Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022--San Antonio

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng was just published within the past month and got great reviews.  The author has speculated about the near future of the USA as its economy falls behind that of China resulting in many people becoming underemployed or unemployed and homeless, as its citizens become more violent (against Asian Americans in general and the government), and as the government becomes more paranoid about the situation.  This creates a crisis that lasts for several years without signs of letting up.  In response, the government has passed PACT, a patriots act which puts great limitations on what people can and cannot do and gives government agencies great power over its citizens.  One of the most significant is the right to remove children from families where the adults have acted in ways in which the government doesn't approve.  All of this ties in with how the government has acted in its past history, the current movement toward right-wing authoritarianism, and the peoples' tendency to ignore what is happening and just try to get by without being noticed.  In other words, it is a horror story about what our future could be based on current events and our history.  The central characters are a family unit consisting of a white male, a Chinese-American female, and a child they want to protect from the dangers; a child who has been removed from her family and wants to try to find them; and a white friend of the Chinese-American female.  Innocent people get trapped by PACT, and lives that should be safe are affected.  And an underground system grows to try to provide assistance to families with children who have been removed and to provide resistance to the government.  It is not a fairy tale, so there is no true happy ending.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.