Hamish Hamilton The Bee Sting

An entertaining, well crafted, whirlwind of a family saga. Easily one of the best books I've read this year. It looks long, but the pages just fly by

Started Paul Murray's The Bee Sting back at the end of March, then set it down for a month or so while I read other things ... only to pick it up again and finish it in a whirlwind reading session that saw me knock out the entire second half in a day. It's now nearly two am, and I'm slowly beginning to come out of this whole "What?!?" mindspace that this book has thrown me into. 643 pages, over 300 of which I inhaled like a bag of Totino's pizza rolls (with ranch), and it's nearly impossible to discuss because everything hinges on spoilers.And I mean everything. The title, every plot thread, each bit of standout narrative that made my readerly ears perk up like little grey squirrels ... there isn't a bit of it where I can't say, "Oh, that relates to this," or "that reveals that," or "that hints at this and connects to these over here..." Which, to me, is a sign of a truly exceptional novel.Murray has taken what he sees as the virtues and vices of humanity and swirled them into the epic saga of a single Irish family as they individually struggle through their deeply personal issues following the economic crash that has sent them all into crisis. Dickie, the father, and his obsession in building a doomsday shelter in the woods behind their home despite the fact that the family business he's been left to manage is tanking; Imelda, Dickie's wife, stuck in a marriage she doesn't want to be in, selling off the family's assets just to be able to keep them afloat; daughter Cass whose friendship with the narcissistic Elaine has her struggling with alcoholism, her sexuality, and the path her future will take; and precocious little P.J., the frequent target of bullies, whose fears of being sent off to a boarding school has him making plans to disappear. The novel takes turns focusing on each character's narrative, oftentimes overlapping them, allowing us to experience those pivotal moments in each life that have led to its current crisis. I'm not usually a fan of familial dramas, but the characters in The Bee Sting were so completely realized that stepping away from the novel is like saying "goodbye" to a group of people that you've come to know on the most intimate of levels.What really makes this one stand out for me, however, are the control and expertise with which Paul Murray has woven this story. What appears as reality to one character will be shown as something else entirely when relayed through another character, giving the entire narrative intricate layers of reveals that feel almost like a puzzle gradually filling itself in. Add to this a multitude of plot threads that, at first encounter, seem like just one-off anecdotes, but turn out to be pivotal in filling in the gaps, giving the novel a refreshing sense of completeness that I've found lacking in much fiction lately. And even though there's a moment within The Bee Sting's 600-plus pages where Murray, through a side character's oration, spells out the novel's main themes, there is still so much left for the reader to unpack, so much open to interpretation that it begs to be discussed. Which I'd love to do here, but I can't. Because of spoilers. But rest assured, this novel does have something to say -- about love, about sacrifice, about trauma, good and evil, humanity and nature -- and it says it so well.Which is why I told Constance she has to read it immediately. I wanna be in the room with her when she gets to the last page.

Tutto è andato come previsto

Dickie takes over the family business after the death of his brother. But his dad and his customers don' t trust him. Moreover his private life interfere with his professional life.A very good description of the characters.A very good book.

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