Our Missing Hearts

What’s it about?

This story is set sometime in the future.  Bird is twelve-years-old and lives with his father in an old dorm room on Harvard’s campus.  Three years ago Bird’s mother left, but Bird never really understood why.  He vaguely correlates it to “the crisis” that America went through. Bird and his father moved into this old dormroom after his mother left.  Now that Bird is older he is beginning to see clues about his mother in the most unexpected places.

What did it make me think about?

For some reason the themes in this novel reminded me of a book of historical fiction that I read a long time ago, “Stones from the River” by Ursula Hegi.  The idea that fear can permeate into a society so deeply.  That a whole community would be afraid to speak out against authority.  That we can all quietly watch atrocities hoping to protect those we love.  Celeste Ng’s book may not be as purely imaginary as we would like to think….

Should I read it?

Authoritarianism is “the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom”.  This story is all about what authoritarianism can breed.  This is a thought provoking novel that I am sure will be a favorite among book clubs this year.  Lots to think about and lots to talk about.

Quote-

” I just don’t want anything to happen to you, if you keep pushing this, Michelle said.  Or to Lev. And most of all to Sadie.

Sadie’s mother took a long slow sip.  The coffee had gone cold.

What makes you think, she said finally, that any of us will be safe if I don’t?

It was just a few weeks later that they’d come for Sadie.”