Little Bee (edition 2010)

Sad but fascinating story of the unstoppable desire to survive and over come impossible odds. ( )

I am rather late to the party with this novel. A story told in two voices about a young Nigererian girl who seeks refuge in the UK and lands on the doorstep of a yuppie suburban London couple that she met under horrific circumstances several years back. Their lives become entwined under extreme circumstances which are both wryly funny and gut-wrenching.

Little Bee's narration really gives the book its charm. I loved her Queen's English and how she would always fancy herself the Queen. hilarious. She gets under your skin even if she is a bit of an unrealistic character. Mixed feelings about Sarah's narration. I do think Cleave did a pretty darn good job with a woman's viewpoint - not too many male authors are good at that. The narration is crisp and poignant; definitely a page-turner. I read this book almost in one sitting on a long plane flight and it held me in its thrall.

I thought about this book a great deal at its conclusion. It is ever so slightly pat and packaged to feel real but a compelling, heartbreaking and haunting read. You can't help but wonder what you would have done on that beach. . . Shudder. ( )

5 stars for the humor and for Little Bee’s voice for the first ½-2/3 of the book, and an engrossing and quick read throughout the entire book
4 stars for Sarah’s voice through most of the book
3 ½ stars for the overall story, with the first parts much stronger than the last parts
3 stars for the stories of Sarah and Andrew and Charlie/Batman and Lawrence
2 stars for how this lovely little book goes downhill fast, not as downhill as I’d feared (from what a couple others I know said) but I wished it had ended differently and more realistically, and 2 stars also for showing a four year old boy’s language development (not accurately in my experience)
1 star for the hype as the plot evolves no more unusually than those in many other books, though that’s not the fault of the book, but 1 star also for how one of Sarah’s decisions rings so very, very false and I can’t get beyond that at all

My paperback copy has extra material about the real world situation, and also has discussion questions, which I read. I read this book for my real world book club.

Through much of the book I was trying to decide between 5 and 4 ½ and 4 stars, but I ended up with deciding on 3 ½ stars. I wish it could be higher because there is so much I love about this book. It was hard to choose between 3 and 4 official stars. Really hard. But in the end all I did was “like” this book.

This was not a comfort read for me and I am so glad I am not going to be reading it over Thanksgiving. The humor helped immensely, for 2/3 the book anyway. My reading experience was highly enjoyable for quite awhile, and this book probably deserves more than 3 stars.

I first got three in a row unreadable library copies and so I finally purchased the book, which I kind of regret because I’m never going to reread it. ( )

Wonderful reader, exceptional story. Here's a quote I found in the book after hearing it:

"If this policeman began to suspect me, he could call the immigration people. Then one of them would click a button on their computer and mark a check box on my file and I would be deported. I would be dead, but no one would have fired any bullets. I realized, this is why the police do not carry guns. In a civilized country, they kill you with a click. The killing id done at the heart of the kingdom in a building full of computers and coffee cups."
( )

This is one of those books that makes you wonder what you can do to stop the atrocities that happen on this earth. Amazing story about a Nigerian refugee and an English woman...I don't want to say much more because the beauty is in the way the story unfolds. ( )