Little Bee by Chris Cleave - Review

The Other Hand in UK

Fiction 266 pages, Hardcover

Doubleday (2009)


Set alternately in Nigeria and a refugee center in England, Little Bee is not an easy story to read but it is one that needed to be written. A young girl and her sister are a target of the violence that comes with the ruthless corruption in Nigeria. Sarah and Andrew, an English couple on holiday happen upon the girls and attempt to save them from their attackers in an incident that is truly shocking. The remainder of the story takes place two years later in an immigration detention center in England when one of those girls, Little Bee, manages to escape and make her way to the couple's address hoping for help to remain in the country. She claims if she's sent back she will be killed, but who believes that about a 14 year old girl?

The issues of immigration, racism, and deportation are complex. As is the question of how far we are willing to go to help someone who is not one of our own, so to speak. And unresolved feelings around the original incident in Nigeria again threaten to tear Sarah and Andrew apart. One of them wants to help her and the other is terrified for reasons of their own and wants nothing to do with her. I devoured the story in one day, I had to know how it turned out.

It's an eye opener regarding immigration centers, the living conditions therein and the length of time people can languish in them, hoping for asylum. It's a terrible but entirely believable story. It is well written, narrated in alternating voices between Little Bee and the wife Sarah. It is also original and unforgettable. For those who asked Little Bee has more than one brutal moment in it. However, nothing in the book is invented or exaggerated beyond what is actually happening to people. My personal take is always that we need to know what's going on in the world and fiction can be an easier introduction to that than other means. Four and a half stars out of five. I recommend it highly.

Thank you to Doubleday for sending me a lovely hardcover true copy of the book and to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.

Also reviewed by Claire at the view from chesil beach
and Bookworm with a View.



Comments, questions, dissenting opinions, requests for reviews, reading recommendations, or links to reviews are always welcomed. I'd love to read them. No Spoilers please.

Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing - Review

Ben, In the World by Doris Lessing (UK)

Fiction 178 pages, Hardcover 2002

Nobel author

This is the sequel to The Fifth Child which I reviewed last week. That book gave us Ben, born into a large family who welcomed each child with celebration. Unlovable and uncontrollable from birth, freakish in looks, he confuses and frightens everyone around him. He is violent and seems incapable of learning. In the end, though she defends him from others, even his mother cannot love him or even stand to have him around. Ben, In the World begins after he has divided and alienated most of his family and left home in his teens.

What becomes of such an angry young monster, lacking control in all matters, uncomprehending the world and people in general, prone to violence and inviting rebuke by his physically threatening appearance? There is always someone who will be a little kind with food or money to a homeless young man, though most will not. Then there are the unscrupulous who will use people like Ben for criminal activities, knowing he doesn't understand what he's doing and is incapable of communicating information about them to authorities if he's caught. Woman are sometimes kind, even tolerant to a point. But he knows they are always afraid of him. He struggles constantly against his own instincts to hurt people when he perceives mockery or even a slight. The only thing that holds him back is nightmarish memories of being institutionalized and the fear that he will be taken back there. He suffers a strong sexual drive that can only lead to trouble.

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Abandoned in another country by criminals who have no further use of him, Ben is eventually spotted by a film maker who thinks of him as a caveman throwback and takes care of him while he has an interest in making a film with him. He will end up on another continent, driven by a spurious promise to find his own "kind", where he will slowly come to face the reality of what he really is. Well written and brutally honest in the end, Lessing is brave enough to show us what everyone secretly thinks about people like Ben. They are unwanted, and there is no sadder fate for anyone.

Highly recommended. But read The Fifth Child first. It's worth it.

Ben, In the World was read as part of the Read the Nobels challenge.

I welcome comments, opinions, questions or review links about this or any other book I've read or reviewed.

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing - Review

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

Fiction,133 pages Hardcover

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1988 UK

The idea of a mother not loving her own child seems almost taboo as a subject for a novel. Such feelings just aren't possible, or at least they're not natural or normal, are they? That's the general consensus. I wanted to read The Fifth Child because someone said it put them in mind of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin, which I reviewed here. They are both about having a child who is difficult to love. Let's be honest, even their mothers find them impossible to love. They do try, very hard, over a period of long years, but ultimately admit their true feelings. Both books are well written and I thought at first they were quite different stories. Kevin, in Shriver's book is a teenager who's killed fellow students in a school shooting before the story even begins. Ben, the fifth child to a couple who planned a large family and celebrated each child's arrival, is odd and frightening and difficult to control from the day he's born. We follow his beleagured mother and family from birth through to his teen years.

Then I realized that the only difference in the stories is whether they are related to us before disaster strikes, as in the case of Ben, or afterward, as with Kevin's killing spree. Each book hits tender spots and like most tragedies are not the easiest to read. But I think they both need to be read. The questions raised need to be faced-by everyone. Should these children be drugged? Is psychiatry or behaviour therapy enough? Should they be "put away" in cases where they cannot be controlled? Then there's the issue of blame. People seem to need to point fingers when things go wrong. Are the parents, especially the mothers, ultimately responsible for the monstrous behaviour of their children? I'm glad I read these books. I learned things, empathy being the very least of these. I highly recommended We Need to Talk About Kevin. I recommend The Fifth Child as well.

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Have you read either of these books? What do you think? Are you averse to reading about this subject in a novel? If you've reviewed either of them please leave a link in the comments. I'd love to read it.

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I welcome recommendations of good literary fiction.

The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson

The Lying Tongue***** by Andrew Wilson

Fiction, hardcover, 320 pgs. (2007)

Atria Press

I really enjoyed this tense psychological suspense. A young English writer-to-be, Adam Woods takes a job in Venice and comes to realize that he's actually working for a famous old reclusive author named Gordon Crace. He has strict instructions not to ask about or even mention the old man's writing. Crace even goes to some lengths to prevent any biography from ever being written about himself.
Determined that there's a book in it for him, Adam keeps secret notes on the writer's doings while caring for the man's household needs. He's not above snooping through papers and spying on the old man to get what he wants either. Gordon Crace is not a very likeable man but then neither is Adam. He even takes a trip back to England to investigate the writer's past and prevent another biographer from getting the jump on him. Tense and and intriguing from the start, the tension winds up as Adam fears discovery of what he's doing and learns what Crace has been hiding. Very well written and highly recommended.

Andrew Wilson is author of the acclaimed recent biography of Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and many others. This novel seems to me to be quite up to her standard.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Last Samurai, Asta's Book

Asta's Book by Barbara Vine

(a pen name for Ruth Rendell of mystery writer fame)

Title is Anna's Book in the US

Paperback, 448 pages

Penguin UK (1994)

This is literary fiction, not a mystery. There is good suspense from tip to tail, but there is a much deeper story here. A Danish woman recounts the family's emigration to England during difficult times and how she manages raising her children and coping with her loneliness. Her fisherman husband is gone for extended periods of time. There is a murder in the story that is not resolved right away. Very likable characters. Well written. Four stars out of five. This was my first Rendell experience. If her mysteries are half as interesting I will be trying them very soon.

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The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Paperback 284 pages

A well-meaning physician decides to spare his wife from a life of raising a child with the disabilities and short life expectancy of Down's Syndrome. The child is one of twins she has just given birth to. The other child, a boy, is perfectly healthy. He orders his nurse to take the newborn girl away to an institution and make sure no one ever knows about her. The nurse is torn by his request and does something no one would ever expect.

It starts in the late 1950's and follows the couple's life with their son and the doctor's guilt over what he still believes, for heart-breaking reasons of this own, was the right thing to do. We are told in a parallel account what happens in the life of the other child too as she grows up. I was a child during this same time period and the attitudes and actions toward disabled children rang true for me. Many people did put their children "away" in institutions. And often never spoke of them again. This story, about the difficult decisions we take upon ourselves and the consequences to everyone around us is universal, and emotionally engaging. A good story, that I will read again. Hard to believe it's Kim Edward's first novel. Four stars out of five.

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The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt

Paperback

A young boy searches for the identity of his father through the study of famous scientists and artists when his intellectual mother refuses him any information about him. A single mother, she has her hands full trying to support them by transcribing manuscripts and keeping a very gifted child stimulated and fulfilled. Sprinkled throughout with scientific and literary references this book is a masterpiece of originality and a hoot as well. Her obsession with a Kurosawa film of the same name explains the title, NOT the recent Cruise film. This is one of the best books I've read this year. Five stars. Highly recommended.

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If you've read or reviewed any of these books, feel free to leave comments (no spoilers please) or links to reviews. I'd love to read them. Have you read any other books by these authors and which can you recommend?

Next Review: The Raw Shark Texts by Steve Hall