The Bee Sting
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4.6 • 10 Ratings
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023
WINNER OF AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
The Barnes family are in trouble. Until recently they ran the biggest business in town, now they’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – and that’s just the start of their problems. Dickie and Imelda’s marriage is hanging by a thread; straight-A student Cass is careening off the rails; PJ is hopelessly in debt to the school bully. Meanwhile the ghosts of old mistakes are rising out of the past to meet them, but everyone’s too wrapped up in the present to see the danger looming . . .
'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' Guardian
'Generous, immersive, sharp-witted and devastating; the sort of novel that becomes a friend for life' Financial Times
‘Paul Murray [is] the undisputed reigning champion of epic Irish tragicomedy’ Spectator
‘An instant classic’ Washington Post
‘[An] astute, remorselessly funny novel’ Daily Mirror
‘A wagyu steak of a novel . . . A classic in the mode of The Corrections’ The Times
©2023 Paul Murray (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Customer Reviews
Unhappy family members are each unhappy in their own ways
3.5 stars
The author is Irish. An Evening Of Long Goodbyes (2003) was shortlisted for the Whitbread (now Costa). Skippy Dies (2010) was long listed for the Booker. (The eponymous character was an Irish schoolboy. No bush kangaroos were harmed.) This is his third novel. He likes to take his time.
The Barnes family live in the Irish midlands. Dickie, the father, took over a thriving VW dealership and automative repair business from his Dad after he retired to Portugal. The business is now failing, and not just because Dickie’s more interested in preparing for the apocalypse. His wife Imelda is p*ssed off that she can’t shop till she drops anymore, and has to sell all her lovely stuff on eBay. Her eldest daughter Cass feels abandoned by her bestie and abandons her previously studious ways in favour of underage drinking and snogging boys. Younger son PJ plans to run away from home.
Sequential narratives centred on each family member show where things went wrong and why, and reveal the many misconceptions they harbour of each other. The kids’ sections come first. In Skippy Dies, I thought Mr Murray wrote adolescent angst, at least of the Irish variety, as well if not better than anyone else I had ever read. That remains the case.
He changes tack for the Imelda section, the first part of which is a stream-of-consciousness narrative that evoked her personality nicely. I was less impressed with the latter part of her section and that of Dickie.
As well as uneven, the book was too damned long. That having been said, I never tired of the Irish accent in the audio version.