Monday, July 9, 2018

Little Fires Everywhere - Page 69

She had, in short, done everything right and she had built a good life, the kind of life she wanted, the kind of life everyone wanted. Now here was this Mia, a completely different kind of woman leading a completely different life, who seemed to make her own rules with no apologies. . . . Mrs. Richardson found this peturbing but strangely compelling. A part of her wanted to study Mia like an anthropologist, to understand why -- and how -- she did what she did. Another part of her -- though she was only vaguely aware of it at the moment -- was uneasy, wanted to keep an eye on Mia, as you might keep your eye on a dangerous beast.
This passage sings, not only with the language, but with the progression through the emotions. We go from the the deliberate, built-up perfection and satisfaction of Mrs. Richardson's life, laid out like a lego construction in the passage just before this one, to the wariness and sense of impending danger that  Mrs. Richardson experiences Mia to be, simply for choosing to live differently, for living "with no apologies." This is rich and the sense of cultural differences being so deep as to be anthropological resonate throughout the work so far.