The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

OK, so I know I am about 100 years behind popular literature and the best seller lists by just getting around to reading this book now. It's been out and talked about for years. A movie's been made and everything. But, my mom just gave me the book, said she loved it and thought I would love it too. And she was right.

Bees is Kidd's first fictional work. Always one to do things backwards, I read Kidd's second fiction novel The Mermaid Chair a year or two ago after happening upon it at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale. I liked it well enough and always planned to read Bees but I never seemed to come across it until my mom gave it to me recently.

Bees is set in 1960's South Carolina in the midst of the civil rights turmoil of the era. The protagonist, Lily Owens, is a 14 year old girl living alone with her abusive father (a man she can't even bring herself to call "dad" and instead calls "T. Ray") on his peach plantation. Her mother died when Lily was very young - the victim of a very tragic accident. Lily does, however, have the comfort and love of her African American nanny-of-sorts, Rosaleen but has always longed for the love of a family in general and the love of her mother in particular.

After some misfortunes and bad decisions, Lily and Rosaleen run away from home - Lily in search of information about her mom and Rosaleen in search of freedom. They end up in Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily is drawn there by a small icon of a Black Madonna she found with her mother's possession with the town's name written on the back. The Black Madonna turns out to be a honey jar label produced by three African American sisters. Sensing the distress and danger surrounding Lily and Rosaleen, the three sisters - August, June and May - take them in and provide them with the security and sense of family Lily has been searching so desperately for.

Bees is an enchanting coming-of-age and finding-your-place-in-the-world story. Kidd being from South Carolina is able to paint an idyllic portrait of the unique state while at the same time highlighting some of the socials ills that were prolific in the south during the '60s. Racism and the civil rights movement play a central role in the story but isn't presented so harshly as to be a downer, so to speak.

Bees, as you might guess from the title, also play a central role in the novel. The sisters - primarily August, the matriarch figure of the sisters - are beekeepers and lots of bee facts and tidbits are woven throughout the story. I love an author that does his or her research enough that I'll leave a book with a few nuggets of useless knowledge about an obscure topic. Like the bees in a hive will all simultaneously flap their wings to cool the hive down; a form of air conditioning of sorts. Or the fact that a hive of bees will swarm (leave the hive in mass) if they lose their queen.

There were instances, being the cynic that I am, where I questioned the motivation of the sisters for taking in these two complete strangers who knocked on their door. It just seemed a little too convenient for the story's purposes. Although Kidd does try to explain it a bit at that end, it still never seemed quite realistic to me. But I guess that's why we read books. To be entertained. Not to hear stories that we hear every day or see everyday in reality. In Kidd's lovely South Carolinian world, strangers take in, clothe, and feed perfect strangers for nothing in return. You kind of wish stuff like that could happen now without the threat of being strangled in your sleep or at the very least, robbed blind. Oh wait, I guess it does happen now.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. It was a quick, easy read that made me feel warm and fuzzy at the end. I like that feeling. And for that, I am going to give The Secret Life of Bees four and a half bows. I highly recommend it. And let me know what you all thought of the book as I'm sure you all read it year ago. Until then, happy reading!