Book REVIEW: Little Bee

Sometimes, if we are lucky, we meet a person in a book who stays in our memories long after the final page. Author Chris Cleave has provided such a person in the title character of his novel LITTLE BEE.

Little Bee escaped a dangerous situation in Nigeria and has spent three years in an immigration detention center in England. The only English people she knows are Charlie and Sarah O‘Rourke whom Little Bee met briefly on a beach back in Nigeria. After leaving the detention center, Little Bee goes to the home of the O'Rourkes and arrives just before Charlie’s funeral. She stays to help the widow and her young son, Charlie, Jr.

The horrific events that had taken place on that beach back in Nigeria and the fact that Little Bee is an illegal immigrant cast a shadow over everything that these two women do. Partly because of the past and partly because they need each other, Little Bee and Sarah form a close attachment.

Little Bee has been busy learning how to be British so that when in a tight spot, she simply thinks of what the Queen would say or do. She also finds that people pay attention if she begins her responses with, “ There is an old proverb in my country...” Some of these are so obviously false that we have to admire her ability to think fast.

Much of the advance advertising for LITTLE BEE promised that this would be a funny book. It is, at times, but many of the situations in the book are far from humorous. Little Bee has been a witness to the horror caused by the big oil companies in her country and the British people who become part of her new life are morally flawed.  It is Little Bee and her fresh outlook that lighten the story. As Little Bee tries to decide how she would explain life in England to her girlfriends back home, we see an interesting new viewpoint on everything from topless models to the taste of tea.

To tell more about the plot of the book would make this review a “spoiler” and I would like you to go along with the surprises. I will admit that the ending was not to my liking at all, but it is one reason LITTLE BEE would make an excellent choice for a book group. Little Bee herself, though, is the best reason for anyone to read this book.