.”
“Everything Here Is Beautiful” finds the sweet spot between the truth and beauty of a disease that can inspire hope in the midst of sadness and frustration.
Ellen Emry Heltzel is a Portland book critic.
Book Review: Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Classifying Mira T. Lee’s energetic debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, as a story about sisterhood is inadequate at best and misleading at worst. The novel involves a sisterly relationship, certainly, as two of the narrating characters are sisters, but the fabric of the novel isn’t primarily of one color. It weaves in several Big Themes: immigration in America, mental illness, romantic love, motherhood. However, in practice, it’s a satisfying, surprising, multifaceted novel, not easily summed up by its themes.
Appropriately, the prose is narrated by a variety of entities. These include two sisters, Miranda and Lucia, who were brought to America in childhood by their Chinese mother and who bounce from New England to South America and Europe seeking home; Lucia’s Ecuadorian lover, Manuel; and her Russian husband, Yonah. Two sections are seemingly narrated, in third-person omniscient, by locations: Crote Six (a psychiatric ward) and Meyer, Minnesota (a small town). The primary characters are Manuel, a quiet and hardworking man who cannot help but disappoint anyone out of sync with his traditional perspective, and Lucia, a complex woman with a strong will, exceptional charisma, and a difficult-to-manage mental illness. She is extremely eloquent about her own illness:
In Crote Six, they said I “suffer” from schizoaffective disorder. That’s like the sampler plate of diagnoses, Best of Everything.
But I don’t want to suffer. I want to live.
Miranda, whose narrative voice begins and ends the novel, feels as if she is clear to Lee but never quite comes into focus for the reader, particularly in the novel’s second half. Her job is unspecified, her motivations murky. The repetitive descriptions of the landscape surrounding Miranda begin to seem as if they’re standing in for characterization.
Repetition otherwise serves the novel, if in unexpected ways. The jointed, episodic way in which Lee tells the tale finds a binding glue in certain repeated motifs, such as the song “Dem Bones,” which is sung from character to character, progressing up from toe bone to head bone, throughout. Lucia notices a spiderweb as a child in the prologue, and then she notices another at a climactic moment in her adult life. There are no major characters of white European descent in the novel, and almost no minor characters who are white, either, to the point where this almost feels like a playful constraint. Instead, the book is jammed with immigrants of all stripes, all with positive characterizations. As Miranda puts it: “Our mother might’ve said this: that immigrants are the strongest, that we leave our homes behind and rebuild. Everywhere we go, we rebuild.”
Immigration to the United States, and the many forms this can take—from fully legal business owners to those living cash-only in constant fear of discovery—is a strong undercurrent of Everything Here is Beautiful. It’s a quiet callout to our difficult political moment. These are immigrants living their lives, not objects of speechifying, and Lee draws them as human, struggling, unlike one another but invisibly bound. Integrating into American society proves difficult for some and impossible for others, but the tension of one culture pulling against another is ever-present. Lucia, in a remembered conversation with her mother, demonstrates this tension:
But were you happy?
Happy? Aiya, Xiao-mei, you want too much, don’t be greedy. This is too much American.
But you came here to be an American, Ma.
The primary sensation of the novel, especially at first, is that of a short story. The events and emotions are so compressed, conveyed with such buzzing urgency, that it hardly feels as if the reader must settle in for a few hundred pages in order to get to the end of the story. This sensation persists throughout; it doesn’t feel like a novel in stories, like Olive Kitteridge, but instead as if the saga of these characters is episodic, told in installments. Like the telenovelas some of the characters watch: one long story told in breathless segments. For example, Lucia’s marriage to Yonah is the central story of the book’s first forty pages, but then the marriage is over, and the book goes on. The fifty-page section “narrated” by Crote Six is about one of Lucia’s psychiatric commitments, and it has its own arc, its own integrity. Although it’s disorienting at first to feel certain that the story will end in a dozen pages, even though there’s obviously much more of the book left, it becomes clear that Lee knows what she’s doing, and that she’s guiding the reader according to her own lights instead of the guidelines set forth by Harold Bloom. She’s proceeding primarily as a storyteller, and so the product isn’t always tidy or parallel and the characterization can be a bit ragged, but the listener will continue to lean in a little closer, hour after hour.
This novel could have been another assembly-line debut in a publishing landscape full of them, and instead, it feels like something truly original. Mira T. Lee’s voice is not reassuring or simple; it is alive, worthy of pursuit and concentration. The sprawling structure of her novel reveals a sly interest in pairs—two sisters, two husbands, two pregnancies, two deaths—to contrast with literature’s common interest in sets of three. The unlikeliness of the novel’s events, each one presented with supreme authorial confidence, recalls Ann Patchett, except the style is jolted upward by several thousand volts. Everything Here is Beautiful is a novel to savor, and Mira T. Lee is a novelist to watch.
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books/Viking
Publication date: January 16, 2018
Reviewed by Katharine Coldiron
Book Review in Fiction
Everything Here Is Beautiful: A Novel
By Mira T. Lee Pamela Dorman Books 368 pp.
Reviewed by Alice Stephens
January 9, 2018
A tender portrayal of the effects of mental illness on a woman and the people who love her.
Too often, the mentally ill are portrayed in literature as evil villains bent upon bringing unspeakable harm to unsuspecting, rational people. Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, counters that harmful stereotype with her sensitive portrayal of Lucia, a vivacious, intelligent, and creative woman afflicted with an illness about whose diagnosis “doctors could never agree, whether it was schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or something on the spectrum in between.”
Lucia’s condition takes a terrible toll on those who love her, especially her older sister, Miranda, who becomes her caretaker after their mother dies of lung cancer. Their father died shortly before Miranda and her mother, pregnant with Lucia, emigrated to the United States from China.
The story begins when Lucia marries “a one-armed Russian Jew” named Yonah. They have a happy life running a health-food store in the East Village in New York. But gradually, Lucia, who has already been hospitalized once, slips into a psychotic episode.
Yonah doesn’t trust doctors and hospitals, believing that they — and not Lucia’s mental illness — are the problem. Determined to have a baby, Lucia moves out, but soon ends up hospitalized against her will. Miranda moves to Switzerland with her boyfriend, whom she later marries. Lucia becomes housemates with a group of undocumented Ecuadoreans, then gets pregnant by one of them, a sexy young thing named Manuel.
And that’s just the first chapter.
The story sprawls out from there. While Lee’s prose is unfailingly lovely and compelling, the distractions to the main story accumulate. The narrative not only seeks to encompass the devastating effects of mental illness, but also the immigrant experience, both legal and illegal; parenthood; sisterhood; expatriate life in Switzerland and Ecuador; infidelity; cancer; family secrets; and the challenges of the working mother.
Presumably, the author’s intent in providing such a richly detailed narrative is to show that mental illness does not define a person. But the reader doesn’t want the backstory and peripheral dramas of every person who Lucia encounters. We don’t need to know that the young clerk at the grocery store gets a hard-on when he rings up two sticks of butter for Lucia, or the particulars of a minor friend’s postpartum depression and divorce.
The narration alternates among Miranda, Manuel, Lucia, and Yonah, sometimes in the first person and sometimes in the third. A stay in the mental ward is told by a chorus of voices, including various members of the hospital staff.
Lee captures each distinct voice perfectly, down to Yonah’s Russian accent and the lack of nuance in Manuel’s thoughts. But the profusion of narrators and their competing accounts diffuses rather than magnifies the plot.
The story is at its strongest when it sticks with Lucia and Manuel, describing the life they share first in a small town on the Hudson River and then in a tiny hamlet in Ecuador, where they raise their daughter in primitive conditions under the prying eyes of Manuel’s large, tight-knit family.
Lucia struggles to fulfill her maternal obligations, adjust to a much slower pace of life, be true to her journalism career, and maintain her mental health, while Manuel endures the disapproval of his extended family for his strange “chinita” wife, spies on Lucia to make sure she is taking her pills, and has sex with a bevy of young women.
Everyone involved in Lucia’s life wants to do the right thing for her, but there is no magic cure for mental illness. The pills have debilitating side effects, and Lucia would prefer not to take them. Miranda and Manuel live in fear that she will stop, constantly watching for signs of an impending psychotic episode.
Lucia resents their vigilance and their constant admonitions for her to take care of herself. “Pills, pills, pills. Always the pills. The pills like a leash around her neck and everyone with a hand to pull.”
When Lucia seems on the verge of another breakdown, both Miranda and Manuel realize that they have come to find it “impossible to distinguish which parts of Lucia fell under her own jurisdiction and which belonged to her illness.” Is Lucia acting erratically because she hasn’t been taking her meds, or is it just Lucia being her adventurous, inquisitive, free-spirited self?
With this tender, beautifully written novel, Mira Lee seeks to erase the stigma of mental illness by portraying it as a debilitating malady whose sufferers should be treated with the same dignity and sympathy as any other victim of a chronic illness.
Alice Stephens writes a regular column for the Independent, Alice in Wordland. She is leading a workshop on “How to Write a Book Review That’s Not Boring” at The Writer’s Center from Jan. 25 to Feb. 22, 2018.
Book Review
Review: Everything Here Is Beautiful
Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee (Pamela Dorman/Viking, $26 hardcover, 368p., 9780735221963, January 16, 2018)
An expansion of a short story published in the Missouri Review, Mira T. Lee's debut novel, Everything Here Is Beautiful, explores the relationship between two sisters, the eldest committed to protecting her spontaneous, joyful but mentally unstable sibling.
Miranda Bok remembers coming to the United States from China with her pregnant mother, starting over in a new country without Miranda's father, who died before he could join them. Her mother always expected Miranda to look after Lucia, her seven-years-younger sister. Now grown women, their mother's death a fresh wound, the sisters try to cope with adulthood, but Lucia struggles. First, she surprises Miranda by marrying Yonah, a one-armed, functionally illiterate Russian-Israeli Jew who seems too coarse and ignorant for her sister. Nevertheless, Miranda comes to appreciate Yonah's kindness and sense of family when they become partners in caring for Lucia after the resurgence of a mental illness that plagued her in college.
Following a failed hospitalization, Lucia leaves Yonah, who does not want children, to have a baby with Manny, a young Ecuadorian immigrant. In the years that follow, Miranda tries to maintain her own carefully orchestrated life with her husband in Switzerland, while keeping a watchful eye over Lucia through Manny. Spread across the world, the family struggles to find beauty amid the chaos wrought by Lucia's episodes of mental illness and impulsiveness, sometimes related, always difficult to separate.
Miranda and Lucia's lives span multiple countries and cultures, including rural Ecuador, the close-knit immigrant communities of New York City and echoes of their family's ancestral homeland, China. Lucia's free-spirited personality and determination to achieve her dreams pulls the reader in, despite the constantly shifting compass of those dreams. One of several narrators, Miranda has the fullest picture of her sister's history and illness. Manny's baffled attempts to deal with Lucia's postpartum depression mature into an anxiety that she will stop taking her meds. Lee's choice to tell part of their early relationship from his point of view makes him equally sympathetic during its troubles. While Lucia's diagnosis varies by episode from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder, the specifics of the illness are beside the point here. Lee's spotlight illuminates the stress mental illness places on families, the difficulties of navigating the healthcare system--though the United States' proves better than Ecuador's--and the resilience of family, whether formed by blood or by love. Like Miriam Toews's All My Puny Sorrows, Everything Here Is Beautiful is filled with unexpected, fragile moments of beauty. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: A free-spirited Chinese American journalist struggles with mental illness while her sister, lover and ex-husband try to support her.