When the economic crash came to Ireland in 2008, things got tough. Businesses collapsed, building projects were left to rot, people cracked under the pressure. But the economic part is not the worst. Money can be figured out. It’s the other, non-tangible costs of the fluid way of being that are the hardest.
Paul Murray’s novel The Bee Sting tells about the costs of fluidity that lie far outside of the economic realm. The 650-page book is so well-constructed that I didn’t figure out what the author was driving at and how everything was going to come together into a coherent message until the last pages. I was worried to the very end Murray wasn’t going to pull it off but he did, and I’m majorly impressed. Reader zinemin who recommended the novel gets my deepest gratitude. I’ve waited for a real, serious anti-neoliberal novel in English for years, and finally it came. Ireland rules.
The novel tells about the Barnes family, mom, dad, an 18-year-old daughter, and a 12-year-old son. Mom, dad, and daughter are so completely absorbed in the burning issue of whom to bed that they don’t notice that everything is collapsing around them. With the greatest patience and humor, Murray shows what it looks like when people turn sex into an idol and worship at its altar. As mother, father, and sister stumble around in their sexual haze, predators, wokesters, crooks, and pedophiles swarm, eager to feast on the carrion of a rotting family.
Family, which is the Great Unchosen, is the only hope of survival amidst the battering flows of uncertainty. Will the Barneses figure this out in time? Will we? Or are we going to sacrifice what matters to our fascination with chasing after freedom and choices?
Murray smashes us right against these crucial questions, the most important ones we can ask ourselves. Is duty more important than feeding our incessant wants? What is more likely to bring happiness and peace, doing what’s right or following our whims? As he leads us towards the answers, Murray pokes fun at woke gender-fluid brats, climate whisperers, pretentious professors, and silly college girls who buy into leftist fads. He also offers a nuanced and brave depiction of homosexuality, both male and female.
Often an author knows how to write well but has absolutely nothing to say. Joyce Maynard is a great example. But Murray not only writes brilliantly, he has tons to say about stuff that really matters. He’s a major talent, and I’m shaking with joy that I found this author.