The Bee Sting

Dickie’s wife Imelda is characterized by her beauty and magnetism. When she is a young woman, Imelda’s beauty both protected her and makes her vulnerable: Her father does not physically abuse her like he does her brothers because of her looks, but she is sexually assaulted by her father’s criminal enemies. Imelda’s young adulthood is defined by the desire to escape her poor and abusive household; falling in love with Frank Barnes seems to offer the chance for real change since their love is authentic. However, even this relationship does not offer Imelda the stability she sought, as Frank develops cold feet about marrying her so young. When Frank dies, Imelda is left in grief and with few options in her life.

An undereducated and deprived woman, Imelda grows up internalizing the folklore and superstitions of her closest maternal figure—Rose, a local healer and fortune teller who protects Imelda throughout her life. Rose’s visions inform Imelda’s decision-making: She marries Dickie partly because she is convinced that she’ll see Frank’s ghost at her wedding based on a premonition Rose has had.

After Frank’s death, Imelda and Dickie turn to each other for comfort; they marry after she gets pregnant. Imelda spends her adulthood raising her children and enjoying her life in a more financially and emotionally stable home, but she and Dickie are never truly in love. While their marriage offers Imelda the contentment of material comfort, she is thrust back into the fear of poverty when Dickie’s business goes under. The couple grows apart; Imelda’s beauty doesn’t move Dickie like it does other men, so their relationship becomes toxic. In turn, Imelda’s fear and the anger that is manifested from that fear creates a wall between Imelda and her children. Imelda finds a distraction in an emotional affair with Big Mike, who represents both the background she escaped from and the future she could have had with Frank. However, Imelda ultimately decides to keep her family together and find a new way to be happy, possibly by having an open marriage.

Cass is Dickie and Imelda’s daughter. Like her father, Cass is consumed by concerns about the environment, in love with someone from the same sex, and not self-confident enough to advocate for herself in difficult situations. Cass is also, like Dickie, passionate about books. After discovering poetry in high school thanks to an interesting teacher named Miss Grehan, Cass starts writing poetry of her own.

Cass is desperate to leave her small town to go to Trinity College in Dublin. However, as high school ends, Cass finds herself distracted from studying by her growing obsession with her friend Elaine; being secretly in love with Elaine causes Cass’s entire adolescent identity to shift as she takes on the same attitudes as her crush. Even though it’s clear that Elaine doesn’t reciprocate her love, Cass’s desperation to be with Elaine is so intense that it causes tremendous stress and even endangers Cass’s health: Cass worries about Elaine rooming in Dublin with someone else and gets so drunk at her grandfather’s honorary dinner that needs to be taken to the hospital.

Eventually, Cass manages to extricate herself from this overwhelming first love by finding new aspects of herself to develop. She is inspired by the work of Willie, now an environmentalist and gay rights activist who gives a talk to Cass’s fellow students. Cass also realizes that Elaine is not a good friend to her, an idea that allows Cass to hear out and protect her brother PJ rather than keep trying to impress Elaine. Cass’s character journey highlights the turbulence of adolescence and the importance of family. At the end of the novel, Cass decides to return to her family and start anew, though the ambiguous ending leaves her future uncertain.

PJ is Dickie and Imelda’s 12-year-old son. PJ is the most affected by the turmoil and fighting in his home, partly because he loses his safety net and partly because his parents’ unfulfilled dreams and secrets make them pull away from PJ and lose track of his needs. PJ’s relationship with his father, once so close, is challenged by Dickie’s anger at Ryszard’s extortion and avoidance of the failing car dealership—stresses Dickie unwittingly takes out on PJ. Meanwhile, Imelda’s concerns about the family’s financial downswing lead her to ignore even obvious parenting responsibilities like buying PJ sneakers that fit. Finally, Cass’s obsession with Elaine leaves no room for her to be the supporting older sister PJ has come to rely on.

PJ is going through middle school strife: His best friend has ghosted him and his new friend Nev is not nice to him. PJ also deals with bullying because of what’s happening with Dickie’s business: Ears beats PJ up and threatens him with more physical abuse if PJ doesn’t pay for the car parts stolen from Ears’s mother at Dickie’s garage. Because PJ doesn’t have anyone to turn to for help, he seeks out a dangerous ally: Ethan, a predatory online stranger who pretends to be a boy like PJ to lure him to run away from home to Dublin.

Although PJ and Dickie do reinvigorate their close father-son bond by camping outdoors and working on survivalist projects, PJ is often frightened of Victor, who hunts squirrels much to PJ’s dismay. Feeling desperate, PJ runs away to Dublin, hoping to find Cass, but instead almost falling into the Ethan’s clutches. PJ narrowly avoids being kidnapped, highlighting the threat of sexual violence that children face and echoing the experiences of Imelda at the hands of the thugs who assaulted her. Ultimately, PJ and Cass come together again as a team—a win that is potentially undercut by the suggestion that PJ might be accidentally shot by Dickie.

Elaine’s father Big Mike is an important businessperson in the town, a self-man man whose success is all the more impressive because he, like Imelda, grew up poor and abused. Big Mike’s new standing gives him a reputation for ruthlessness, and he is also the center of town gossip when his affair becomes public knowledge.

At first, Imelda views Big Mike as a bad person who takes advantage of others; she is wary when Dickie’s father Maurice asks Big Mike to help rehabilitate the failing Barnes car dealership. However, once Imelda gets to know Big Mike better, she sees that he is complex: a vulnerable, sad, lonely man, who is unhappy despite all his success. Imelda and Mike share a connection because they know what it’s like to come from poverty and struggle to earn respect in their small town. The connection inspires Imelda to see that she could still have room for love in her life and reminds her of the ways in which Dickie has been an excellent father.

Ryszard, the primary antagonist of the novel, is a beautiful Polish immigrant whose poverty drives him to use his looks and sexuality to manipulate others. When Cass meets Ryszard in the pub, she shows him her family’s shed in the woods and suggests he look for a job at her father’s garage, generosity that invites the danger of Ryszard into the family. At the garage, Ryszard is a volatile presence. He seduces Dickie and records them having sex. Then, when he begins stealing valuable car parts from customers and is caught, he extorts Dickie into not firing him.

However, although he poses a threat to the Barnes family, Ryszard is a layered character driven by the need to survive despite being socio-economically marginalized. Ryszard’s status as an interloper—ethnically, financially, and because of his sexuality—underscores small-town xenophobia and plays with a literary trope in which outsiders bring danger and illumination to the narrative.

Elaine is Cass’s best friend and the object of Cass’s affections. Elaine is beautiful, smart, and magnetic. Cass is in love with Elaine, but it is clear that Elaine doesn’t reciprocate those feelings; rather, Elaine enjoys the power she has over Cass. When Cass gets more attention than Elaine—for example, when Miss Grehan celebrates Cass’s poem—Elaine pushes her away until Cass once again is demoted to sidekick, a role Cass happily plays.

At university, Elaine tries on new identities; she lies about her background to make herself sound interesting, so Cass, who knows the truth about Elaine, becomes an annoyance. While Cass worries about her family, Elaine remains seemingly indifferent to her own disrupted home life: After her father Big Mike’s affair with Augustina, Mike uses his wealth to love bomb Elaine. Elaine’s access to wealth means that she takes her privilege for granted, unlike Cass, who has no choice but to internalize her family’s stresses.

Rose is a fortune teller and healer whose presence evokes old Celtic and Irish folklore. Rose is Imelda’s main maternal figure, who rescues her from the danger Imelda faces in her home of origin. Rose is also genuinely concerned that Imelda grow into a well-rounded woman, not just coast on her fleeting beauty. Imelda’s connection with Rose is strong because Imelda believes in Rose’s supernatural powers, which guide Imelda’s major decisions: Imelda keeps Dickie’s pregnancy rather than having an abortion and marries Dickie because of Rose’s vision of Frank’s ghost at her wedding. Imelda and Rose’s connection is further highlighted through Imelda’s support of Rose in the nursing home. Rose is like a mother to Imelda, and Rose’s deterioration highlights the passage of time and the need to make life happy while you still have the chance.

Frank is Dickie’s younger brother and Imelda’s first and true love. Frank is beloved and popular because he is open, cheerful, outgoing, and a star athlete. But Frank is also spoiled by this admiration, becoming lazy and entitled. At the same time, like many of the novel’s characters, Frank wants to break free of the societal expectations that come with that admiration. Frank rebels against his popularity by drinking and smoking too much and by making plans to move to England to forge a new path. However, Frank’s family, hometown expectations, and relationship with Imelda conspire to make him stay put: His father give him a job at the Barnes car dealership, Imelda is deeply in love with him, Imelda’s terrifying father threatens that he marry her or else, and finally, Dickie encourages him to marry Imelda despite his youth so Dickie can stay in Dublin.

Frank goes through with the proposal, which binds him to one specific life. When he dies in a car accident, he loses the chance to explore the many life options that the novel insists exist for everyone. Frank’s death has a major impact on other characters, especially Imelda and Dickie, who marry as a way of grieving. After his death, Frank becomes a metaphorical ghost whose memory influences Imelda and Dickie’s decisions.