A Conversation With Lisa O'Donnell About Her Novel The Death Of Bees

Q. HOW HAVE YOUR EXPERIENCES SHAPED THE DEATH OF BEES?

I didn't come from a wealthy family. I was raised on a housing scheme during Thatcherism on a small Island where unemployment was a way of life, as was poverty and all the challenges that come with it. I saw a lot growing up but I was in a protected environment and was sheltered. In the novel, Lenny represents that protection.

Underage pregnancy, teen sex and drug taking was very much part of my environment, and though I never used drugs (I had a 6' 3" inch father), I was always drawn to the kind of girl smoking a fag and holed up in a cloudy bathroom.

As I got older, things in Scotland didn't change; if anything they got worse. Poverty and wealth were a stone's throw from one another. You could be in a wealthy neighborhood one minute but walk a few blocks and you found yourself in an impoverished area. It's like that in Scotland, and as a result children have to grow up fast.

Living on the East Side of L.A. within a Catholic community that is predominantly Latino, I see the same level of poverty. I was in my car one day when I saw a little girl maybe about seven walking in front of her mother and pushing a stroller. The mother was pushing a larger stroller and holding the hand of a small toddler. The mother looked about twenty-five, but it was the young girl that caught my attention. I thought to myself "A wee mother" which later translated in THE DEATH OF BEES as "Wee Maw" when referring to Marnie raising Nelly.

Later, my sister sent me a docudrama about families in Scotland living with drugs and poverty, and again, the maturity of the children immersed in such a heartbreaking situation struck a chord. One child in particular was talking to the journalist about a father who might not return with the groceries for the week and go on a "bender" instead. She complained that the money he used was meant for the family, and she worried about Welfare Services getting involved in her life again—which she really didn't want. She said she would probably have to go to her grandmothers for dinner. There was an element of hope in the little girl who wondered if her father would return with the groceries, coupled with a sigh and an admission that he probably wouldn't. I remember girls like that growing up around me and I remember my own parents talking about various children who waited outside pubs and bars trying to glean as much as they could from their drunken parents before the money was all spent.

The thought occurred to me that these children would be better off raising themselves. I came up with the idea of THE DEATH OF BEES a story in which children survive in the face of absent parents. I wanted to write something about the power in children, the resilience, while never losing sight that they are still very young and very vulnerable. I buried the parents and created an enormous secret between the girls¡ªilluminating the secrets that most of these ¡°wee maws¡± keep. They don't want to go into care, they want to stay in their homes. Thinking back to the movie, I wondered what that girl who waited for her father to return home would have done if she had the money to go for the groceries, if it was in her power to get the electric bill paid, and what lengths she would take to survive parents who have vanished.

Q.: WHAT MAKES THE BOOK RELEVANT TODAY?

Economically, things haven't changed since my childhood and have, in fact, worsened across the globe. It is now a universal reality and no longer confined to a place like Scotland. I live in America now, in an area where I see the effect unemployment and poverty has on a community, especially the maturity it forces on children.

Q.: HOW DOES YOUR BOOK COMPARE TO THE COMPETITION?

THE DEATH OF BEES has been compared to The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, which is a dark and claustrophobic story about a mother who dies of natural causes and at her insistence is buried in the cellar to keep the children together. THE DEATH OF BEES is a black comedy about two sisters. It has been described as vibrant and imaginative, and one reviewer compared my voice to Joe Orton.