The Bee Sting: Comedy meets tragedy in this hilarious Booker Prize shortlisted novel

Thought provoking read about the tragedy of the world, identity, the disconnect of negative space that develops in relationships and the secrets we keep, all told with wit and a relevance that is hard not to resonate with. Brilliant read.

Gripping tale of a family living under the shadow of a tragedy of Frank’s death. Really about a family disintegrating and complete lack of honest communication and where that leads. It’s written from each character’s reality so it’s made crystal clear none of them can reach the others with the truth.It leads to a tragic ending which is ludicrous and unbelievable but very dramatic. Nevertheless it’s a great read. With some interesting points about how we should cope with the climate crisis!

This is such a hard book to review. I had such mixed feelings throughout, interest, boredom, excitement, frustration, willing it along, staying power. I feel like this book is 4 stories wrapped in 1 so that's how I'm reviewing it.Dickie ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Cass ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️PJ ⭐️⭐️Imelda ⭐️Average ⭐️⭐️⭐️Dickie and Cass had the most interesting stories in my view. They both went through quite considerable journeys of discovery exploring topics of family, sexuality, independence, financial troubles, environmental issues and much more nuanced points.PJ felt like filler. He added the occasional interesting story point but mostly we're just wondering if he's going to allow himself to get groomed by his online friend.Imelda nearly made this a DNF for me. The lack of punctuation in her story kept dragging me out of the flow. I feel like a good author could demonstrate the same level of chaotic behaviour and thinking whilst still using punctuation. I might have enjoyed Imelda more had it not been so difficult to get through. I hated her by the end of her main section.The chapters in the beginning are epic, and not in a good way, they're endless, 3 hours of reading in one place. There are chapters within the chapters separated by spaces and I find it frustrating that the author couldn't have given us a break.By the end the story is so fast paced you're on the edge of your seat, forgetting every reason you nearly DNFd the book half way in.The ending...frustrating but interesting.

Really one of the best books I have read in a long time. The writing from each perspective was intricate and well thought out. Everything interlinked at the end leaving you to consider what the ending would be long after the novel ends. Beautiful. Thank you.I read this on the kindle version and some lines and pages were not transcribed leaving you to guess the storyline in between. This was the only thing that was disappointing but nothing to do with the novel and writer itself. Please look at the kindle version again and correct it.

Parts of this very long book are so good that brilliant is an understatement, for example, the account of Dickie's accident. Most of the main characters are well drawn and there is some wonderful word imagery too, for example "His brother's life often reminded him of a soap opera written in crayon."On the down side, it's full of all the current trends that drive me nuts, present tense narrative, time shift and non standard punctuation. This is particularly true of The Widow Bride. Is the author trying to show that Imelda is uneducated? Has the punctuation disappeared in the transcription for Kindle? Who knows?What really lets it down is the ending. Although the writing is really powerful and exciting suddenly it just stops leaving you to write your own ending, a bit like a 1960 plot.(Why is Amazon asking the age of the person this was bought for? Surely it's for adults?)

I enjoyed the book as the language was superb. The author is king of the simile. He wasn’t so good at characterisation as I felt much of the plot was unbelievable.

A very strange read. Written in an unusual style without full stops!!! Somehow I felt I needed to continue in order to get my head around it. But then there was no proper ending. No satisfactory conclusion. Not sure what it was trying to portray. Maybe that life is a mess.

What a rollercoaster of a family saga! Even though the absence of punctuation in Imelda's chapters (one of them very long) annoyed me, and the use of the second person singular in the second half of the book confused me, I still feel I have to give it five stars. The writing is superb and Paul Murray seems to be able to get into the heads of every age-group and gender. There's plenty of comedy, darkness, bad decisions and their consequences - particularly how one action can set in motion a whole complex matrix of altered destinies that filters down through generations. The narrative cleverly leads you to imagine what has brought the characters to where they are, then the past is revealed to show you how wrong you were. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending - part of me totally gets it but another part was left wanting closure.

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.

Witty, makes you feel all kinds of things, the characters are perfectly built and you can’t tell what’s coming next. My new favorite book.

Tutto è andato come previsto

Spannend bis zur letzten Seite

So much has already been written and said about this book. I have been waiting to read it for the longest time. Based in Ireland, it is a tale about a family who witnesses a flourishing family business take a downfall due to a financial crash. The story is narrated through each individual family member and what each one goes through personally at such dire, trying times.The characters Imelda(mother), Cass(elder sister), PJ(younger brother) and Dickie(father) are unique in their own rights as well as have dynamic similarities as a family. As I entered into their world, I felt two things simultaneously, first they were a dysfunctional family. Second, the writing is so powerful, it easily transported me into my literature classes back in the day. I couldn't stop marvelling enough at Mr. Murray's command of inserting humour in such a situation.Personally, I was most intrigued by the character PJ, a little boy, the youngest in the family. His brilliant yet innocent mind kept me turning pages.The descriptions are detailed and exhaustive, the emotional baggage each parent and child carry was meticulously done. I found myself empathising with each character as well as hating them many times. After leading a privileged life, how does a person react when plunged into poverty facedown?It took me a more than a while to complete this story, as it is long. Somewhere in the middle, I felt the pace dip slightly. Nevertheless, I didn't give up and am glad I didn't. As the pace does pick up. My only major concern and advice is that please don't buy the kindle version, as halfway through the story, many pages have punctuations missing in them. That was a big disappointment.For all those who enjoy powerful prose and a good dark comedy, this one is for you. Wait till you reach the climax, you will have many sleepless nights.