LITTLE BEE

Chris Cleave

MSRP $14, 304 Pages.

Published by Simon & Schuster.

The lives of a British woman and a Nigerian girl collide.

WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.

It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.

Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:

It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.

The story starts there, but the book doesn't.

And it's what happens afterward that is most important.

Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

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Amazon Best of the Month, February 2009: The publishers of Chris Cleave's new novel "don't want to spoil" the story by revealing too much about it, and there's good reason not to tell too much about the plot's pivot point. All you should know going in to Little Bee is that what happens on the beach is brutal, and that it braids the fates of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan (who calls herself Little Bee) and a well-off British couple--journalists trying to repair their strained marriage with a free holiday--who should have stayed behind their resort's walls. The tide of that event carries Little Bee back to their world, which she claims she couldn't explain to the girls from her village because they'd have no context for its abundance and calm. But she shows us the infinite rifts in a globalized world, where any distance can be crossed in a day--with the right papers--and "no one likes each other, but everyone likes U2." Where you have to give up the safety you'd assumed as your birthright if you decide to save the girl gazing at you through razor wire, left to the wolves of a failing state. --Mari Malcolm

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Articles from the New York Times

Sunday Review

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Customer Reviews

VERY WORTHWHILE READ

Rating

What is Peace? A very interesting and worthwhile book. There are two main characters: Little Bee and Sarah. The story involves refugees and the United Kingdom. The women meet by chance on a beach in Nigeria. A heart-warming and tragic story.

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little Bee

Rating

Sounds to me like author thinks there should be open borders worldwide, and I do not agree! As for the story, some parts were interesting, but much of the book boring. Little Bee was the only likeable character in this book. Kay , Hemet,Ca.

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Disappointed over Little Bee

Rating

Spoiler Alert...

I wanted to like Little Bee. The reviews for it are exceptional. Book List starred it, Amazon named it among their "February Best of the Month" picks, O Magazine fondly mentions it. I mean come on, Library Journal labels it "the next Kite Runner" for goodness sakes! I couldn't wait to be swept away. And I was... for the first couple of chapters. Little Bee's character came on very strong and distinct. I felt like I could pick her out of a crowd and guess what she was thinking. But I gradually started rolling my eyes and questioning plot details and characterization.

For example, Sarah's mom and sister are briefly mentioned; they come to her house after the funeral, but she begs them to leave her alone. There's no mention of their reaction to the fact that there is suddenly a Nigerian girl living at her house. ???

Also, according to the timeline description it seems that Charlie begins wearing the Batman costume before his father passes. It would make more sense if he began wearing it after the passing based on his reasons for wearing it. ???

And seriously, the cops caught Little Bee because she was at the scene of Charlie's near disappearance? Seriously?

Sarah's relationship with Lawrence is odd, Charlie draws conclusions unbelieving for a four year old, and the ending is rushed and unmoving. There's just this hokey feel to it that I couldn't get past.

This is the first time ever for me that I could tell that the author was not the same sex as his main characters, more so when it came to Sarah rather than Little Bee. The way Sarah thinks, the things she says, her observations, and even her interactions with her son just don't make sense. It is clear that Cleave failed to unearth his female voice.

Speaking of voice, Little Bee's chapters were much more convincing and enjoyable than Sarah's. The entire book written from Little Bee's point of view would have probably been a much better read.

I'm not giving this book only 1 star because it was too sad, or too graphic, or too haunting. It just fell flat. It wasn't convincing. All the ends didn't meet nor were all the i's dotted, t's crossed. It just didn't do it for me, and it is most certainly NOT the next Kite Runner. Good grief, it doesn't even compare. [close]

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I agree...ignore the book description. Misleading, but good enough read

Rating

**Possible Spoiler Alert**
I very much enjoyed the writing style and flow of this book. I loved Little Bee's character and how she is written from start to finish. I do however feel like the story (with Sarah and Andrew) while entertaining, was ridiculously unlikely. From the first day they meet to the too fastward bond Little Bee develops with Sarah. I LOVED Charlie as well. Don't buy the book based on the description because you will be disappointed. The ending was disappointing to me.....what happens on the beach???

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some very compelling moments but ...

Rating

I wanted to like Little Bee. It has generally very good reviews in both the MSM and among bloggers. I did love it for the first 100 pages or so! It is the story of a 16 year old Nigerian refugee wise beyond her years and her interactions with a suburban middle class British couple. They meet first on a beach in Nigeria where a horrific event takes place and then again when Little Bee is released from a refugee detention center outside of London.

The story is told in the alternating narrative voices of Little Bee and Sarah. Little Bee's voice is very good - entertaining, often funny, strong with an amazing will to live in spite of appalling circumstances. It is amazing to me that a white Anglo Saxon male could have written this character so well. Sarah I liked a lot less. I found her to be annoying, self centered and beset with Yuppie problems but I was intrigued with her one act of courage in the story. I did have some trouble aligning this act with the rest of her character.

The descriptions of the beach scene in Nigeria are excellent and I think plausible. The choices made by Sarah and her husband are thought provoking and haunting - does a momentary failure of courage doom someone? How would you react if you had an extremely short period of time to make a life changing, life saving decision? Is it courageous to do what Sarah did; is it cowardice to do what Andrew did?

The parts of the story that involve Sarah's son are quite well done and again often funny; he seems a very true to life character. Once events leave the retrospective telling of the events I think the plot twists are not realistic. The chapter where Sarah reunites with Little Bee on the airplane going to Nigeria is ridiculous. The ending is very problematic for me; no mother who had had the experiences Sarah had would willingly take her child into a dangerous place like Nigeria.

The back drop for this novel is how the Western countries treat immigrants, especially those needing political asylum. Additionally the dark politics of oil exploration in developing countries and globalization are also mixed in. I liked the way the author subtly integrated these issues into the story and I learned something in reading this book.

The US marketing for this book is fairly controversial. First off, the publishers changed the title. It had been published in the UK as On The Other Hand. Second, they made a decision to withhold any real information about the plot, and what information they gave was wildly misleading - "cute, hilarious, and magical" are not the three adjectives I'd use to describe this story. I can imagine many readers would be put off with the absolute brutality present in the story and the unhappy ending. I can't think the author is pleased with either of these decisions.

So in summary, while I did like and would recommend this book - there were some very compelling moments - I will remember the main character Little Bee and her story long after I've forgotten most

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