#the bee sting

[somerabbitholes]

i loved the sense of freefall in this book — it was persistent but never inevitable; and i loved loved loved the end

#the rabbit hole #writeblr #booklr #books #reading #book blog #the bee sting #literature #litblr #writing #on the blog #studyblr #aesthetic #read #studysthetics #bookstagram

[frankenstein-was-a-grad-student]

The hardest era to write about from a technology standpoint must be 2008-2015. Shockingly small changes in narrative can have a dramatic impact on the accuracy of your setting and the tools your characters can deploy. I cannot figure out when Paul Murray thinks he’s set his book The Bee Sting. It’s described as “post 2008 financial crash Ireland” with a car dealership going under. Yet, everyone seems to have a smartphone (glass screen for typing so I’d assume iPhone which is insane from both a class perspective and a European perspective) with mostly reliable internet, Instagram is the app of choice for the teen protagonist (despite not even existing until October 2010), memories from years before including Minecraft (released 2011), characters text each other gifs, and the teen boy wants to buy the Nintendo switch. Leads us to believe we’re in minimally 2017 (by the switch), or at least late 2010 (by use of Instagram forgiving the switch). In the latter most generous scenario we need to believe that this teenager in Ireland downloaded Instagram almost immediately after it came out as well as all her friends AND her 12-13 year old little brother already has a burner account. Moreover, we need to believe her phone internet was good enough to constantly have access to it. It all seems rather unlikely.

I was very excited to read this book because it existed in such a fun era for children and young adults: the tackiest phones (give me a Razr or a T Mobile sidekick), the joy of logging onto the internet to check 9gag or Imgur, T9 texting, the displays of class and wealth evident from the type of phone you had or whether or not your parents had fast enough internet to watch YouTube in anything other than 360p.

Being a kid in this era was strange—technology grew with you in a 0-60 kind of way. Sad to see Murray hasn’t quite captured that in this otherwise lovely work.

#the bee sting #paul murray #2000s #2008 financial crisis #technology #motorola razr #t9 texting supremacy #writing #settings

[skippydiesposting]

paul murray really said i am going to write the saddest novel of all time. also all the gay men have names that are slang terms for penis

#the bee sting #🐝

[justforbooks]

Irresistibly funny, wise and thought-provoking - a tragicomic tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart...

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's once-lucrative car business is going under - but rather than face the music, he's spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way to her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, 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? And if the story has already been written - is there still time to find a happy ending?

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #The Bee Sting #paul murray #book review

[rughydrangea]

This must be what it feels like to be dying, he thinks; the world remains around you, like a lover who does not want to hurt you by leaving, but in spirit it's already gone, taking with it the meaning of everything you shared. In truth it is already transforming into a future you will never be part of; and you realize only then that it has been transforming all of this time, throughout your whole life, and you with it; and that, in fact, is life, though you never knew, and now it is over.

Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

#the bee sting #paul murray #quote #i am reading this! #i am deeply swamped at work and emotionally exhausted and fear i am not read attentively enough to fully appreciate the language #which is sharp and funny and specific and sad #but i am really enjoying it and once i hit dickie's section i really became addicted #it goes places you absolutely never would have expected from the first three sections #which is kind of what the book is about--this family lives together and none of them know what's happening inside anyone else #and dickie is just such a delightfully pathetic trainwreck of a man and i can't resist that now can i #also the book has many queer elements which i did not know about going in that proved a pleasant surprise

[meat-loving-meat]

Does anyone who has read The Bee Sting by Paul Murray want to tell me what year it’s set in???

SO this book talks A Lot about some economic recession but everyone has smartphones, so immediately this narrows down the possibilities: 2008-2012 or 2020-2022. No talk of the pandemic, so 2020 is out. Obviously it’s 2008-2012, probably closer to 2011 because of these moments:

Angry Birds topped the app store in about 2010, and Instagram was started and became popular in 2010. 2011 also lines up with the Irish banking crisis, which makes sense since this is set in Ireland. Also, none of the characters talk about Snapchat, Tiktok/Musical.ly, or any other more recent social media.

BUT THEN

A Switch? A Nintendo Switch??? Like the one first manufactured in 2017??

A soyboy? As in the term first used on 4chan in about 2017??? Hire a better fucking proofreader paul

#the bee sting #paul murray #bookblr #I’m reading this for my book club and kinda regretting it. Imelda’s chapters are Melting My Brain

[wael-rashad]

The bee collects nectar

#landscape #my art #the bee gees #the beekeeper #the bee movie #the bee sting

[booksthatfart]

#the bee sting #paul murray #farts

[kulturado]

The Story: The Best Books of 2023, According to Everyone

The Writer: Digg editors

#books #best books of 2023 #literary arts #best of lists #lists #best of 2023 #digg #paul murray #the bee sting

[lazy-bookreviews]

Murray, The Bee Sting

On the one hand, I did read this whole book, and it was quite long. I wanted to know what happened, so obviously Murray is a good writer and good at building tension. On the other hand, I resented it more and more as I read, and was so very pissed off when I finished it. I am sure many people have commented/will comment on the ending, and obvi I don't want to spoil anything, so I will just say I hated it. It seemed lazy, honestly. And this is coming from a lazy book review tumblr that hasn't posted in years. What really pissed me off was the wife's perspective. Why, pray tell, was there (basically) no punctuation or capitalization? What, exactly, are you trying to say there, Murray? That bc of this woman's background, bc she wasn't very educated, she doesn't think in complete sentences? Her mind is a run-on mess? It read as wildly misogynistic, and I don't know that there is another way to read it. (ALSO, why are fully half of the characters tortured by their sexuality? So sick of that trope.)

#books #book #book review #bookblr #booktok #paul murray #the bee sting

[anditendshowyoudexpect]

jesus fucking christ paul *tired*

#the bee sting #paul murray

[lilianeruyters]

My winner is ...

Booker Prize Shortlist 2023 Tonight the judges will reveal the Booker Prize winner of 2023. I am curious to find out which novel they prefer, whether their choice will coincide with mine. Experience over the past few years has shown we tend to differ in our opinions. This year I had one definite ‘yes’, one ‘would be nice’, two ‘well allright I am not complaining’ and two definiti ‘no’s. To…

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#reading is fun #American literature #Booker Prize #Booker Prize Shortlist 2023 #British writer #Chetna Maroo #Great Novel #Great reading #If I Survive You #Irish literature #Irish writer #Jonathan Escoffery #literature #Paul Harding #Paul Lynch #Paul Murray #Prophet Song #Sarah Bernstein #Study for Obedience #The Bee Sting #This Other Eden #Western Lane

[orclnght]

lady poets

"She told them about Sappho, an olden-days poet from the island of Lesbos, and when there were a few snickers at this she began to recite a poem where Sappho is jealous when she sees the woman she loves laughing with a man, and she can't speak and fire ripples under her skin and her ears are filled with roaring.

People imagined poems were wispy things, she said, frilly things, like lace doilies. But in fact they were like claws, like the metal spikes mountaineers use to find purchase on the sheer face of a glacier. By writing a poem, the lady poets could break through the slippery, nothingy surface of the life they were enclosed in, to the passionate reality that beat beneath it. Instead of falling down the sheer face, they could haul themselves up, line by line, until at last they stood on top of the mountain. And then maybe, just maybe, they might for an instant see the world as it really is."

Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

#paul murray #the bee sting

[skippydiesposting]

finished The Bee Sting last night.....

#i have. so many thoughts #the bee sting #🐝

[rebouks]

The bees wanted an extra hour in bed.. 🐝

#ts4 #sims 4 #simblr #fib #fib extras #tristen #🐓 #nothing like a few bee stings to wake you up in the morning #eeeee #hi triss #🤗

[blingusdlingus]

Knuckles and blaze ated a bee... owch !

#sonic the hedgehog #bingusart #my artwork #sth #knuckles the echidna #blaze the cat #bee stings