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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

What we thought: Little Bee by Chris Cleave





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.













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