Big Little Lies (novel)

Synopsis

Jane, a single mother, is on her way to Pirriwee Public School, where her son Ziggy is starting kindergarten. On the way, she meets Madeline, another mother with a daughter of the same age. Madeline’s friend Celeste is also sending her twin sons, Max and Josh, to school. The two strike up a friendship with Jane. All three of them have their own problems: Madeline is resentful that her daughter from her previous marriage is growing close to her ex-husband's new wife, Bonnie. Celeste is physically abused by her rich banker husband, Perry. Jane is struggling with tracking down Ziggy's father, with whom she had a drunken one-night stand ending in rape. To make matters worse for her, Ziggy is accused of bullying a classmate on his first day of school.

As months pass, the three become close and Jane shares her experience with the other women. With the information Jane gives, Celeste and Madeleine realize that the father is Perry's cousin, Saxon Banks, but decide to keep it from Jane for the time being. Meanwhile, Celeste's marriage becomes even more violent and she starts meeting a counselor and buys a new house for herself, without Perry's knowledge. Ziggy is once again accused of bullying his classmate, though he denies it.

On the night of Pirriwee Public's Trivia Night, Josh tells Celeste that it is Max, not Ziggy, who is bullying the other children. She realizes that Max is mimicking the behavior he picks up from Perry and finally decides to leave him. Perry finds out about the new house himself, and despite being shaken, the couple still goes to the Trivia Night.

Once they reach the school, Jane sees Perry and realizes that he is, in fact, "Saxon Banks" and confronts him in front of Madeline, Celeste and others. Celeste recalls Perry's childhood stories where he used his cousin's name to avoid trouble for himself. Perry admits to raping Jane but shows no remorse towards her. In the ensuing argument between them, Perry hits Celeste. Enraged by what she has witnessed, Bonnie pushes him to his death from the balcony.

In the aftermath of the fall, Madeline finds out that Bonnie had an abusive father and seeing Perry's violence brought back bad memories. Everybody on the balcony decides to lie to protect her. Still, Bonnie turns herself in but is only sentenced to 200 hours of community service. A year after Perry's death, Celeste works in a family law firm and sets up a fund to support Ziggy. She speaks publicly about her abusive relationship, starting her speech with: "This can happen to anyone".

Writing

Moriarty's main inspiration for the story came from a radio interview she heard in which a woman recounted her parents' abusive relationship. The woman narrated how, even as an adult, she hid under her bed to escape her parents' fighting, an experience Moriarty ended up using as a scene in the book. Initially, the book was a first-person narrative from each of the three main characters, but Moriarty soon decided against it, instead interjecting minor characters' statements between portions of the story.

Reception

Big Little Lies has generally been well received by critics, who praised the book's balance of humor with more serious issues like domestic abuse. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "A seemingly fluffy book suddenly touches base with vicious reality, in ways that may give Big Little Lies even more staying power than The Husband's Secret [Moriarty's previous book]." Roberta Bernstein of USA Today gave it three stars out of four, deeming it "a fun, engaging and sometimes disturbing read, even if the characters are more conceits than flesh and blood." Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave it an A and noted that, while the book fell in the "chick-lit" category, Moriarty still offered "insights [that] aren’t any less wise or funny or true just because she sometimes likes a champagne metaphor or hangs her story on a shoe." Carol Memmott of The Washington Post agreed, writing: "It takes a powerful stand against domestic violence even as it makes us laugh at the adults whose silly costume party seems more reminiscent of a middle-school dance."

Television adaptation

A television mini-series adaptation of the novel was produced by HBO titled Big Little Lies, filmed on location in Monterey, CA. It was originally released February 19, 2017 on HBO. The mini-series stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Alexander Skarsgård, Adam Scott, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz.