Little Bee - Chris Cleave

How far would you go to save someone's life? What sacrifices would you make and can you really know that without the pressure and timing of the actual situation? A person's demise can be immediate and urgent, or slow and compounding over a great deal of time.

Would you consider their value before deciding? Would you consider how this could offer you benefit? Or, do you consider all life valuable without regard to how you are perceived in the whole saving decision thing?

This book made me think of these things. I sometimes put myself to sleep with rescue fantasies and in these fantasies I save and rescue because it feels like an ultimate good. The balance between good and evil should be tipped in the direction of good whenever possible and I find this work to be soothing. I like to go to sleep this way.

There were many horrific scenes in this pretty book. The doomed protagonist is funny, clever and surprisingly upbeat. She considers suicidal options in any new setting the way most people look for a second exit in case of fire. She does this in case "the men show up" and torture and murder her the way her sister was murdered. She struggles to survive in an environment where there is such a casual randomness of violence.

The violence has to do with the export of natural resources in Nigeria. The exporting business is conducted below the usual standard operating procedures that bored us when they were explained in Social Studies. This business stomps and kills any inconvenient human condition that poses an obstacle.

I would like to think that I would save someone - if presented with the situation. I hope I never really have to test that though. Living with a bad outcome could undo me.