I'm sort of bouncing back and forth between 2 and 3. I need time to think about it.

***

I've decided to give it 2 1/2, because it was pretty good - and that's how I'm rating it. Not in the sense that "I liked it" as much as in the sense that "It was pretty good".

Overall, I liked the chapters that were narrated by Little Bee better than the chapters narrated by Sarah. Little Bee seemed more real - her chapters had humor and pathos - were touching and heart-breaking and funny.

I liked when she described how our language is like sorcery, because of how slippery it is. I liked how she talked about scars and sad stories being beautiful, because it meant that a person was alive. And I liked how she would stop and tell us how she would have to explain things to the girls back home, because of the way we take certain understandings for granted.

Sarah seemed less real of a person to me, though. Everyone on the British side of things seemed more like stand-ins for certain views and representations of types. I hated Lawrence, and was ambivalent towards dislike for Andrew. But everything in Sarah's chapters seemed unnatural - the dialogue, the situations, the way people reacted and her/their motivations... it was all rather stilted and awkard. A bit heavy-handed in certain aspects, I suppose, but not horribly so.

Even as I started liking and sympathizing more with Sarah as the story progressed, I still didn't really like the chapters that were from her perspective - so I think it has to do more with the writing and less with the character.

Anyway - I'm left feeling like the situation in the book, the way that refugees are treated and the conditions they are left in, is terrible, but without any real sense that there's anything I can do about it.

And I'm not really sure what I think of the end. (view spoiler)[I wanted a happier ending. I know that's probably a little unrealistic, but oh well. Or, failing happy, I would've liked for it to be more heart-wrenching. The way that it was, with the focus on Charlie - maybe it's my thing about kids, but it just didn't work for me. (hide spoiler)]

Oh well.

At the end of the day there's one lesson that I've learned myself that I feel might be reflected a bit in the book, and that's this: No one can change the world. But we might be able to improve our little part of it in small but important ways.