Pam's Book 8: The Secret Life of Bees

When my book club started reading The Secret Life of Bees a couple years ago, I found a used copy and opened the book. I hated it. I feel like there must have been some specific reason, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I loaned the book to a friend, who returned it to me last Friday. I opened it up, began reading, and fell in love. I can't imagine what I had against it.

When the book opens, African-Americans had just been granted the right to vote, and Lily's caretaker Rosaleen makes up her mind to walk to town and register herself to vote. On her way, she is accosted by a group of white men, and she refuses to give in to them, instead spitting on their shoes and landing both herself and Lily in jail. Lily's emotionally distant, bordering on abusive father, gets her out of jail, leaving Rosaleen to be beaten by the white men. Lily springs Rosaleen, and they end up in Tiburon, SC, with a group of beekeeping black women named after the spring and summer months. What ensues is a beautiful story of hope, friendship, family, redemption, and bees. Lily learns about herself and her deceased mother; she learns about forgiveness; she learns about love.

August, June, and May are founding members of the Daughters of Mary who base their quasi-Catholic belief system after a black Mary, Our Lady of Chains. As Lily becomes a member of the family, she too learns to look to "the mother of thousands." (I have to say that after following Black Jesus all around Cusco, Peru, I have a soft spot in my heart for his mother.) Lily comes to the conclusion through her relationships in the book that the world would be a better place if we all were colorless, or at least viewed ourselves and others that way. I know that's not exactly an original sentiment, but it remains a revolutionary one, and one we would all do well to take to heart.

I loved Lily's character, how beautiful and flawed she was, how very fourteen she was, the ways she grew. Lily was definitely a dynamic character, but the changes wrought in her by the events she experienced did not seem at all contrived; they happened gradually, and over and over again. She took steps forward and steps backward, like we all do. She ended up in a different place than she began, but she took her time, and a reasonable route, getting there. I enjoyed the many mother figures and the different roles they all played. I liked that nobody in the book was all bad or all good. Even Lily's father, T Ray, while still a jerk, turned out to have some redeeming qualities. The Secret Life of Bees offers hope up to all, but is never corny. I'm glad I gave the book the second chance it so richly deserved. It was magical.