小蜜蜂

Title：The Little Bee
Author: Cleave, Chris (1973- )
New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2010, c2008
271 p. ; 22 cm
Read by: 06/17/2011, borrowed from WBPL, later in my collection
Genre: Fiction


Excellent! This could be the writing style I have been seeking for myself: Simple and sophisticated. Narration from Sarah’s perspective had a lot analog, using a thing for a seeing or situation. Readers can understand and connect to it. Amy Tan used quite many analogs in her books Joy Luck Club and One Hundred Secret Senses, mostly from Chinese folk tales, they were exotic to English readers and they could feel connected at the time, but not after. Chris took advantage of the day to day objects readers can attach with for a much longer time. Very often, I was impressed by the author - he was really clever. So he was. The narration from Little Bee’s perspective went the similar way, but it had more to it: Children’s logic or perception. It was sometimes funny and gave humorous touch to the tragedy. Example: Your culture has become sophisticated, like a computer, or a drug that you take for a headache. You can use it, but you cannot explain how it works. Another one: If I mention to you, casually, that Sarah’s house was close to a large park full of deer that were very tame, you do not jump up out of your seat and shout, My god! Fetch me my gun and I will go to hunt one of those foolish animals! No, instead, you stay seated and you rub your chin wisely and you say to yourself, Hmm, I suppose that must be Richmond Park, just outside London.