Evening Book Club
March 2016
Little Bee, Chris Cleave
“Britain is proud of its tradition of providing a safe haven
for people fleeting [sic] persecution and conflict.”
From Life
in the United Kingdom: A journey to citizenship (UK Home Office, 2005)
Readers discussed Little Bee as if it was a true story
rather than fiction. The author described the events in the character’s lives
and the emotional impact so well that the story stayed with everyone. As
readers discussed the story there were many different opinions on the motives
of characters and how they could have changed the outcome of their actions.
Little Bee was the most sympathetic character along with Charlie who identified
with Batman. The relationships with Charlie’s mother Sarah, her husband Andrew
and lover Lawrence from the Home Office complicated reader’s understanding about
their lives and why they did not always behave reasonably. Little Bee grew up and
suffered great trauma in Nigeria stirring up the middle class British lives of
the other characters.
Early in the discussion readers commented about how they did
not like the ending or really understand where the author was going with it.
They did say that they appreciated the beauty of his writing even though it
left them with a melancholy feeling. None the less, readers did finish the book
and were eager to talk about it and their hope that Little Bee would have a
better outcome. They didn’t express the same feeling for the British characters
with the exception of Charlie the Batman.
Readers discussed the treatment of immigrants in Britain
which inspired the author to write Little Bee’s story. Some were familiar with
issues of migration and found it difficult to understand the desperation
leading people to leave their country to start new lives in a foreign nation.
There was some discussion of the current state of immigration today. Readers
asked, “What do we do with them and where does it stop?”
“When horror and darkness descend, asylum seekers are the
ones who get away. They are not all Einsteins or Conrads of course. Some of
them are horrible people. And that’s just it—they are like us: they are people.
Many are above average in terms of far-sightedness, motivation and resilience.
A fair proportion are the people you want to have on your side. Whatever the
solution to the refugee crisis—and I don’t suggest there is a simple one—it will
be a monument to our dehumanization if we allow the new anti-refugee rhetoric
to erode our first feeling of empathy.”
Chris Cleave, author October 9,
2015
Readers recommended books that they felt added to the topic
of discussion. Some of the titles were previous book club selections.
Gold, Chris Cleave
Incendiary, Chris Cleave
The Secret Keeper, Kate Morton
Orphan Train, Christina
Baker Kline
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Sunset Park, Paul Auster
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E.
Frankl
Two documentaries, Lost
Boys of Sudan and The Good Lie
Have you read Little Bee? What did you think? Please share
your thoughts in comments.
