The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

5/1/2004

In July, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. Lily Owens lives in South Carolina with her father and her nanny, Rosaleen. Lily's mother had died in an accident then years earlier when she was four. Her father is a cold man who Lily feels doesn't love her. But he's her father, so he has to.

When the Civil Rights Act is signed, Rosaleen heads into town to register to vote. Lily goes with her. Before she makes it to the registration site, Rosaleen has a run-in with some of the meanest racists in town. She and Lily end up in jail. Lily's father is able to have Lily released because she is white. But Rosaleen isn't as fortunate. When Lily packs her bags, runs away, and goes back to visit her in jail, Rosaleen is in the hospital. Rosaleen has had an "accident" - the same men beat her up with the sheriff's help. Lily breaks Rosaleen out of the hospital and they leave town.

Now Rosaleen and Lily are fugitives. Lily has three items from her mother. One is a picture of her mother marked Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily decides to go there because her mother had been there once. Lily weaves a plausible story for their appearance. The runaways are taken in by three older black women.August, the oldest sister, is a bee keeper. She sells honey to support the sisters. Lily becomes her helper and apprentice.

The Secret Life of Bees is a book that entertains the reader with a wonderful story. It also makes the reader think. There are many levels in this tightly written book. There is civil rights for blacks. There is racism. There is a girl becoming a young woman. There is the hardness of a family without a mother. There is the tight knit family of the three sisters. There is first romance. There is late romance. There is religion. There is the sisterhood of women. There is the sense of being unloved and unlovable. There is mental instability. And there is bee keeping. The Secret Life of Bees weaves all these threads into an astonishing book .

I kept seeing recommendations for The Secret Life of Bees. But my to-be-read pile and list is always so long. I just hadn't gotten to it. I was preparing for some long drives and found it in audiobook form. It's a book where I got so involved that I would sit and listen in the parked car when I arrived at my destination. I finished it early in the week, but the threads of The Secret Life of Bees are still whirling around in my head. This is a marvellous book.

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