The Baddies Win Again

Spoiler Alert!

I just finished reading Little Bee and put it down a little disappointed.

First I will recount the things I found beautiful and special about this book.  The beginning of the book when Little Bee is with the three other women was my favorite part of the book.  Like Mollie, I really loved the piece about scars.  I also found Yvette engaging and funny.  This part of the book rang true to me as he was recounting how Little Bee copes with the terror in her heart by finding a way to kill herself in every situation she is in.

Charlie was my favorite character.  I recently listened to part of an interview that Chris Cleave gave and the article that he writes for The Guardian is an article about his experiences with children.  This explained how he got Charlie's character so RIGHT!  You could tell that this author really understood children.  Charlie was the heart of the book for me.  The Batman suit, the baddies (especially the naughty Puffin), how he relates to Little Bee, and how he illuminates that we are all in our Batman suits all the time fighting the naughty Penguin and Puffin in our own ways.

This book made me search my soul in regards to how my own sense of humanity would stand up in the face of such horror.  Would I be able to cut off my finger to save Little Bee?  Of course in my heart the answer is yes.  But I think that time after time the world shows us that there are more Andrews in this world then there are Sarahs.  In order for atrocities like genocide to exist, it takes a passive majority who does nothing.  I think Andrew's response, of self-preservation and anger and fear and to freeze in the face of terror, is probably the natural response in the beach scene.  I would like to think of myself as a Sarah.

In the end, I did not connect to Sarah's character at all.  I found her shallow, silly and careless.  I thought her behavior on the beach was out of character, although it is in times of trial that we find out who we really are, so I could stretch my belief on that part.  She seemed really out of her body and out of touch with herself, evidenced by her affair, her job, and her interactions with Clarissa and Lawrence.  I thought it was ridiculous that he ended the novel that way, with Sarah and Charlie (What mother in her right mind???) returning to Nigeria with Little Bee.  The appearance of Andrew's manuscript was ill-conceived for me, because if this was to be his pathway to salvation and redemption, then why did the arrival of Little Bee drive him to suicide instead of him enlisting her help in his endeavor? ( I get it..the drugs, etc. but still)  So, the baddies win again and Little Bee meets her fate which she managed to elude for 2+ years.  I thought it was a hurried ending, losing the power of Little Bee's life force with every page.

For more information on the Niger-Delta Oil Conflict check out:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_in_the_Niger_Delta

I'm glad we read it, but I'm looking forward to the next book.  I have three suggestions for our next book.  Does anyone have two more?