Any one read Bee Sting?

[orangelotus]

I loved this but am totally perplexed by the ending!
Anyone got any opinions on it ?

I loved it too. The ending is deliberately ambiguous, but you’re clearly meant to think that Dickie accidentally killed some or all of his family. Very clever how all the various strands came together at the end.

Just finished this yesterday. I'd heard the ending was frustrating to some readers so I was prepared.

I really enjoyed it, I have an idea what happened

I’m assuming that anyone who is on this thread will already have read the book?
If you’re an optimistic type you could assume that they were all ok at the end. I thought it was a terrific book and should win the Booker.

I really enjoyed it though I preferred Prophet Song and hope it wins.
The open ending is a bit frustrating. I had the feeling that he shot Cass though I can’t remember why I thought that.

Yes it seemed as though Big Mike and the blackmailer dealt with each other .
I just loved PJ and wanted to know he was ok?
I wonder was it a case that throughout the whole story no one ( except Rose) seemed to know who they were or if they did kept their true selves deeply hidden. So the ending just emphasised this not knowing and put us readers in the same position?
Definitely a book that will stay with me.

. I had the feeling that he shot Cass though I can’t remember why I thought that

@BaruFisher That's exactly what I thought, it's because Rose said Cass should never ever come back, she has to stay away.

Can we PLEASE have spoilers in the heading!! Fuck sake!!!

On the other hand, the OP specifically asks for opinions on the ending, which implies she’s expecting people to have read the book before joining the thread. It’s actually really difficult to discuss the ending of this book without giving stuff away about it.

I read it as Cassie sacrificed herself to save PJ.

There were lots of foreshadows especially about the squirrels. The trap guy ( can't remember his name) said there were no red squirrels but PJ saw one, and Rose on her death bed says "Skirls... Skirls". And Cassie feeling responsible for PJ and selfish for letting him run away. And didn't PJ save her when they were kids?

Oh my god just finished this. Mind blown!! I expect this book is a lot cleverer than I am, I think if I re read it there will be clues and hints all over the place. I googled a chat about it and they talked about all the foreshadowing moments, some of which I missed - the man in the next town that was the first paragraph, Rose's last word 'poor little skirls', meant squirrels i.e. Cass and PJ, and the warning about Cass staying away as @BadSpellaSpellaSpella said above. So I think its implying both were victims. But my first reading was as @Stokey says that Cass instinctively rescued PJ. I'm confused!! I get that Dickie was having some sort of breakdown from the stress of it all, but I found it weird that Imelda also seemed to lose the plot and run into the woods. Was there a supernatural element there, something drawing them to their fate that night? I'm not sure. Also the black dog that Lar saw, does that imply that Imelda is killed too?? Or maybe was it implying a huge tragedy in her life.

I am upset by the ambiguous ending, but thought it was the most amazing read. I personally didn't like reading the sections in Imelda's voice, the lack of punctuation really annoyed me.

I preferred Prophet Song

But I can admire the writing that made up The Bee Sting.

It's so Irish I wonder has it "travelled" well. Don't people get the nuances ?

I do hate an ending that isn't.
I'd like a "happy ever after" but life has taught me that isn't going to happen.

High Tide In Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver

This is a collection of Kingsolver 's essays, choc-a-bloc with her wit and humour, her love of the animal kingdom, including.javalinas with whom she has a long running feud over their.treatment of her garden until she realises they came first and she was 'late to the party'.
She stresses that we are members of the animal kingdom and sometimes in danger of forgetting that, that we are driven by subterranean drives, hidden ebbs and flows that push us onward in spite of ourselves. We despair of events and changes and misfortunes (and she has had her share) but somehow those hidden tides propel us forward and we survive.

The best example of this is the essay centred on Buster the hermit crab. Transported from the seaside to Tucson, Arizona she discovers that the crab reacts to tides as he did at the coast. But there is no tide in Tucson. But the crab doesn't care - he goes into tidal mode hilariously and Kinsolver recognises the same impulse in humans.to survive, to make your world recognisable again after disasters strike. We are crabs and animals too and should remember it. 'Make me a good animal today".she cries.

Other essays explore the same theme. She admires.Spanish mothers because of the naturalness of their relationship with babies and children who are more integrated into public life than is popular elsewhere. Many essays deal with naturalness: love potions. babies, relics of the past like cooking pots hundreds of years old: still needed, still necessary. Some things never change.

In beautiful prose she introduces us to lessons learned from landscapes and.historical artefacts and animals and sunsets all leading to a benign and untroubled attitude to life.

What an astonishing book. So clever. I’m recommending it to everyone I know.

Did anyone else get this impression :
It opens with gossip about the event in a nearby town about a man killing his family.
There is speculation about why.
So is that what Dickie, Imelda, Cass and PJ's lives become in the end - fodder for gossips, with people speculating why.
But the reader knows why because the book has taken them on a journey into the lives of the family.

Loved this book very much, just finished it. I am unsure about the ending for the family… I do notice it would have an effect on me as often felt quite unsettled and sad.

If you loved Bee Sting, have you read Prophet Song by Paul Lynch @Bassetthounddog ?
I read both for my book club but preferred Prophet Song.

Yes! I finished Bee Sting last night

It's brilliant.
Im glad that you all think the ending ambiguous - that makes me feel better that it's not definitely xxxxxx.

Loved it (although not the ending) but hated prophet song. I couldn’t actually finish it

I’ve just finished this. Then heard an interview with the author that the ending isn’t ambiguous at all. He says the beginning of a book often mirrors the ending.

I’m not sure I liked the book really, found parts of it a bit dull. But the last 50 pages or so were gripping.

I'm with you. I just finished it and generally thought much of the second half was dull. Got annoyed with the lack of punctuation with Imelda and didn't see what the fuss was about. I much much preferred the Prophet Song which is one of the better books I have read this year. As for the ending to be honest I didn’t care what had happened! I guess it's horses for courses and we all like different things.

I thought the beginning of the book portrayed how we hear or see things on the news. We comment on the awfulness of it but really don't know what led up to the tragedy.
It's just "news" to us.
We'll forget about it.
The story of The Bee Sting gives us the prequel of one such awful event we will read about or see in the news.

But the tragedy commented on in the beginning of The Bee Sting is not about the family we meet in the book.

No, I know it’s not the same tragedy. But the author has said that to him the ending isn’t ambiguous. That the beginning mirrors the ending. So a man kills his whole family.

I also wonder if he ends up realising that it’s his kids and kills them anyway. Due to a sentence where he says ‘sometimes what you give up is the best part of yourself’.

I also didn’t like the no punctuation thing. And it was irritating how no one actually seemed to like each other.

Yes, I thought about that!

I'm still undecided on who died, but I think Dickie killed his children and himself but not Imelda. I think this because:

The hunter game Dickie played with his children, Rose's comments about the squirrels when she's was dying, Cass' last comment about 'poor squirrel' - suggesting that PJ was killed fist. Dickie's weird friend going on about the only way to make sure his children don't find out would to be to kill them.

I think Dickie died because Rose also makes that comment about Dickie dying in a wood and Imelda thinks she's confused and means Frank died in a field.

I think Imelda survives because she sees the black dog and the vision of the black dog always preceeded someone else's death.

I'm not certain though! I feel like I should read the whole book again from the beginning to pick up on any clues along the way.

Brilliant book though!

I'm in that part now - with the lack of punctuation - and I'm struggling. I HATE it when authors do that.