Little Bee by Chris Cleave****

What's in a name?? For some of the characters in this book, it means safety. The story of a Nigerian refugee, Little Bee doesn't pull any punches - when it talks about difficult subject matter, it's going to be difficult to read. But it is honest. And its honesty has helped me re-align the context of my life in "the" world, as opposed to "my" world. I realize with breathtaking clarity that there are many things about the world that I do not know about: I do not really know fear, loss, grief, humiliation, or treachery. I do know (to a maddening degree, by comparison) safety, comfort, convenience, vanity, and triviality. This kind of re-definition can sometimes occur when you meet someone for the first time. The two women of this story, Sarah and Little Bee have such an effect on each other. Each having lost much, each guilty (of varying degree), each lonely in their own way, and each finding themselves in need of a redefinition.

As a reader, I found the beginning of this book a little confusing - but in a good way. At first it seemed that I had missed some big elements of the story (I thought maybe I was too sleepy when I was reading the first two chapters), but I eventually realized that I was receiving information as the author intended. Sometimes I find it rewarding when an author chooses to dispense puzzle pieces in a seemingly random manner - I feel so much more grateful for the pieces than if they were just handed out in sequential order.

A note of caution: While I found this novel incredibly satisfying, there are moments of stark violence ... as I said - Cleave pulls no punches. But I find, in media these days, that there's violence for the sake of entertainment, and there's violence for the sake of awakening us in a didactic sense. And, for me, the violence of the second nature, while sometimes more difficult to stomach, is the better kind of violence to bear. Because if it's just for the sake of entertainment, then what does it say about our society??