The Secret Life of Bees | Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees | Sue Monk Kidd | Busy bees, buzzing with life...

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The Secret Life of...

	The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd Penguin (Non-Classics), 2003 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 1401 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Secret Life of Bees

I greatly enjoyed my purchase of Sue Monk Kidd's book "The Secret Life of Bees." The book is well written in an easy to read style. I didn't want to put it down.

Busy bees, buzzing with life...

This is a simple, unpretentious read, yet very pleasant.

1964, rural South Carolina. Many different themes are explored through the voice of Lily, a white 14 year-old with a heavy weight in her heart, the loss of her mother. What's worse, she believes she has accidentally killed her -it all happened when Lily was only 4- and since then all she earnestly wishes for is a forgiveness that never comes. She is brought up by a black nanny/servant, Rosaleen, and her father, a distant, harsh man who does nothing to make Lily feel loved. After a racial episode which gets Rosaleen into jail and hospital, Lily manages to escape with her and they become fugitives. They eventually get to Tiburon, a city that Lily feels has a strong connection with her mother's past.
They end up at the house of three black sisters, August, June and May Boatwright who, after a few reservations, agree for them to stay for a while in exchange of help around the house and with the bees. The sisters are beekeepers and August introduces Lily to the fascinating world of bees. Busy, wonderful, honey-making bees. After a few days, Lily makes the acquaintance of Zach, a black young man who also helps with all the bees-related work and a friendship ensues. Life at the Boatwright's seems a balm for Lily's wounded soul and Rosaleen too, finds the perfect niche and becomes very close to one of the sisters, May. Life seems trouble-free despite their hiding their true identities and with many racial contrasts in the background at the time.

The author digs into multiple concepts, love, race, loss, hate, friendship, forgiveness, self-discovery and acceptance. The narrative is uncomplicated and charming. On the whole, this book did not entirely blow me away (my "true" rating, 3 ½ stars) but it was inspirational, one of those feel-good ones (hence, the 4 stars). And learning more than one bit about bees didn't hurt either, very interesting. Epigraphs from various books about bees and honey-making are quoted at the beginning of each chapter. A nice touch.

I believe that this book is also suitable for readers 14+.

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Sweet, readable story

I was afraid this one would be one of those mainstream literary versions of a Lifetime Movie of the Week, but was pleasantly surprised by how readable & interesting it was from cover to cover. Without being schmaltzy, author Kidd manages to tell a complex emotional story with sweet simplicity. While it may occasionally border on tidy storytelling to navigate it way from beginning to end, it's a very pleasurable reading experience.

Sweet But Dark

Sue Monk Kidd's 14-year-old principal character Lily Owens' quest to unlock the mystery of her deceased mother's past leads her to forge a familial bond with an unlikely family of accomplished black women. The story is bittersweet in that unimaginable cruelties are inflicted upon the young girl by her bitter and emotionally battered father "Bees" is set in the early era of the Civil Right movement. Kidd includes just enough racial tension to make the story believable. General lessons in humanity are poetic as Kidd employs the goings and doings in the complex lives of "simple honey bees."

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