Sep 24

Sep 24 The Bee Sting

Author: Paul Murray
Publisher: FSG Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?

TL;DR Review

Layered, ambitious, and gripping, The Bee Sting is 500 pages of family saga followed by 150 pages of literary thriller that we absolutely need. I hope it wins the Booker!

For you if: You like long books about characters that could step off the page as they break your heart.

Full Review

I was excited to read The Bee Sting even before it was longlisted (now shortlisted) for the Booker Prize, thanks to this incredible plug in LitHub’s list of most anticipated 2023 books. While I recognize that this chonker isn’t going to be for everyone, it was absoLUTEly for me.

500 pages of family saga followed by 150 pages of literary thriller, The Bee Sting is layered, ambitious, and gripping. We are introduced to four members of a single family living in rural Ireland in the early 2010s: Cass, in her final days of high school; 12-year-old PJ, brilliant and largely friendless; Imelda, their mother trying to save them from the recession; and Dickie, their father, who makes his living as owner of the local car dealership that was once his father’s. With every person we meet, our understanding of all the secrets and dynamics between them deepens, until all that tension reaches an explosive, dizzying end.

I freakin love a family saga, especially the really well-done kind where the characters tug at me from deep in my gut (as this one does). I’m deeply impressed with how distinct and realistic each character’s voice was, especially the two children; Paul Murray is insanely talented at this part of his craft. I also really loved all the flashbacks, especially in Imelda and Dickie’s sections. I know some reviewers felt a bit whiplashed, but I found so much depth in them. In fact, I think they’re what really give those two characters to us, as readers, and I often didn’t want to return to the present at all. And WHEW, that ending. It took some contemplation for me to feel satisfied by it, but it’s clearly the right ending for this book.

There’s so much to say and unpack here, and a review only has so much space. But I’m so glad that the Booker of the Month book club got to read it together and discuss. I’m rooting for this one to win the Booker!