Portsmouth Book Club May Meetup - The Book of Vice

This evening we met at the Rosa in Portsmouth to discuss Little Bee by Chris Cleave. We had a great turn out, a huge group! I heard this book had the potential to create a good "back and forth" in a group discussion atmosphere, but I wasn't prepared for the intensely charged group, and our ensuing emotions, which we had this evening.

In Little Bee, two young sisters are running for their lives from a group of men with machetes in Nigeria who have slaughtered their entire village, and family, for the sake of oil. They run and run until they reach the beach where they accidentally meet Sarah and Andrew, an English couple on the rocks who are trying to enjoy a romantic holiday in hopes of salvaging their relationship. During their fateful meeting, the men with machetes arrive, and what happens next is atrocious. After the incident, they drag the two young children away and the English couple run back to their resort. Lives are changed forever on both sides. (I can't give away what happened on that beach! Think...Hotel Rwanda.)

One of the children survives, Little Bee, and she ends up years later on Sarah and Andrew's doorstep, the day of Andrew's funeral after he commits suicide. The book continues on as Sarah and Little Bee try and continue to live with each other, and help each other cope with loss.

I really liked the book, but had trouble with the character development. Sarah had been having a long term affair with a work-related married man who ended up on her doorstep, seemingly to stay, the day after the funeral. This, to me, was absurd. The affair was fine, and completely understandable and even normal, but the day after the funeral? It didn't seem real to me. It worsened with the lover's (Lawrence) complete lack of humanity in my eyes. He wanted Little Bee to be gone and he would do whatever it took to get rid of her because he felt she interfered with his relationship with Sarah and because he was worried that it could hurt his job (he was a civil servant and she was an illegal refugee). The inevitable consequence of her imminent death, if deported, was of no concern to him, he only cared about "owning" Sarah, and being free from any sort of work-related discrepancy. He was the kind of guy you wanted to crucify.

We had a great discussion this evening. Everyone had their own opinions. Some were emotionally charged, some were driven in logic. We all had our different feelings, and it made for a great night!

For next month, we picked, "Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them)" by Peter Sagal - the host of "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!" on NPR. I always listen to Mr. Sagal on the radio and I love his smart humor, so I was curious went I went surfing by his website today and was surprised to learn he had written a book back in 2007 on the upside of debauchery in the USA. I found it necessary to nominate the book and to my mischievious delight, it was selected.

I have not read this book yet but I can't wait! Mr. Sagal is a Harvard educated legend with humor and semantics. I am already looking forward to book club next month!

The Portsmouth Book Club

The Rosa, Portsmouth NH

7pm May 11, 2010