Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

genre: adult fiction

Little Bee had to leave her home in Nigeria.  We meet Little Bee because she came to the UK without permission.

Sarah lives in the UK.  It takes a while for us to figure out her connection to Little Bee and to Nigeria, but once we do, it's clear that what happened between these two is going to change everything for both of them.

I don't even want to say any more than that.  I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing and found myself absolutely fascinated by Little Bee's character.  Her pristine English, her cultural misunderstandings, the depth of her fear of men and the unknown.  If you are a sensitive person, I would dissuade you from having to live a life like Little Bee.  There are experiences she had that make you want to plug your ears and say, "la la la la la."  Horrendous.  Unspeakable. And yet, what is absolutely amazing about Little Bee's story is that even after ALL that, there is still hope.  Life.  A desire to somehow etch out a real life in a safe place.

Sarah wasn't as interesting of a character to me, although I loved her interactions with Little Bee.  And Sarah's son, and husband Andrew, are also integral parts of this story.  Their son, in particular, is a delightful character that adds not only comic relief but also another well of emotion.  Sometimes I wanted things to happen differently.  Parts were hard to read and other parts made me feel angry.  But I think maybe that's what I liked about it most — it made me feel something. 

(be aware, this book has some graphic violence in it and very strong language, please see below for more information) 
note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have had this sitting on my shelves for far too long. I really shoud bite the bullet and read it!

bermudaonion said...

I liked this book a lot. It really made me think about what goes on in the pursuit of oil.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...