MADreads

I went and saved the best for last

December 20th, 2009 Katharine - Sequoya

I may be able to squeeze in one more novel before the holiday madness begins, but if I don’t I’m so glad Little Bee by Chris Cleave was my last of ‘09.  Even though the jacket implores the reader to not give away what the book is about, some of Little Bee’s story must be told to make sure you don’t miss this British treasure.

Little Bee is a story of a Nigerian orphan who finds her life entangled with that of a vacationing British couple (Sarah and Andrew) on a beach after escaping with her sister from their village that was being pillaged by oil hungry soldiers. Two years after the fateful incident on the Nigerian beach, Little Bee finds herself in a British Immigration Centre and unexpectedly released.  Where to go in a country where she knows no one?  She travels to the Andrew and Sarah’s home and finds their lives in complete turmoil.  Cleave writes the book from the two females perspectives and paints a tragic picture of what it means to be forced out of your home and into a foreign world as in immigrant when there is no support system.

Cleave says on his website that his goal was to write an accessible novel about a serious subject and he does it superbly in Little Bee. There are scenes about death that will break your heart; a fellow refugee taking her own life in hopes of reaching a dead daughter, a young boy throwing himself on his dead father’s grave screaming for him to return.  But along with these very powerfully sad parts are true moments of clarity, often in Little Bee’s voice where she sees the truth and beauty in the simplicity of life.  In one scene as she describes the numerous little white scars on a girl’s leg, Little Bee pleads with the reader to see the scars as beauty, like stars and moons on a dress. Because as she puts it,  “a scar does not form on the dying.  A scar means, I survived.”  Little Bee’s story of survival will stay with you long after the last page of this book is done. So even if you can’t find time during this busy holiday season for fiction, make sure to put this on next year’s list, you won’t regret it.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction