The end... or not the end?

The following quote is an anonymous one, sent to me by my friend F...... I just love it---

"Everything is always okay in the end; if it's not okay, then it's not the end."


It was the perfect quote to read after finishing the book I've been buried in for the last couple of days--- "Little Bee," by Chris Cleave. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing book about Nigeria, and the oil companies who discover unclaimed oil fields underneath remote villages there. What happens with the people, the land, the tourists, the officials, the soldiers.... most of it is unspeakable, unreasonable, unfathomable. All of it is heart-wrenching, but there are pages in this book where you just have to laugh out loud at the conversations of the characters.

I couldn't read this book fast enough, it was just that good. The story flips from Nigeria to England, where detention centers are set up to house the refugees who have fled from their country and the ruthless soldiers whose language does not recognize the word mercy.

I hadn't heard of this author before, but I saw a copy of his book in the Half-Price bookstore. I didn't buy it there because it was a paperback copy that had seen better days. The artwork on the cover is very dramatic, and that's what caught my eye. What was printed on the back cover is what got me: "We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is truly a special story and we don't want to spoil it."

When we got home from the bookstore, I checked the computer and found a hardcover on Half.com for just a couple of dollars. It arrived in as-new condition, and the dust-jacket had that same dramatic artwork as the paperback. I don't know why, but when I saw it, I knew it would be a book I'd want to read and then keep so I could read it again. My collection of books that I want to read again just keeps on multiplying, like rabbits.

As for the story of Little Bee........ "Everything is always okay in the end; if it's not okay, then it's not the end." Heaven help all the Little Bees out there.