Little Bee

Wow. This sucker grabs you right from the start, doesn't it?

—————–
Finished this relatively quickly, in part because it's a surprisingly good little page-turner, partly because there is a sense of foreboding throughout the whole book (a conceit of the plot and concepts within the book, I think) that I wanted to avoid prolonging. The whole time, Little Bee is waiting for the other shoe to drop, and so is the reader, and it was kind of exhausting. Still, it's an interesting book, full of wonderful turns of phrase and some pretty good insights. There were times when it seemed to veer into the overly-sentimental, but then it would veer right back into bleakly realistic. There were tones of the so-called “magical negro” problem found all over the place in fiction, but these were mitigated by the main thrust of the story for me, which was basically a critique of consumer culture and colonialization. I think.

A really enjoyable read, as I suspect any book that includes a four year old who refuses to wear anything but a Batman costume and to be referred to as Batman might be. I'm going with three stars instead of four because things fell apart for me a little at the end; Cleave's strength is in his mordant observations of the minutiae of modern life, in this case as observed through the very proper English of a Nigerian refugee, and the pace of the last chapter or two leaves no room for the original, completely engaging prose of the rest of the novel. Nonetheless, I'd recommend it to a friend.

Part of me hesitates in giving this book 4 stars and recommending that others read it...for reasons that should in fact encourage me to do just that. This book addresses topics that more that made me feel uncomfortable, guilty and even convicted. The ending is not finite nor will you ever read it in a fairy tale. Nonetheless, my eyes were opened to injustices that take place overseas - which seems to be far enough away for me to remain ignorant and ambivalent and okay with that. I really enjoyed the author's writing style though I was not as big of a fan of the language at times.

Two of my favorite quotes:
“People wonder how they are ever going to change their lives, but really it is frighteningly easy.”
“It is hard, when it comes right down to the actual choice, to know what you want out of life.”

I picked up the book after reading the inside cover, intrigued by the lack of a proper synopsis.

In summation, you should read this book. Incendiary is definitely going on my to-read list!