The Secret Life of Bees
Title: The Secret Life of Bees
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Genre: Fiction
Approximate length: Short novel (not quite 300 pages)
Rating: 8.5
Summary: The story of a white teenage girl living in South Carolina in the mid 1960's who, upon running away from home, finds herself living with the black, bee-keeping Boatwright sisters. There, she learns about pride, race, injustice, and the true nature of love.
Assessment: A truly thought-provoking read. Never have I read anything that brought the issue of race and prejudice into such vivid reality. For the first time, a white girl is the minority, and seeing racism from the other side made for an understanding I never thought I would have. I was drawn in by Kidd's writing style--the first person, nearly stream-of-consciousness point of view made it a very fast read, and the foreshadowing that was done through the past-tense memoir style of the book kept the pages turning. Lily was a believable character, if a somewhat predictible one. The Boatwright sisters each brought something new to the equation, and never blurred into one entity, a mistake some authors sometimes create when writing about family members. My favorite parts dealt with the Daughters of Mary; their fun-loving eccentricities, mixed with thier whole-hearted devotion to their faith and to one another, was heart-warming and moving. All in all, a very good read.
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Genre: Fiction
Approximate length: Short novel (not quite 300 pages)
Rating: 8.5
Summary: The story of a white teenage girl living in South Carolina in the mid 1960's who, upon running away from home, finds herself living with the black, bee-keeping Boatwright sisters. There, she learns about pride, race, injustice, and the true nature of love.
Assessment: A truly thought-provoking read. Never have I read anything that brought the issue of race and prejudice into such vivid reality. For the first time, a white girl is the minority, and seeing racism from the other side made for an understanding I never thought I would have. I was drawn in by Kidd's writing style--the first person, nearly stream-of-consciousness point of view made it a very fast read, and the foreshadowing that was done through the past-tense memoir style of the book kept the pages turning. Lily was a believable character, if a somewhat predictible one. The Boatwright sisters each brought something new to the equation, and never blurred into one entity, a mistake some authors sometimes create when writing about family members. My favorite parts dealt with the Daughters of Mary; their fun-loving eccentricities, mixed with thier whole-hearted devotion to their faith and to one another, was heart-warming and moving. All in all, a very good read.