Book 6: The Secret Life of Bees

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 Book 6: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Year of Publication: 2001



Why I chose this book: (2003) No Idea. :-) I do not really remember why I wanted to read this. I guess the title was alluring. My husband had a fascination for apiculture a while back and I thought it had something to do with bees. I thought it might be interesting and started reading it.  Plus I did not want to review the Da Vinci Code. It's funny how I always chose books which have taken some form on the big screen.


My Take:

This is a story set in 1964. In America. Of a white girl who ends up living with a family of intriguing, hardworking black women.  The protagonist Lily (symbolically white name?) runs off with her housemaid, a proud black woman. We are talking of The America which is slowly becoming politically aware of its rights, Martin Luther King is being heard and the thick black line of separation is blurring ever so slightly. It is almost unimaginable in that time that a white girl would even live with a black family leave alone date a black boy. 

Why the title?  The bee is a metaphor as well as a character in the story. Lily sees freedom in the bees, her protectors see bees and honey making as their salvation. The beehive is a metaphor for the society that we live in, chaotic, and structured at the same time. Ruled by a queen with a clear division of class and status, a beehive appears sturdy and strong but is just a stone's throw away(quite literally) from disruption. Our lives and the society that we live in,  form a similar labyrinth too. Don't you think?

Add a mix of postpartum depression, marital discord, unanswered questions, coming of age, and a tragedy, the story tethers precariously towards cliches.... Somehow it wavers back on to the track and we return to the story of the white girl and her black guardians. In the time of "Black Life matters", I guess this story holds more relevance and significance. In fact, I think the author was actually trying to say that "All Life Matters".

Give it a read. Its historic significance was never so relevant as now.

"Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about”


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