Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Our Missing Hearts is a book of poetry inside the novel Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. In a dystopian United States not too far in the future, Margaret Miu’s book is banned for subversion. Although she wrote it about her garden and her feelings when she was pregnant, the title became a slogan amongst those protesting the draconian laws of PACT.
First, we meet Bird, the twelve-year-old son of Margaret and Ethan. He leads a blameless, quiet life with his father in a dorm. They follow all of the societal rules, and there are many. His mother left him and his father without any reason he knew, or that his father would tell. She was “dead” to them. He resented this, but he made the best of the parent he had.
One day he receives a postcard covered in innumerable drawings of cats, plus one tiny square inside a square. Clever enough, he decodes this message from his mother. With the zeal of a child raised on fairy tales full of heroes, he assumes that he can find her in New York City. There is a bus, and he has just enough money from minor earnings and birthday presents to buy a one-way ticket.
Just like the heroes, he does achieve his quest, although when he and his mother meet, he is still a resentful young teen. The narration changes to Margaret’s perspective. She left her family because the widespread use of her poem “Our Missing Hearts” and her Asian heritage made her a target of vigilantes and the government. She and Ethan knew that within a short time, the authorities would kidnap Noah (Bird’s legal name) and send him to an institution or foster family to be raised in accordance with the correct societal values. By abruptly disappearing, his mother at least left him with one parent – a very dedicated and frightened parent.
Since her disappearance into the maze of New York City, Margaret became involved in resistance to the overbearing government. She conceived of her own project that she keeps hidden until the time is right. Bird’s arrival interrupts her project for only a short time.
In the Author’s Note at the end of the book, Celeste Ng describes the factual bases for her story. She cites the principal in Margaret Atwood’s writing of The Handmaid’s Tale – no painful practices have been made up. All have repeatedly happened in our time and in other times.
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