Fionnáin reviewed The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Characters and caricatures
3 stars
Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is a portrait of a family in Ireland around the time of the global economic crash (2008-2012-ish). It is written from the points of view of the main characters, each of whom appears at first like a caricature of an Irish rural person, and then gradually broadens out into a much more nuanced individual.
At times when reading this, I loved it so much. I was engrossed in the people and how they behaved, and I marvelled at how Murray managed to write some characters so well. It was also funny at times. But at other times, it reverted back into caricature, and I found it frustrating and slow, a book that told little.
Having lived in rural Ireland at that time, and knowing how it affected so many people in such terrible ways, I also found the delivery a little hollow at times. This …
Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is a portrait of a family in Ireland around the time of the global economic crash (2008-2012-ish). It is written from the points of view of the main characters, each of whom appears at first like a caricature of an Irish rural person, and then gradually broadens out into a much more nuanced individual.
At times when reading this, I loved it so much. I was engrossed in the people and how they behaved, and I marvelled at how Murray managed to write some characters so well. It was also funny at times. But at other times, it reverted back into caricature, and I found it frustrating and slow, a book that told little.
Having lived in rural Ireland at that time, and knowing how it affected so many people in such terrible ways, I also found the delivery a little hollow at times. This period was emotive, filled with a hard and sad edge for so many people, and the characters in this book seem insulated from this. Also, the technologies and cultural references were a little off in their history, which was jarring.
Overall, this was a good read, tough at times, light at others, and very human.