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Everything Here Is Beautiful Lee Mira T Mira T Lee 9780735221963 Books

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Everything Here Is Beautiful Lee Mira T Mira T Lee 9780735221963 Books

This novel is a work of art. Her book is lush with thought. In it, she covers such a wide range of topics, all extremely touching and each one generating intense feelings from immigration to mental illness to family.

Two sisters, Chinese American, raised in New York by a single mother, the eldest, Miranda, whose self-appointed role is to look out for her younger sibling. Lucia, the younger, marries a man, who couldn’t be more her opposite, and there was something about him that I found him to be one of the highlights of the story. Several other characters cross her path who are so colorful and add such depth and warmth. One, in particular, was really striking.

While Lucia’s state of mind is challenging to contend with, Miranda does everything in her power to help maintain a relationship with her sister.

Always on the move, Lucia meets Manny. Life for each of them is never going to be as it was.

When a story leads you down paths you never would have conjured, introduces you to people you probably would not meet in real life, languages you didn’t know you wanted to know, opens your eyes to different kinds of love, shows you compassion for things that you might not have understood before, this is beautiful. This is EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL.


Tags : Everything Here Is Beautiful (Lee, Mira T.) [Mira T. Lee] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>‟A tender but unflinching portrayal of the bond between two sisters.” —Celeste Ng,Mira T. Lee,Everything Here Is Beautiful (Lee, Mira T.),Pamela Dorman Books,0735221960,Asian American,Contemporary Women,Literary,Domestic fiction,Life change events,Life change events;Fiction.,Mentally ill - Family relationships,Mentally ill;Family relationships;Fiction.,Psychological fiction,Sisters,Sisters;Fiction.,ASIAN AMERICAN NOVEL AND SHORT STORY,FICTION Asian American,FICTION Literary,FICTION Women,Fiction,FictionAsian American,FictionLiterary,GENERAL,General Adult,United States,book club;book club recommendations;sisters;mental health;crazy;bipolar;bipolar disorder;Ecuador;sister;women's fiction;literary fiction;mental illness;love story;identity;madness;family;fiction;illness;sisterhood;community;emotional;hospital;motherhood;New York;relationship;relationships;hallucination;family drama;immigration;immigrants;American dream;secrets;baby;gifts for women;asian american;novels;gifts for her;fiction books;women;literature;asian;books fiction;asian fiction,sisters; mental health; crazy; bipolar; bipolar disorder; Ecuador; sister; women's fiction; literary fiction; mental illness; love story; identity; madness; family; fiction; illness; sisterhood; community; emotional; hospital; motherhood; New York; relationship; relationships; hallucination; family drama; immigration; immigrants; American dream; secrets; baby; book club; book club recommendations; gifts for women; fiction books; gifts for her; women; literature; asian american; asian; novels; books fiction; asian fiction

Everything Here Is Beautiful Lee Mira T Mira T Lee 9780735221963 Books Reviews

“For the families. Empathy because the commonality among human beings is emotion, and the only way we can bridge our vast discrepancies in experience is through what we feel. Let us be humbled in the knowledge that one may never fully understand the interior lives of others – but let us continue to care.”

Mira T. Lee’s hauntingly-beautiful, debut novel begins with this mantric, prayer-like author’s note. In the ensuing pages is a first-rate novel, and story about emotion, empathy, loss, mental illness, family, and the love that binds us all.
The novel spans decades, and the story crosses borders between New Jersey, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Queens, Ecuador, Switzerland, and Minnesota. Early in the novel, we find out Lucia is struggling with mental illness, some combination of bipolar and schizophrenia.

We see this illness from the loving, but sometimes suffocating and over-bearing eye of her dedicated and caring sister, Miranda.

We see this illness from the eyes of her loyal and loving husband, Yonah.

We see it through the eyes of her younger, romantic partner, Manuel.

We see it through the eyes of the town of Meyer, MN.

And perhaps most importantly, we experience Lucia’s illness through her own eyes and heart.

We also see how the illness ripples through the broader family.

We see how it both complicates and enriches Miranda’s marriage to Stefan.

We see how it binds Manuel’s extended family through a near-tragedy.

We see how it provides support to a friend that Lucia meets when both are seeking help at a treatment facility.

We see how it teaches Yonah what it means to love.

Lee’s narrative form evokes empathy in the reader. Chapters are told from shifting points of view the protagonist Lucia, her sister Miranda, her two lovers, Yonah and Manuel. In this way, we see Lucia’s mental illness and life through the same kaleidoscope through which all families experience the suffering and triumphs of their loved ones.

At one point in the novel, Miranda feels she needs to visit her sister in Ecuador. Stefan, her husband, views another cross-Atlantic trip from Switzerland as futile.

Husband and wife’s difference of opinion in this scene echo an earlier moment in the story, when Miranda says to her husband, “But that’s not her, Stefan.” With Miranda’s exasperation, we ache that her husband only knows the Lucia that is not well, not her fullest self. We bemoan this gap in knowledge between Miranda and Stefan, arising from the Lucia each knows. We see how, at times, this experience gap can be a wedge between Miranda and Stefan.

Stefan much later says to Miranda, as he questions whether she should go see her sister and whether the trip will make a difference, “I love you, Miranda…I love you.”

To which Miranda says, “This is me, Stefan.”

“This” being her relationship with her sister, and all that it encompasses.

In this small exchange, Miranda is trying to tell her husband that through blood, empathy, sisterly-bond, love, through mysteries untold, whatever you want to call it…Miranda and Lucia are one. Lucia’s life is inseparable from Miranda’s.
But also, love is not finite. Miranda has enough of it for her husband and her sister. Love makes Miranda and her husband one too. Makes us all one.

To embrace me, Miranda seems to be saying, you must embrace Lucia’s illness as if it were your own.

And this invitation is not just for Stefan or any one person. Miranda’s beckoning is perhaps the overriding call-to-action emanating from this story. The story of Lucia and her family is a mandate for us all. We cannot love in isolation. “For the families” - the author’s note is intentional in its broad address. We must love one another, love all, in sickness and in health. Further, empathy within a family need not stop there, should not stop there. It must expand beyond the family to community, and ultimately beyond that to all humanity.

In this honest, bare-naked, and authentic story of family and the ties that bind them, Lee will surely turn the hearts of readers outward. The story of Lucia and the pain/love that connects everyone around her is from the same batch of pain/love that connects us all to each other. Empathy and emotion binds everyone, and must be indiscriminate and open towards those enduring mental illness or experiencing suffering of any kind.

The story of Lucia will help us see that when anyone suffers, that person - like Lucia is for Miranda - is not another, but is us too; and so, he/she deserves our undying empathy.
Everything Here Is Beautiful, by Mira T. Lee
Reading is a pleasure, a joy, a wonderful juxtaposition of our prior knowledge, our future selves, and mostly a tangible reminder of how we spend our time. There once was a day when literature and book reading were limited. Now, with no limitations of what we can read, or how we can spend our time, any time we hear about a book, and spend the time actually reading it; time, our most precious resource, is of extreme value. I loved every moment of my time spent reading this book. I loved being transported to South America, to the most charming villages of New York City and the sparkling dynasties of the snowy Midwest. The characters are in my heart now. I will live with them forever as I have with so many of the beautiful characters of the greatest books I have experienced. Mira T. Lee has captured the essence of family, of sisterhood, of in laws from hell and heaven, while at the same time eclipsing the wonders of the brain and its disorders, and our relationship to that when it appears in our most beloved friends, lovers, and family. What great artists know is that great stories are real, and this story is real. It reads real. And it remains real, throughout the reading, and the remembering. I loved this book. The characters are real, the descriptions are beautiful, the text is lovely, the sounds, the dialects, the pictures of the surrounding backdrops, whether you are in South America, Europe or the United States, it is all touchable, fathomable and delightfully real. It is a story of love of the many different kinds of love and it is timeless.
"Later, I would be told I had a twenty percent chance of maintaining a full-time job, a twenty-five percent chance of living independently, a forty percent chance of attempting suicide, a ten percent chance of succeeding. I was twenty-six years old."

I loved this debut novel about two Chinese-American sisters, Miranda and Lucia, and their lifelong bond. Lucia is plagued by mental illness, and Miranda feels responsible for taking care of her sister. But life takes them in separate directions Miranda to Switzerland, and Lucia to Ecuador with her boyfriend and newborn baby.

Novels with multiple narrators can be hit or miss, but it works nicely here. It's interesting to experience different characters' perspectives as they intertwine with each other's lives.

There's a melancholy beauty to this book—in spite of the solemn subject matter, there's plenty of humor, compassion and genuine (if unconventional) love. The characters consistently try to do what's best for themselves and for each other; though inevitably, it's at times impossible to do both.
This novel is a work of art. Her book is lush with thought. In it, she covers such a wide range of topics, all extremely touching and each one generating intense feelings from immigration to mental illness to family.

Two sisters, Chinese American, raised in New York by a single mother, the eldest, Miranda, whose self-appointed role is to look out for her younger sibling. Lucia, the younger, marries a man, who couldn’t be more her opposite, and there was something about him that I found him to be one of the highlights of the story. Several other characters cross her path who are so colorful and add such depth and warmth. One, in particular, was really striking.

While Lucia’s state of mind is challenging to contend with, Miranda does everything in her power to help maintain a relationship with her sister.

Always on the move, Lucia meets Manny. Life for each of them is never going to be as it was.

When a story leads you down paths you never would have conjured, introduces you to people you probably would not meet in real life, languages you didn’t know you wanted to know, opens your eyes to different kinds of love, shows you compassion for things that you might not have understood before, this is beautiful. This is EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL.