Why You Must Read Little Bee

Before I picked up Little Bee by Chris Cleave dozens of people recommended it to me. I kept meaning to get a copy, but somehow months went by before I picked up its bright orange cover and cracked it open. As soon as I read the first sentence with its simple yet unusually fascinating statement, I understood why so many had been moved by this little book. "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl."

Little Bee is the story of two women, complete strangers whose lives were irrevocably bound together during one terrifying afternoon on a beach in war-torn Nigeria. Little Bee is a 16-year old Nigerian girl who fled her country as a stowaway in a cargo ship bound for England. After spending two years in a prison for illegal immigrant, she makes her way to the outskirts of London to find Sarah, a woman she met by chance in Nigeria. Little Bee is not her real name. It's one she has chosen for herself to forget the pain and fear of her past. Little Bee is clearly an unusually intelligent girl, and she teaches herself how to speak flawless English from reading various newspapers in prison. Her observations of life in England, relayed in the novel as thoughts of how she would describe things to the girls back home, made me see my privileged world through a new set of eyes. Her poetic images, even finding parallels between Nigeria and the bitter essence of tea, were my favorite parts of the novel. 

Sarah is a typical Londoner. She is the editor of a successful and edgy women's magazine and the mother of a spirited toddler who refuses to take off his batman costume. She longs to feature serious pieces in her magazine but always ends up running stories on shallow topics like sex and fashion tips. She has a husband and a lover, and when her affair is discovered, she suggests an exotic trip to work on their marriage. Sarah is a tough career woman, so focused on adjusting to motherhood, a move to the suburbs, her disintegrating marriage, and the pressures of her job, that she is completely oblivious to the dangers of their vacation destination. That vacation radically resets the course of their marriage and their lives in ways they could never have imagined.

Although many spoke to me about Little Bee, not all reports were positive. Many people hated the ending. Others hated the characters, feeling either that Little Bee was too literate to be credible or that Sarah was too cold and insensitive. Perhaps part of the negative reactions are due to the author's British nationality, because it has a definite European viewpoint which could offend our more politically correct American views. Regardless of whether they hated or loved Little Bee, everyone who read it had a strong reaction to it, and felt moved to discuss it. This isn't a book you just read lightly. It's a book that challenges you to think about our role as Westerners, and challenges us to imagine how we would behave in an impossible situation. It makes us get off the fence and choose a side.

I loved Little Bee. I found the characters to be unusual and fascinating. The story was gripping and has been haunting me ever since. I too have become one of those people who grab strangers arms and passionately recommend Little Bee. It's why I'm wholeheartedly recommending it to you today. If you, like me, have picked up this slender orange book and put it back on the shelf, stop. You must read Little Bee. As Little Bee says early on in the narrative, "I am a born-again citizen of the developing world, and I will prove to you that the color of my life is gray." The debate on immigration will be forever altered after you read this book.