Some thoughts on "The Bee Sting"

David Stewart, who nominated the novel we'll be discussing tomorrow night --Paul Murray's The Bee Sting--unfortunately cannot join us. However, he offers the following comments and possible discussion questions for our consideration:

"I recommended The Bee Sting because I thought it was a compelling story that offered a fascinating psychological study of the main characters–Dickie and his wife, Imelda, and, to some extent, Dickie’s younger brother, Frank–that centered on Dickie’s deeply closeted homosexuality. I thought that the characters were all very well drawn and that the plot–while it took a while to get going–was dynamite. So here are some possible discussion questions, in no particular order:

· Does Dickie rise to the level of a tragic hero? Why or why not?

· Is The Bee Sting a morality tale? If so, what is the moral?

· As a young man, Dickie was at least halfway out of the closet. How do you explain his retreat?

· Why was it apparently impossible for Dickie to come out to his family when he was being blackmailed by Ryszard?

· Why did Imelda marry Dickie? Was it simply coercion?

· To what extent was Imelda complicit in the sexual fraud at the heart of their marriage? Was there an element of awareness/denial?

· “The Bee Sting” refers to a specific episode in the novel. Does it also have a broader, metaphorical reference?

· Do you have any thoughts about what motivated the actions of Dickie’s brother Frank? Any thoughts about the feelings of the two brothers toward each other?

· What did you think of the novel’s alternating first person narratives? Did it work well--or not?

· What is the role of Dickie’s children, Cass and PJ, in the novel? Are they simply a Greek Chorus?

· What do you make of PJ’s susceptibility to sexual predators?

· Did you find the sex scenes between Dickie and Ryszard hot?

· What did you think of the novel’s ending?"

Thanks, David!