THE BEE STING

by Paul Murray

The Bee Sting amazes in so many ways that I want to ensure that this review does it justice.   Paul Murray has created a big, exuberant book filled with a score of likeable characters, multiple plot points, heart-wrenching revelations and a good dose of humor.  Although it comes in at 600-plus pages, it never drags.  A popular Irish author, Murray has set this family saga in Ireland, which adds to its appeal.  Although his characters feel familiar, they are also slightly foreign—almost old-fashioned—which lends a pleasant feeling of nostalgia to the book.

As the novel opens, we are dropped into the lives of Dickie Barnes and his family.  Dickie’s car dealership is struggling to survive; his wife Imelda is increasingly dissatisfied with their marriage; Dickie’s daughter seems to be intentionally sabotaging her chances to attend university; and his son wanders endlessly in the woods behind the family home. As the story unfolds, we learn the backstories of each character and how the family arrived at the tipping point where we find them. Imelda and Dickie were married seventeen years previously in a ceremony that took place mere weeks after Dickie’s brother, Imelda’s original fiancé, died in a car crash. The reader finds herself cheering on poor Dickie as he desperately tries to fill his dead brother’s shoes: in the family business, as a husband and as a man.  It is this last requirement that ultimately leads to his undoing.

The Bee Sting offers both a fascinating study of one family and an intelligent look at society’s impact on families.  I can’t recommend this novel highly enough.  Besides being a great read, it has one of the most unexpected and shocking endings of any book I can remember reading. (Liz)