The Bee Sting
The Bee Sting ~ Paul Murray
Cassie is finishing up secondary school, ready for college. She’s a straight A student, bright and interested in poetry, but she’s angry with her father, and she blames him for their reduced position in town. She worries that she will not get to go to Dublin to attend college with her best friend, Elaine, and seems determined to sabotage her chances. She has a lot of disdain for her mother, who she thinks of as shallow and uneducated.
PJ is Cassie’s little brother, lover of science and strange facts, who inconveniently outgrows his shoes right when money is tightest. He’s worried that his parents are going to divorce and/or send him to boarding school, terrified of being beaten up or killed by a neighborhood bully, and spends his time hanging around with a creepy neighborhood kid. His only real friend is the boy he plays games with online, Ethan, whom he has never met in real life.
Imelda is Cassie and PJ’s mother, a woman of extraordinary beauty who feels that she is not living the life she was meant to live. She grew up the kind of poor where there is not always enough to eat, the daughter of a gangster of some sort. She was engaged to Frank Barnes, the son of a wealthy car dealership/auto garage owner. When he dies tragically in a car accident, she ends up marrying his brother, Dickie.
Dickie is having trouble with the dealership/garage in the wake of the 2008 recession. Many businesses have recovered, but his has not. He is withdrawing into himself, and spends a lot of time with the enigmatic Victor, making an old shed in the woods on his property into a bunker that might help his family survive an apocalypse.
The Bee Sting is a tragic comedy, or perhaps a comic tragedy, I’m not sure. But it is a lovely, lyrical, yet somehow earthy book. I loved all of these characters, and I wanted only good things for all of them. So much foreshadowing, it made me feel kind of literary when I looked back on it. The author effectively used several literary devises, such as changing the narrative from 3rd person to 2nd (but never 1st), and the punctation in some parts might be difficult for folks who hate the no punctuation thing. It doesn’t bother me when I understand the reasoning for it. I listened to the audiobook, so actually I didn’t notice that aspect, but if I had read it I think I would have been fine with it. This book is over 600 pages, so if you are challenging yourself to read some longer books this year, this is an awesome choice, it went by so fast. (The audio was 26 hours, so not totally fast, but it felt fast.) It was not available on my library app, so I bought it (audible, problematic, I suck), and I’m glad I did because I have already listened to part of it again, and next time I find myself with no audiobooks in my queue, I plan to listen to the entire book again. Highly recommended.
18 Comments
Jenny
Well… this sounds good except I think the no punctuation thing MIGHT bother me. Maybe I’ll look at it at the bookstore and see what it’s like. Thanks for all your great reviews!
J
Jenny, I hope you give it a shot. If Nance can handle the no puncutuation thing (retired HS English teacher!) I think we all can. Of course, as I said I listened to it, so I wasn’t really faced with it. It’s not MOST of the book, just a portion.
nance
I loved this book! (I read; I don’t do audio.) I was constantly engaged and entertained, and the writing is terrific. Tragicomedy is a pretty good descriptor for this book, but it’s more than that.
The characters are so well done, and the storylines are too. I’m a very demanding reader, and this book satisfied me at every turn. I even chuckled aloud many times.
Well worth reading.
J
I agree, I loved this book, and I’m glad that you and Maya mentioned it in a comment somewhere, because that’s where I heard of it. “If Nance and Maya love this book, it MUST be good!”
Ally Bean
The story sounds compelling but I’ll admit I am one of those people who grapples with “the no punctuation thing” because I adore punctuation. It’s bling for words, so why not use it?
J
I think no punctuation just for the sake of it could be annoying, but it is used to good effect in this book (I say, not having read a physical copy…)
NGS
The punctuation thing would bother me, so I think I would probably listen to this. I mean, then the narrator has to figure all that out, right?
J
Yes, and it is seamless when you listen!
Lisa's Yarns
I believe this was on Maya’s list of books she really enjoyed in 2024 so I plan on reading it. The punctuation might bother me but prob not enough to derail the book! I read The Covenant of Water in Jan which was 775 pages so I need a few months off from long books before I will feel ready to tackle this but def want to!
J
I would say yes, take a break before starting another really big book. I hope you love it!
Nicole MacPherson
I really liked this book! I read it on Maya’s recommendation – she knows that my personal view is that I don’t want to read books by men, but she convinced me. I thought it was great; it was a lot more than I thought it would be. I didn’t give it a five star rating, I think it was a 4.5 because…why? Hang on, going to go find my review. Here’s what I wrote: “When I went to pick up this doorstop of a book I gave Maya a long-distance side-eye. It had better be good, I thought, if I’m going to invest the time into 649 pages! But lo, Maya was right. I was hooked right from the beginning and I have to say, this is a brilliant literary novel. Absolutely brilliantly written, with four POV in distinct and unique writing styles. Also, the book goes from third person close to second person for each POV, and I find that remarkable. I almost never see second person! This book is a wild ride, following a highly dysfunctional family with an incredible backstory; there were twists and turns – some I saw coming, some I sure didn’t. The ending is stunning. Absolutely stunning. The character arcs, everything is so well done. This takes place in postcrash Ireland and hops timelines, it delves into very important subjects, and most of all, ties together in the most startling of ways.”
So I really liked it but there was something that took a half star off. I don’t think it was the punctuation. I can’t even remember the punctuation, to be honest, so it couldn’t have bothered me. Those things usually don’t. I mean, we both read Kairos and that was so strangely punctuated!
J
I love your review, thank you for copying it here! I came into this book not really knowing what to expect, just that Maya and Nance both liked it. I went back and checked your post, and I think I was overwhelmed by the size of it and also distracted by the Series discussion, so it didn’t pop on my radar at that point. More recently I read Maya’s post I guess, and Nance said she loved it, and I didn’t really connect that it was so long. I might not have read it if I had realized, which would have been a shame, because it went VERY quickly and I loved every minute of it.
Ernie
Oh, this sounds so good. So many people who have read it like it. I think I’ll need to wait till the summer months to read it. A book that long will require some time reclined poolside in order for me to find the time, not when I’m babysitting and only wishing I was sitting next to a pool. Thanks for the recommendation. Where do you find the time to read so many books? It’s a question I ask all of the readers of the blogosphere. It’s a mystery to me.
J
Ernie, it’s because I listen to so many audiobooks…so I listen while I take my walk in the morning, while I cook in the evening, when I have some quiet time during the day. My physical book consumption is much slower.
Maya
I got two copies of this book for Christmas 2023 :). I’m so delighted you liked it, Jules!
I want to talk about the ending for hours!! Nance, Nicole, Jules, Lisa–I wish we could we do a zoom call sometime just for this!
J
The ending was a shock, but should not have been I guess…lots of foreshadowing!
Margaret
You are the second blogger I read who loved this book. A book club friend and former librarian couldn’t get through the no punctuation part.
J
I know that’s a real problem for some folks. It’s never bothered me though, even when I’ve read a physical book that makes that choice.