The Bee Sting by Paul Murray – Book Review
What we can learn about plot, style, and the ending
Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray was one of the best books I read in 2023. It was the perfect holiday season book for me. It has family drama, intriguing characters, a stunning style, and a plot that reads like a thriller. It was hard to put down. No wonder it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. I will warn you: you won’t be able to put it down, you’ll mourn finishing it, look up anything you can about the ending, and you’ll keep thinking about it for months afterwards.
About Paul Murray
The Bee Sting is Paul Murray’s (1975) fourth novel, following the successes of An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies, and The Mark and the Void. He is from Dublin and studied English Literature at Trinity College.
Plot and character analysis
The premise of the book starts like this:
“A patch of ice on the road, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil – can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life?”
So much intrigue already!
The Bee Sting is about the Barnes family living in a small Irish town. The book starts with a part seen through the eyes of the eldest child, Cass. You discover what’s stirring her behaviour and that of the other family members, which builds intrigue.
Photo credit: Booker Prizes
Cass is a promising young woman who is getting good grades and preparing herself to go to Trinity College in Dublin. But her father’s business troubles cast a dark cloud over her mood, and her ongoing obsession over her best friend Elaine doesn’t help either. Both girls are going on a drinking rampage during their high school exams.
The subsequent parts are written from the perspective of her younger brother, PJ, followed by her mother, Imelda and her dad, Dickie. You discover more and more as Paul Murray meticulously gives you pieces of the puzzle.
PJ hates it at home; no one is paying attention to him while the family faces bankruptcy. He is afraid his parents will split up and send him to boarding school. He devises a plan to escape, but because of his father’s financial wrongdoings, a bully is after him. The chapters from PJ's perspective offer interesting views on his family members. As a reader, you come to understand that something is up with all of them, especially the parents.
The parts from the mom and dad’s perspective give readers more background information about how their history has shaped their behaviour and decisions. Imelda is still the most beautiful woman in the village. A curse that has haunted her all her life. Her alcoholic father protected her like a coveted gem. She questions her past, and you slowly learn how she ended up so unhappy in life.
Because her husband’s car business is about to go under, Imelda takes matters into her own hands and sells her prized possessions on eBay to try to save face. She also meddles in the affairs to speak to her father-in-law and founder of the business to help the family out. Unbeknownst to her, this uncovers even more dark secrets.
Dickie never does anything that he wants, only what he feels others want from him (like taking over the family business). Numb to his financial problems, he’s building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a questionable friend. He’s running away from his past, but his suppressed feelings come to the surface when he has to face the consequences of his decisions.
In the third act, the storylines come together with humour, suspense, and wit. The characters alternate more frequently, leading to the ultimate crescendo.
Style
The story is playful yet thoroughly thought out. The style is refreshing. Murray bends the rules of pace, rhythm, voice, and punctuation. Every character chapter has its own unique style, form, humour, and perspective.
Cass’s chapters start off in an orderly and structured way, but her thoughts and actions slowly become more and more erratic. PJ's chapters are questioning, curious, but naive. Imelda’s sections are void of punctuation, underlining her manic and depressed state. It also stresses her lack of education compared to her family members.
With themes such as existentialism, feeling stuck in the past, financial troubles, depression, and abuse, this emotional rollercoaster of a novel gives a profound insight into the human psyche. It’s about how to live with your bad decisions from the past. How suppressed secrets and emotions - the truth - will eventually catch up with you.
The verdict
The Bee Sting is a masterclass on character building. It taught me how to set up and plot a story around characters. The past and present actions of these characters move the story in a wonderful, almost suspenseful way. Paul Murray uses alternating perspectives fuelled by mystery. So, if you loved Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads or The Corrections, you’re in for a treat. Honestly, I think The Bee Sting is even better.
It’s a story about a family who doesn’t know how to belong together, but they all desperately want to. Even though they do stupid things and make bad decisions, you sympathise with them and root for them. Nothing is as it seems, and some things that seem true or a fact at the beginning will take a surprising turn towards the end.
It’s gripping; the characters are fascinating and linger in your mind long after finishing the book. The pace is addictive, the feed of secrets is juicy, the humour is laugh-out-loud funny, and the themes and events make you question everything that has happened in your own family. It sure did for me.
Have you read the book already? What do you think?
***** (5 stars)
Join my email list to keep in touch.
Please note: this post contains affiliate links.
