Valet Reader

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

For some reason, which I haven’t quite figured out yet, my mother wanted me to read this book. When my mom recommends a book to me I usually skip all pretenses and read it, besides the rest of my family, who knows me best? I think her exact sentence was “I want to know what you think?” Well mom, here is what I think.

First off, I’ve categorized this as a “lady book” because the story centers around two women who are struggling to get passed the past and live life now. I don’t know if I would or could call them strong women but they are both righteous in their own ways. The men in this story, minus “batman,” are not so righteous and provide the reader with an overpowering sense of weakness of character in each of them, which does of course empower the women all the more.

This is actually a very difficult book to review in that I don’t want to give anything away and by saying to much there will be nothing for you, yourself, to discover or learn when you pick it up. I will say this, it was an enjoyable read and without having any idea as to what will happen or being able to foresee what is going to happen the reader is pretty much engaged from the beginning.

What I can tell you is that it is a story of a Nigerian refugee. What you will learn from this book is depressing and it is not a happy tale. It will most likely open your eyes to some things that you may or may not have already known, and things that some government institutions would probably rather keep quiet. Read this book and learn something, learn how perhaps many of the things we take for granted are not available to people where corporations, governments, soldiers and mercenaries rule the land.

I wouldn’t be too surprised to find out somewhere down the line that is an “Oprah” book or a book that wins some awards. It’s well written and well thought out. It’s clear that Mr. Cleave devoted much time and research into getting things right and the final outcome leaves little to question about what happens or happened in the environments that he writes about. Like I said, I’d love to write more about this book and give you more details as to my thoughts but I can’t really do so without giving the whole story away. It’s not exactly an uplifting book but nevertheless I would recommend it.