Like many great books, by has benefited from the Reese Witherspoon boost. When the novel released in 2017, it was Reese Witherspoon's September Book Club Pick, and she quickly optioned the book for a miniseries, with Kerry Washington, through her Hello Sunshine production company. The TV adaptation, co-starring Witherspoon and Washington, landed at Hulu, receiving a number of Emmy nominations and an NAACP Image Award.
How does miniseries differ from the novel? And why have both the book and screen incarnations struck a chord (or touched a nerve) with so many people? Read on for our answers. Warning: this article contains spoilers for Little Fires Everywhere, both the book and the show.
What is Little Fires Everywhere about?
Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Little Fires Everywhere follows a tight-knit community of families in the 1990s. Elena Richardson is the do-gooder who always plays by the rules, and she likes to keep things nice and tidy. So, when Mia, an enigmatic and free-spirited artist, moves to town with her teenage daughter, Pearl, Elena's worldview is shaken. Mia and Pearl rent a house from the Richardsons, and soon Elena's children are taken with the newcomers in a way that makes Elena uncomfortable, despite her best efforts to be a welcoming neighbor. The fragile peace in the community is disturbed when a friend of Elena's attempts to adopt a Chinese American baby, leading to a bitter and highly publicized custody dispute that pits Mia and Elena against one another. Unable to accept this challenge to her perspective, Elena becomes determined to dig up every secret that Mia appears to be hiding, with explosive consequences.
Little Fires Everywhere tackles big themes such as identity and assimilation, generosity and charity, and what it means to be a good mother and a good person. As the setting for her story, author Celeste Ng chose a place she knows well: her real-life hometown, a planned community envisioned as the ideal suburb. She focused on the topic of transracial adoption as a way for her novel to explore notions about motherhood and society.
What are the major differences between Little Fires Everywhere and its television adaptation?
Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington began working on an adaptation before the novel was even released, and not long afterwards, Hulu won the series in a fierce bidding war. It was developed into an eight-episode miniseries, which allowed the show to take a deep dive into the book's themes and explore facets that are only touched upon in Ng's original story. Because of this change in format and length, there are some differences between the book and the show.
