Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Secret Life of Bees

One of my beach reads was "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. I read it indoors and also worked on "The Phantom Tollbooth." I didn't finish either one at the beach...couldn't believe how busy we were! But, this book was in my "indoor" bag when I got home so I finished it first.

I really enjoyed this book. It is one of those "coming of age" stories. Lily, the main character, runs away from her abusive father on a journey to find out the truth about her mother, who died when Lily was very young. Another big theme of the book is racial tension in the midst of the civil rights movement, so there is tension there as Lily finds a temporary home with a family of black sisters who are beekeepers. The metaphor of the different roles of types of bees in a hive plays into the story as little excerpts at the beginning of each chapter from a "beekeeping" book.

Lily is a real and believable character. Not too "good" or "bad" to believe, but just true. The characters are are developed well and the ending is satisfying...I was kind of worried for a while.

Can't wait to see the movie now!