2011
Seattle Reads
by ChrisCleave
supporting our
Libraries
A Reading Group Toolbox for Little Bee
Presented by the Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library
Toolbox contents
About the Author
2
A Conversation with Chris Cleave
3
Little Bee Discussion Questions
7
Incendiary Discussion Questions
8
Recommended Reading
9
Book Group How-Tos
12
Seattle Reads
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Little Bee
by Chris Cleave
A Conversation with Chris Cleave
Q: Your new novel, Little Bee, is told by dual voices. What about this particular story
Two narrators tell a story of how their lives are forever changed and linked when
called for that narrative choice?
they meet one fateful day on a beach in Nigeria: Little Bee, a young refugee in the
CC: Little Bee is about two women who cross boundaries – emotional limits and
UK, and Sarah, posh British magazine editor and mother of four-year-old Charlie,
international borders – that most people wouldn’t cross. I use the dual perspective
who refuses to take off his Batman costume.
because I want to let the reader see the view from both sides of the borderlines,
Released from a British immigration detention center where she has been held
under horrific conditions for two years, Little Bee seeks out the only English person
she knows. Eventually, what happened when Little Bee and Sarah first met – a brief,
traumatic event that has haunted each ever since – is revealed.
decide for themselves what they would do when they reach the book’s big
questions, and see which of the leads they empathize with: Sarah, who has most of
what she wants except happiness, or Little Bee, who has lost everything except her
sense of humor. By alternating the voices I hope that something quite unexpected
happens – we realize the two women have a lot in common. I’m a believer that
people are mostly good, and that the cultural differences between a Western
woman and an African girl can be smaller than their ability to like each other as
About the Author
Chris Cleave lives in London with his family. His
first novel, Incendiary, about a terrorist bomb
individuals.
Q: The two voices that tell this story both belong to women – how does a male
writer write convincingly from a woman’s point of view?
in London, was published in Britain July 7,
CC: Actually I don’t think there is one “woman’s point of view.” I’m guessing
2005, the day of the London subway and train
there are as many wholly distinct women’s points of view as there are women.
bombings that killed 52 people and injured
Maybe gender is not the most fundamental component that constitutes a person’s
hundreds. Cleave’s second novel, titled Little
character. So as a writer I try to observe people carefully and to allow their
Bee in Canada and the U.S., is a New York Times
uniqueness to become visible behind the mask of their gender.
bestseller. Titled The Other Hand in the UK, it is
a Sunday Times bestseller.
Q: The title character, Little Bee, is a young African girl seeking political asylum in
Britain. How did you, a white man, get inside the head of a Nigerian girl?
CC: Again the bet I’m making is that there is not one universal female experience,
one universal black experience, or one universal African experience. I try to find
the individual. Little Bee knows fear in a way that I have never experienced it. She
nourishes hope with a ferocity exceeding that with which I have ever had to nourish
hope. She’s been hungrier than I’ve ever been, and I dare say she’s laughed harder
too. These are the things I think about: what are the darkest and the brightest days
in a person’s life, the days that have made them unique. As a writer of characters
this works better for me than to think, hey, she’s from Nigeria, and she’s black, so
obviously she’d say this.
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Q: The violence that causes Sarah and Little Bee’s lives to converge is part of what
Q: Sarah’s four-year-old son, Charlie, lives in a fantasy world in which he believes
Sarah calls an “unofficial, three-way oil war.” Is it based on true events?
he is Batman. Did you include this in the novel merely for comic relief, or some
CC: Absolutely. Nigeria is the world’s eighth-largest petroleum exporting nation. It
deeper reason?
produces the same output as Kuwait – more than Iraq, more than Libya, more than
CC: Both, really. I love Charlie – he’s very much based on my eldest son. When
Mexico. And there has been endless violence and corruption connected with the
I wrote the book my son was four years old and he didn’t care who knew it. He
oil exploitation – many there see it as a curse on the nation. The three-way struggle
wore his bat suit day and night and would only answer to “Batman.” He basically
is between the Nigerian federal government, the indigenous peoples who live in
spent a lot of time fighting crime, which was pretty funny. But the character of
the Niger Delta region where the oil is, and the Western oil companies who exploit
Charlie is in the book for a serious reason too. Little Bee is a novel about identity:
the oil concessions. Almost everyone has made a fortune except the villagers from
national, racial, public and personal. The question is where our individuality
whose land the oil is extracted. Many, many lives have been lost.
lies, and whether there are layers of identity we need to give up in order to
become ourselves. Therefore, the metaphor of a kid who is engaging in his first
Q: Have you been to Nigeria and witnessed the horrors that are at the center of
experiments with identity – in this case by assuming the persona of Batman – is a
Little Bee?
pointed one. Innocence is lost when identities are adopted, but I would suggest
CC: No I haven’t, and no I wouldn’t – not to the Niger Delta area where the
that innocence can be regained.
Nigerian parts of the book are set. Westerners there are frequently kidnapped and
ransomed. I wouldn’t dare. Everything I know about that area is from journalists,
Q: Little Bee is a hybrid of humor and horror – even as they recount the terrible
much braver people than me.
things they have endured, both Sarah and Little Bee do so with wit, or at least an
acknowledgement of the absurdity of life. Why did you choose this comic tone?
Q: You’ve written that the first germ of this novel surfaced when you “went to a
Was it a hard balance to strike?
concentration camp by mistake.” What happened?
CC: Again it’s not for me to judge whether I have the balance right. The humor
CC: Yes, it was a chance encounter that really shook me up. Around fifteen years
comes naturally to me as a response to horror – I find some things so harrowing to
ago I was working as a casual laborer over the summer, and for three days I worked
think about that I try to suck the poison out by making myself laugh – either at the
in the canteen of Campsfield House in Oxfordshire in the UK. It’s a detention center
thing itself, or at the next thing that comes along. I think this is quite a common
for asylum seekers – a prison, if you like, full of people who haven’t committed a
human response. And I found it in the refugees I interviewed while researching the
crime but who are concentrated there for ease of processing. That’s the textbook
novel. Some of them were always laughing about their own stories, and making
definition of a concentration camp, which is why I use the term. I don’t for a
me laugh too, and I realized what a deep and subtle form of strength they had.
moment mean to imply that the conditions in the UK detention centers compare
You haven’t lost everything if you still have a sense of humor. You haven’t lost your
to those of the Nazi concentration camps of the ’30s and ’40s. But the conditions
identity or your will to overcome.
in Campsfield House were very distressing. I got talking with asylum seekers who’d
4
been through hell and were likely to be sent back to hell. Some of them were
Q: What are you trying to do as a writer? To entertain? Or to change attitudes?
beautiful characters and it was deeply upsetting to see how my country was treating
CC: I make this rule for myself: to seek out the biggest story in town, then to tell
them. When we imprison the innocent we shame ourselves, and when we deport
it in the most unexpected way, for the most adventurous readers. So my readers
them it’s often a death sentence. I knew I had to write about it, because it’s such
are smart and I’m not in the business of lecturing them. I see my job as providing
a dirty secret. And I knew I had to show the unexpected humor of these refugees
new information in an entertaining way. Readers will then use that information as
wherever I could, and to make the book an enjoyable and compelling read.
the spirit moves them. I think the job is important because there’s something you
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can do in fiction that you don’t have the space to do in news media, which is to give
Little Bee
back a measure of humanity to the subjects of an ongoing story.
Q: What would Little Bee do if she was allowed to stay as a citizen?
For Discussion
CC: I think Little Bee could do anything she set her mind to, because by definition
1.
Little Bee begins her story talking about what life would be like for her once
she is a survivor. When I was a teenager in the late ‘80s, we thought of asylum
she learned the Queen’s English or if she were a pound note. How is language
seekers as heroes. The hundreds who died while trying to cross the Berlin Wall, for
currency? Why does language come to represent hope for Little Bee?
example. Or the pilots, performers and scientists who defected from the Soviet
Union. Or the heroes of previous generations – Sigmund Freud, who fled to London
2.
true? What did you learn from the different perspectives?
to escape the Nazis, or Anne Frank, who could not flee far enough. Albert Einstein,
Karl Marx, Joseph Conrad – all of them refugees – I could go on and on. When
horror and darkness descend, asylum seekers are the ones who get away. They are
3.
4.
Reprinted with permission of Simon & Schuster
How are Sarah, Andrew, and Little Bee changed by the decisions they make on
the beach?
are the people you want to have on your side. It will be a monument to our hubris if
we allow ourselves to start thinking of asylum seekers as a burden.
Why does Sarah’s four-year-old son, Charlie, need his Batman costume? What
are the deeper meanings around costumes and masks in this novel?
typically above average in terms of intellectual gifts, far-sightedness, motivation and
resilience. It goes even beyond our moral obligation to provide a safe haven. These
What did you think of Little Bee and Sarah’s narration? Did the voices ring
5.
Why does Lawrence feel threatened by Sarah’s relationship with Little Bee?
6.
Little Bee says, “I do not think I have left my country. I think it has traveled with
me.” How do the places we come from shape us and what does it mean to
belong?
7.
What are some of the stories the characters tell during the course of the novel?
Why does Little Bee store them up to tell “the girls back home”?
8.
Globalization is a recurrent theme in Little Bee. How does Cleave’s story deal
with globalization and other political issues?
9.
What does this book say about surviving horrific events? How does each
character deal with violence and grief?
10. Why did the author call this book Little Bee? What do you think of its original
title, The Other Hand?
11. The end of the book is ambiguous. What do you think happened?
12. Why does the novel close with this Nigerian proverb: “If your face is swollen
from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man”? How
does the proverb relate to the book as a whole?
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Incendiary
For Discussion
1.
2.
Diamant, Anita. Day After Night (2009)
narrator? How did this narrative style work for you?
Four Jewish women meet in a British-run detention camp in Palestine following their
Incendiary debuted on July 7, 2005, on the same day as the London subway
2001, affect your reaction to the fictionalized May Day bombings in the novel?
How do you view the measures that are taken in the wake of the May Day
attacks to commemorate the tragedy, and to guard against future attacks?
4.
What do you think of the working class narrator’s relationship with Jasper, and
with Petra? How does class relate to the rest of the story?
5.
6.
7.
ordeals and hopes for the future.
Eggers, Dave. What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak
Deng (2006)
In this novel based on the harrowing and inspiring true story of a Sudanese Lost
Boy’s life, Deng relates his journey from refugee camps to America. Eggers and
Deng have created a nonprofit foundation to help youth in the Sudan.
McEwan, Ian. Atonement (2002)
A single lie by a little girl in 1935 sets up a series of events that changes the lives of
a few of the things that make these people want to murder us.” What is behind
her upper middle class English family and their servants throughout the rest of the
that statement?
20th century.
What did you think of how the narrator dealt with her grief before and after
Mengestu, Dinaw. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007)
Terrence Butcher told her what the police knew on May 1?
Ethiopian émigré Sepha Stephanos, who owns a small store in a gentrifying area
The book has been called tragicomic, outrageous (New York Times), and
balance of wit and despair?
Is the author advancing a moral or political argument in this work? If so, how
might you describe their position?
9.
escape from post-WWII Europe, and create a bond through the sharing of their
On page 182, Terence Butcher observes, “We’ve simply got to stop doing just
“hilariously sympathetic” (San Francisco Chronicle). What did you think of the
8.
Fiction
Why did the author choose to frame the novel as a letter from an unnamed
bombings. Does knowing what happened on July 7, or on September 11,
3.
Recommended Reading
Both Incendiary and Little Bee deal with difficult, politically charged topics.
How would you compare their approaches, and your own experience of the
books?
of Washington DC, narrates a story of the immigrant experience. This 2008 Seattle
Reads selection explores themes of race and class relations, what it means to lose
family and a country, and what it takes to create a new home.
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Gravedigger’s Daughter (2007)
Rebecca Schwart, whose parents fled Nazi Germany, tries to suppress memories
of a horrific act committed by her father. Themes of social injustice, sudden male
violence and shattered identity make this a fitting complement to Little Bee.
Simpson, Mona. My Hollywood (2010)
This story of modern day class differences between pretentious Hollywood families
and their immigrant domestic workers is told in alternating chapters by Claire and
Lola, the nanny. Lola oversteps her boundaries by developing a close relationship
with the little boy she cares for, but she never forgets her responsibilities to her
family in the Philippines.
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Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Peel, Michael. A Swamp Full of Dollars: Pipelines and Paramilitaries at Nigeria’s Oil
The Joads, Oklahoma tenant farmers whose farm has blown away, become refugees
Frontier (2009)
in their own country, struggling westward toward the promised land of California on
How do you describe such precarious lives except to trace the brutal cost of oil
a road freighted with human misery and the imperishable will to survive.
from oil camp to corporation?
Styron, William. Sophie’s Choice (1979)
Pipher, Mary Bray. The Middle of Everywhere: The World’s Refugees Come to
Searching for his own identity, a young writer becomes fascinated by Sophie, a
Our Town (2002)
woman whose enigmatic beauty has been forever stamped by a terrible bargain in
As traditions of the newcomers to Lincoln, Nebraska, become understood, changes
her tragic past.
in a way of life, unchanged for generations, are seen in the people of the Plains.
Nonfiction
Thometz, Kurt. Life Turns Man Up and Down: High Life, Useful Advice and Mad
Achebe, Chinua. The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009)
Insightful essays, illuminating historical and contemporary relationships that shaped
Nigeria and its people, reveal the complexity of language and identity.
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007)
War wrought its terrible transformation on a boy and the only world he knew.
Girded by a tradition of village storytelling, Ishmael retraces the harrowing path of
his past.
English (2001)
Once, pamphlets with advice on love, admonishments about money, stories and
plays could be bought in the stalls of Onitsha market. Plentiful as dreams were
these early publishing efforts until the industry vanished in the nightmare of war.
Watts, Michael. Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta (2008)
In striking photographs, the history of the production of oil and its devastating
effect upon the Niger Delta is revealed.
Crystal, David. As They Say in Zanzibar (2008)
In this book of proverbs, the first to appear in more than eighty years, more than a
hundred countries provide entry to a world of pithy wisdom.
Cunliffe-Jones, Peter. My Nigeria: Five Decades of Independence (2010)
A personal perspective, based on a family legacy that began in the 19th century,
enlightens this reflective account of how colonialism engendered the creation of
Nigeria’s difficult present.
De Blij, Harm J. The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny and Globalization’s Rough
Landscape (2009)
An intriguing theory presented through maps measures the impact, from culture to
geologic risk, of birthplace on the quality of an individual’s life.
Moorehead, Caroline. Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees (2005)
The complexity of the life of the refugee is relayed, through heart-wrenching
accounts, by those who escaped or have been driven away from home and country.
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Try these kinds of books:
Book Group How-Tos
• Books with ambiguous endings.
For example, not everyone agrees about what actually happened in Tim O’Brien’s
Ideas for setting up a book discussion group from the Washington Center
for the Book at The Seattle Public Library
Getting Started
Before (or at) your first meeting, discuss:
• When, where, and how often will your book group meet?
• How long will each meeting last?
• Will you serve refreshments?
• What is the role of the leader, or will you even designate a leader?
• Who develops the discussion questions?
• What types of books will you read and discuss: Fiction, memoirs, nonfiction, a
combination? Contemporary works, classics, both?
Choosing Good Books for Discussion
Choosing what books to read is one of the most important activities the group
will undertake. One of the best parts of belonging to a book discussion group is that
In the Lake of the Woods, James Buchan’s The Persian Bride, or Donna Tartt’s The
Little Friend.
• Books to read together.
Discuss both books at the same meeting or in separate meetings. Examples:
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Truth and
Beauty by Ann Patchett and Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, Persepolis
and Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi.
• Books that raise many, many issues.
Some books raise so many questions and issues that you just can’t stop talking
about them. Examples: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, A Lesson Before Dying
by Ernest Gaines, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.
Not every member is going to like every book the group chooses. Everyone may
read the same book, but in fact, every member is reading a different book. Everyone
brings her own unique history, memories, background, and influences. Everyone is in
a different place in his life when he reads the book. All of these differences influence
you will be introduced to authors and books you’re unfamiliar with, and books that
the reader’s experience of a book and why she may like or dislike it.
fall outside your regular areas of interest.
Reading a Book for Discussion
Remind people that there can be a big difference between “a good read”
and “a good book for a discussion.” Select your group’s books well in advance (at
least six months works well), so that you don’t have to spend time at each meeting
deciding what to read next.
What makes a good book for a discussion? Probably the most important criteria
are that the book be well written and that it explores basic human truths.
Look for books with complex, three-dimensional characters who are forced
to make difficult choices under difficult situations. Try to read with an open mind.
Characters don’t have to be likable in order for you to identify and sympathize.
Francine Prose, in Reading Like a Writer (HarperCollins, 2006), writes “masterpieces
survive in which all that’s expected of us is that we be interested in the characters,
engaged by their fates, intrigued by their complexities, curious about what will
happen to them next.”
Books that are heavily plot driven and spell out everything can leave little to
discuss. Some mysteries, Westerns, romances and science fiction/fantasy fall in this
category. There are many guides available to help book groups focusing on genre
Reading for a book discussion – whether you are the leader or simply a
participant – differs from reading purely for pleasure. Ask yourself questions, read
carefully, and imagine yourself in the story. Think about the style and structure of
the book.
• Make notes and mark pages as you go. This may slow your reading, but saves
time searching for key passages later.
• Ask tough questions of yourself and the book. Look for questions that will lead to
in-depth conversations with your group.
• Analyze themes. What is the author trying to say in the book?
• Get to know the characters. Consider their faults and motives and what it would
be like to know them. Read portions aloud to get to know the voices of the
characters.
• Notice the book’s structure. Do the chapters begin with quotes? How many
people tell the story? Is the book written in flashbacks? Does the order make
sense to you?
fiction find good books for discussion.
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• Compare to other books and authors. Themes often run through an author’s
works. Comparing one author’s work with another’s can help you solidify your
opinions and define qualities you may otherwise miss.
Leading the Discussion
Sample Discussion Questions
Examine the book
• How does the title relate to the book?
• How believable are the characters? Which character do you identify with?
• Have 10-15 open-ended questions that can’t be answered “yes” or “no.”
• Why do certain characters act the way they act?
• Or ask each group member to bring one discussion question. Readers will focus
• How believable and interesting are the plot and subplots? What loose ends, if
on different aspects of the book, and everyone will gain new insights as a result.
• Remind the group that there are not necessarily any right answers to the
questions posed.
• Push members beyond “I just didn’t like it” statements. What made the book
unappealing? The style? The pacing? The characters? Books that inspire strong
reactions, positive and negative, lead to some of the best discussions.
• Balance the discussion between personal thoughts and responses to the book.
any, did the author leave?
• How is the book structured? Flashbacks? Many points of view? Why do you think
the author chose to write the book this way?
• What themes recur throughout the book?
• How important is the setting of the book to the theme?
Draw conclusions
It’s too easy to let a group drown in reminiscences. If that’s what the whole group
• What is the great strength – or most noticeable weakness – of the book?
wants to do, that’s fine, but keep in mind that then it’s not a book discussion.
• What did the author try to do in the book? Was he or she successful?
Learning More About an Author
Discussion leaders may want to bring background information about the author
and book to a meeting. Some online resources are:
• Booklist Online
Think outside the book
• What is the author’s worldview?
• How does this book fit into or fight against a literary genre? Does this book typify
a regional (southern, western) novel?
• Literature Resource Center
• What, if any, broader social issues does the book address?
• NoveList Plus
• Where could the story go after the book ends? What is the future of these
A Seattle Public Library card may be required to access these online databases.
characters’ lives?
• How does this book compare to other books you’ve read? Would it make a good
movie? Is there a film adaptation of this book? What is brought out or played
down in the film version?
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Seattle Reads
The Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library invites
everyone to take part in “Seattle Reads,” a project designed to deepen engagement
in literature through reading and discussion. Each year the Library hosts an author for
a series of free programs. Prior to the visit, we develop a reading group toolbox and
encourage people throughout the region to read and discuss the featured book. We
also host a series of programs, film screenings, readings, and other events around
the themes of the featured work.
Featured Works
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2010:
Secret Son by Laila Lalami (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009)
2009:
My Jim by Nancy Rawles (Three Rivers Press, 2005)
2008:
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
(Riverhead Books, 2007)
2007:
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books, 2003)
2006:
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon Books, 2003)
2005:
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (Anchor Books, 2002)
2004:
Seattle Reads Isabel Allende
My Invented Country (HarperCollins, 2003)
City of the Beasts (HarperCollins, 2002)
Paula (HarperCollins, 1995)
The Infinite Plan (HarperCollins, 1993)
The Stories of Eva Luna (Atheneum, 1991)
Eva Luna (Knopf, 1988)
The House of the Spirits (Knopf, 1985)
Note: The 2004 series featured seven titles from Allende’s body of work
2003:
A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books, 1999)
2002:
Wild Life by Molly Gloss (Mariner Books, 2001)
2001:
Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft by Bill Moyers
(Morrow, 1999)
1999:
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (Vintage Books, 1994)
1998:
The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks (HarperCollins, 1991)
2011 Seattle Reads
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2011
Seattle Reads
For more information, contact:
Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library
1000 Fourth Ave. • Seattle, WA 98104
Chris Higashi, Program Manager
[email protected]
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter @splbuzz
Contributors to this toolbox include Jennifer Baker, Chris Higashi, Linda
Johns, Beth Kashner, Misha Stone, Carletta Wilson, and David Wright.
Seattle Reads aims to foster reading and discussion of works by authors
of diverse cultures and ethnicities. The 2011 series is made possible with
additional support from KUOW 94.9 Public Radio, Simon & Schuster,
The Elliott Bay Book Co., and University Book Store.