Big Little Lies (大小谎言)

This book was recommended by my friend. She just finished watching the mini TV serial and she loved it. She said she run into a bookshop and flipped through the pages trying to find out who was murdered and who is the murderer.

As soon as I got a copy from the library, I just can't wait to read it. The story begin well with an elderly lady, who loves to talk to her cat (I have the same habit of talking to my cat), aware of something unusual happened in the school hall during the Trivia Night. Story rolls on and we know someone died, very likely being murdered, and there is a detective talking to parents trying to find out what has happened.

My advice to you is, refrain from checking the last chapter to find out "The Truth". You will miss all the fun parts and apart from that, you won't know what has happened even you you check the last 3 or 5 chapters. It is a complex story with so many mystery and lies, all will be revealed gradually.

I don't want to be a spoiler so I am not going to talk about the story itself. The things I like is the style of the novel: humorous but not too hilarious, rebellious, inspiring and makes you question yourself and think! All the trivial incidents are actually important--the day to day chores, personal frustration, and even fake communication, are actually affect us all and will lead to a consequence.

It is very easy to hate someone. Stay-at-home mums vs working mums, rich vs poor, beauty vs people with ordinary look, single vs married, family with kids vs childless couples vs single mothers vs such and such. Rationally we know we are all the same but we are easy to feel annoy with someone not like us. This is sad but it won't be changed. Our difference make us each one special but it imposes wall between us. We don't want to share our failure, our sadness, something dark or bad to others; we want to be admired which seems like a vitaminfor our tired and lonely soul. Our communication starts and end with social media like facebook and twitter.

The accident in the story, is very necessary. It reveals all the secret and evil of each one and this makes them closer, nicer to each other,.Maybe they will become real friends because of that, not the chit-chat friends any more. In reality, same as in the novel, something are doomed to happen, good or bad (most likely bad), will lead us to review and restart our understanding of life. So in the other way, "Bad thing"is not a bad things at all.

I called this book "rebellious", because it asks questions like these:

Why we criticize women who spend time on their career instead of domestic duty? Why we think it is normal that menspend more time on work than with family? Why there are different standards of males and females?

Why we feel we are worthless if someone say we are ugly , even though intelligently we knowwhat other people say has nothing to do with our self images?

I think a lot when I close the book. It is true that most people are too fake or facial but are we all the same? What we think of others reflects how others think of ourselves; And the bully did "happen to every one of us"--unkindness and bias between people are pushing us to an isolated island where cries are not heard.

Action is needed but it is from ourselves. Sharing, listening, caring and try to see things below the surface. Don't afraid to make a wrong step and if we fail, we fail; if we are wrong, admit it and move on. We have to be honest to our self at least. If we can't fix our own problem, obviously we can't fix other people's problem and this world won't get any better.