Review: Little Bee

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The book cover to Little Bee says that this is a special story and that one shouldn’t talk too much about what happens in it or the tale will be spoilt. This is true. But I will tell you one thing about the book: Little Bee is a story about death. Make no mistake about that.

Thirty-one pages of celebrity goings-on about town, and one page of news from the world which existed beyond London’s orbital motorway—the paper offered it up as a sort of memento mori.

This memento mori novel is couched in the guise of a tale about immigration, British politics, and human weaknesses.

Tea is the taste of my land: it is bitter and warm, strong, and sharp with memory. It tastes of longing. It tastes of the distance between where you are and where you come from. Also it vanishes—the taste of it vanishes from your tongue while your lips are still hot from the cup. It disappears, like plantations stretching up into the mist. I have heard that your country drinks more tea than any other. How sad that must make you—like children who long for absent mothers. I am sorry.

But the real story behind all that is about the most human weakness of all—death. Emotional death, mental death, and physical death…all one.

Still shaking, in the pew, I understood that it isn’t the dead we cry for. We cry for ourselves…

It is also about moving on from that death, and finding out if that is the best action to take, or even if it is possible anymore.

I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.

And if at times the author, being a man, writes his women characters as too reactive, simple, without carefully but quickly running all options through their heads (in other words, mannish), we can of course forgive him since he has brought forth a wondrous story with awefilled thoughts, and a wonderful sense of humor that will not be quenched, even after the hardest hardships.

“Darlin,” she said. “Life did take its gifts back from yu and me in de diffren order, dat’s all. Truth to tell, funny is all me got lef wid…”

This book is not for everyone. It forces you to look deep into the eyes of death and into your own eyes, and to see what the difference is between them. It is a book to be read carefully and slowly, perhaps many times, with honesty. Can humanity prevail over death? This shining jewel of a tale confronts us with the facts and leaves us to decide our answer and what we will do with it.

“It’s easier when you are from outside.”

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Review: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



- The Cat Who Books -


I first discovered the "Cat Who" books as a teen in one of those happy accidents that our favorite books are often stumbled upon for the first time. I don't remember which library I first made this chance discovery in, but I do remember the first one I read, it was The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts. I am an avid lover of ghost stories and this proved interesting. It was, and when I found out that it was only one book in a series of many, I procured a great many of them from a used book store.

The "Cat Who" books are classic whodunits with a feline twist, and including the rather kitchy romances of the 60s and 70s. These murder mysteries unfold with precision and keep you entertained and guessing about the whos and hows until the end.

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is our first introduction to the characters Qwilleran, an old fashioned newspaper reporter with a sensitive moustache, and Koko, a siamese cat with a variety of sluthing talents, including reading backwards. The author, [a:Lilian Jackson Braun|21625|Lilian Jackson Braun|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206733773p2/21625.jpg], is very capable in her descriptions of these soon-to-be beloved characters and also in their development as the story progresses. Anyone who has ever owned a cat will chuckle at the perfect descriptions of a cat's movements and temperment, such as in the following passage:

Qwilleran went to the kitchenette, approached the refrigerator, and found himself face to face with a clam, cool-eyed Koko.

Qwilleran gasped. "You devil! Were you sitting there all the time?"

Koko, huddled in an awkward pose on the refrigerator top, answered with a curt syllable.

"What's the matter, old fellow? Are you unhappy?"

The cat shifted position irritably. Now he crouched with his body hovering above the hard porcelain surface. His haunches angled up like fins, and the fur over his shoulder blades spread open like a huge dandelion gone to seed.

"You're uncomfortable! That's what's wrong. After dinner we'll go upstairs and get your cushion. Is that okay?"

Koko squeezed both eyes.

Braun is also one of the few female writers who I give credit for writing a convincing male lead. While I would welcome a guy's opinion on this, personally I can actually imagine Qwilleran as a real man of the 60s and not a woman in a tweed suit with far too many feelings and subtle ways.

While the books are beginning to date themselves, it's more in a nostalgic, capturing the feel of an era way; not in a stilted alien way that we can't connect to. The characters and situations are still very much alive.


- Cat Who #1, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards -


The Cat Who Could Read Backwards introduces us to Qwilleran's world of 60s newspaper reporting -- back when everything was done on typewriters, hatted gentlemen went to press clubs and talked about "scoops," and the newspaper woman was a rarity. The character's names are often purposefully ridiculous, such as names of newspaper men Odd Bunsen and Arch Riker.

Qwilleran has been, rather reluctantly, assigned to art writing. This leads him on a journey through "modern art" which baffles him as much as I'm sure it will most readers. This book was first published in 1966, the height of the pop art and junk art crazes. The story is as much a look at the bizarrities of the art world as it is a murder mystery.

While renting an apartment from a fellow collumnist (an art critic) Qwilleran meets Kao K'o-Kung, an unusually smart and intuitive siamese cat. He dubs the art critic's cat, Koko, since the strange Chinese name is a bit beyond him, and is soon duped into cat-sitting. But while the art critic is out of town, Qwilleran is pulled into the world of modern art...and murder.

- Closing Thoughts and Recommendations -

This book stands alone, or as a great introduction to the series. I recommend it for teens and adults who enjoy the classic murder mysteries of authors like [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1321738793p2/123715.jpg]. It also might be of interest to the art student. My mother actually read a few paragraphs aloud that describe a "Happening" during her history class covering the art of the 60s. Being a cat lover is not a prerequisite, but the cat comments are sure to be enjoyed if you happen to have a feline friend.



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