The Secret Life of Bees (Penguin Essential Edition)

published	2005 by Penguin (Non-Classics)
first published	2002
binding	Paperback
isbn	0143036408 (isbn13: 9780143036401)
pages	320
description	In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hou...more [close] In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily's story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd's debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic. --Regina Marler
date added	12-08-06 edit book

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spacellama rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

07/11/07

bookshelves: thought-provoking

Read in April, 2004

recommends it for: people who like Southern-flavored coming-of-age books and

I confess to being a little hesitant going into this book. It is, after all, that most cliched and irritating of literati faves: a coming-of-age story set in the American South. Lily, a motherless 14-year-old girl lives with her bigoted abusive father on a peach farm in South Carolina. Her goals involve befriending black people and finding information about her long-dead mother. Just summarizing this thing inspires the eye-rolling.

But the book does have some saving graces. First, the writing...more I confess to being a little hesitant going into this book. It is, after all, that most cliched and irritating of literati faves: a coming-of-age story set in the American South. Lily, a motherless 14-year-old girl lives with her bigoted abusive father on a peach farm in South Carolina. Her goals involve befriending black people and finding information about her long-dead mother. Just summarizing this thing inspires the eye-rolling.

But the book does have some saving graces. First, the writing is incredible. Voice, pacing, transition, and word choice are all stellar. On a micro level, Ms Kidd is magnificent. For instance, despite the predictability of telling such a tale from the young girl's point of view, I thought the decision worked here. Lily herself is absolutely charming. She is completely honest with the reader, often to her own detriment. If the story had been written from anyone else's point of view, Lily would have been pathetic: abused motherless little girl who harbors way too much guilt and angst. This book could have gone off the deep end real easy. But Lily is a survivor and an optimist, and her naive faith drives this book.

Mostly. As you might expect in a story of this sort, there was plenty of menstruation angst, boyfriend nervousness, junior cheerleader tryouts, and the requisite abusive father. All of these things were painful to read. However, something that made this book somewhat fresh was the strong theme of race. For a nice chunk of the book, Lily is on the lam with her black housekeeper Rosaleen, traipsing through 1960s South Carolina after busting Rosaleen out of jail for offending some white guys. I was struck with the parallels to Mark Twain, only here the adventure was overlaid -- sometimes heavy handedly -- with a female sensibility. Nice. In fact, all of the embedded feminism was well done. Recurrent natural images of moonlight and water were beautiful and deliciously pagan. The author went to a lot of trouble to create a new religion just for girls: part Catholicism, part goddess-centered paganism, part ancestor worship. The religious aspect was interesting, but not as compelling as the author wanted it to be. I could tell she was trying to impress me with the notion of Mary as a goddess protector. But I didn't buy it. Lily bought it, though, and that was enough to keep me reading.

The whole book was a quest for independence, I think. To find confidence and drive within, without always needing that crutch of others' acceptance. The book almost achieved that. But it gave in at the last, to deliver a happy ending.

Now that I think about it, much of the book was cliche. But it was also a good read. The strength of the narrative voice saved it, and it had some absolutely gut-twisting parts. The line beginning "She was all I ever wanted" .... both painful and breathtaking. ...less

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SVK rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

02/18/08

Read in July, 2005

recommended to SVK by: book group
recommends it for: teachers of English; beekeepers

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Summary
Lilly lives with her father T. Ray (she calls him by first name—another TKAM rip-off?) on a peach farm. Her mother (we learn) breaks down and leaves T. Ray, then returns three months later to get Lily. All Lily remembers is her mom rushing to pack a suitcase, an argument with T. Ray, a gun that lands on the floor, gun goes off, mom dies.

T. Ray is a cruel father who punishes Lily by making her kneel on grits. He yells and storms, tells Lily that she killed her mom who h...more

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Leah added it (review of isbn 0142001740)

12/02/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: everyone!!!

Leah Gerber
Mrs. Ebarvia
Honors World Lit
11/26/07
Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees
What is more enjoyable than a good book? The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the best book I have read in a long time. Holding the reader’s interest is a key part of writing a good book and I could not put it down. Kidd has written many other novels such as The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and The Mermaid Chair. The story starts out with Lily Owens isolated on a farm, forced to sell peaches...more Leah Gerber
Mrs. Ebarvia
Honors World Lit
11/26/07
Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees
What is more enjoyable than a good book? The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the best book I have read in a long time. Holding the reader’s interest is a key part of writing a good book and I could not put it down. Kidd has written many other novels such as The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and The Mermaid Chair. The story starts out with Lily Owens isolated on a farm, forced to sell peaches for her abusive father. Her black housemaid Rosaleen is her only escape from the hell she calls home. Then, a series of events pushes her to the limit. Rosaleen gets beaten up and put in jail, and when her father, known as T-Ray, tells Lily that she accidentally killed her mother, and that her mother never loved her, it is the last straw. Becoming a fugitive from the law and breaking Rosaleen out of jail, she runs away to Tiburon, South Carolina. Using a picture of a black Mary as a clue, she finds a family that knew her mother. Creating a web of lies, Lily assumes a false identity and stays with the colored Boatwright family to discover about her past and what really happened to her mother.
The Secret Life of Bees was so incredible I have but one negative point; the ending was extraordinarily weak. It was exciting until the book actually ended. The father comes to get his daughter, putting you in suspense, but then the T-Ray just gives up and leaves. For such an inspiring story it seemed as though Kidd had given up, and just didn’t care about how the story ended, almost as if she put a little bit of herself in T-Ray’s character.
The novel is amazingly well written, and once the book was over, I was begging for more. What I loved about it was how I had never seen this plot before. The way Kidd presents the story keeps you from knowing things that the characters do-at least until the point when she reveals it-which I liked because it is different. Most authors use dramatic irony, but this is the opposite. Another point that appealed to me was how you could feel the character growing each and every day. The way she intertwined racial problems with an unlikely family without making it depressing was brilliant. She shined a light on a whole new dimension to the topic.
I think Sue Monk Kidd could have changed the ending. It was very exciting until ‘she lived happily ever after’. Anyone can write that, but what makes this novel unique is that Kidd and Lily are not anyone-they are someone. Even with this minor flaw, this may be the all time greatest novel I have ever read. With each character so unmatched and important, every person can find them self somewhere in this enlightening and heartwarming story. It will make you laugh, cry, and long for your family. I cannot think of someone who would not like this book, so I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. “You gotta imagine what’s never been.” And Kidd did just that. She created a modern novel that can be read again and again.
...less

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Sammy rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

06/12/07

bookshelves: the-best

Read in January, 2005

Ahhh! *gasp* *choke* *stammer* I can barely find the words to say how much I loved this book. Honestly, The Secret Life of Bees has to be one of the best books I've read in a while. I just want to give it several A+'s and a kiss!

It was touching, well-written, beautiful, full of expression, insightful, anything you could want in a book and then some. It started off with a bang, that wasn't a bang... it grabbed you, but didn't startle you so much that the rest of the book was dull in compariso...more Ahhh! *gasp* *choke* *stammer* I can barely find the words to say how much I loved this book. Honestly, The Secret Life of Bees has to be one of the best books I've read in a while. I just want to give it several A+'s and a kiss!

It was touching, well-written, beautiful, full of expression, insightful, anything you could want in a book and then some. It started off with a bang, that wasn't a bang... it grabbed you, but didn't startle you so much that the rest of the book was dull in comparison. There was romance, love, family, racial issues, religious experiences, and bees.

I have a feeling the title may deter a lot of people thinking that, oh, it's a book about bees! Well, there is a lot mentioned about bees, but it only helps enrich the story. With elements in the bees lives that tied in nicely with the lives of Lily Owens and the bee keeping sisters. All the characters are full and developed, except for the asshole racists in the very beginning of the book and somewhere in the middle, but even then real life racists aren't full and developed either. I'm sorry if you're a racist and you're reading this, but... well, fuck off. Mwa ha ha ha!

The only problem I had with this book was that I wished it was longer... but I think it was the perfect length. Nothing dragged out and nothing cut too short. Like little bears porridge, chair, and bed, it was perfect! I'm not surprised their making a movie out of it... I just hope that most people read the book before going to see it, because if they mess it up in the movie, that could deterr a lot of people from reading this wonderful book. And typically books are better than movies, because there's more and you have more freedom for thought. I also want them to cast me. *wink wink*

Sue Monk Kidd mentioned about possibly writing a sequel, possibly after she finishes writing her current work in progress The Mermaid Chair (which, if she continues writing like she did in this book, I will gobble up as soon as it comes out). I hope she doesn't write a sequel though, because The Secret Life of Bees can truely stand on it's own. And I'm sure as much as many people want to read more about Lily Owens and the Daughters of Mary, I think it will be hard for the second novel to live up to the expectations the first one made. This book may make it hard for Sue Monk Kidd... but if her writing continues to be as stellar as the writing in this book... she will have a fan base almost as big as J.K. Rowling. Potter-heads note the word almost....less

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Kathaileen rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

11/03/07

bookshelves: novels

Read in July, 2004

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This book is set in the south in 1964. Lily, a 14-year-old white girl is heading to town on the Fourth of July, her birthday. The Civil Rights Amendment has just passed. Rosaleen, the black woman who has raised her since her mother’s death when she was four years old, is heading into town to register to vote. Some red-neck white boys start to give them a bad time and for whatever reason, Rosaleen decides to empty her snuff jug on top of their shoes. They immediately start to beat up on her and...more This book is set in the south in 1964. Lily, a 14-year-old white girl is heading to town on the Fourth of July, her birthday. The Civil Rights Amendment has just passed. Rosaleen, the black woman who has raised her since her mother’s death when she was four years old, is heading into town to register to vote. Some red-neck white boys start to give them a bad time and for whatever reason, Rosaleen decides to empty her snuff jug on top of their shoes. They immediately start to beat up on her and she ends up in jail. In the meantime, Lily’s abusive father picks her up, takes her home and tells her to wait there while he deals with his orchard workers, that he will deal with her when he gets back. Lily packs a bag of clothes along with a photograph of her mother and a picture of her mother’s of a black Madonna with ‘Tiburon, SC’ written on the back. She heads into town to see Rosaleen and finds out she’s in the hospital because the sheriff let the white boys who beat her into her cell so she could apologize. Lily springs Rosaleen from the hospital and they hitchhike to Tiburon.
When Lily goes into a store to get them something to eat she sees jars of honey with the same black Madonna on them as her picture. She asks where the honey came from and is directed to a bright pink house outside of town. There are three sisters living there. August is the beekeeper, June is the school teacher and May takes care of the house. When they tell the women they have no place to stay, they let them stay in the bee shed out back.
The women have many women friends and they all collect around the pink house. This is the first time in Lily’s life that she has ever felt like she belonged. It’s kind of like a beehive. I think the Queen could be the ‘Mary’ that used to be on a ship’s masthead because everyone cares for it and celebrates around it. The figure has one hand on her heart and the other in a fist lifted in defiance – kind of symbolizing the black woman’s spirit (like Rosaleen dumping her snuff jar and then not apologizing). They all have their jobs to do to keep the ‘hive’ going.
I loved this book....less

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Chai rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

05/11/08

bookshelves: i-own

Read in May, 2008

I actually liked this book. I only read the reviews afterwards and noticed that a lot of people complain of the stereotyping, and embarrassingly - I was so in love with the characters that it didn't phase me, I'm ashamed. I did notice that the 'blacks' were all painted as stereotypes but I figured that the author was just using a voice that kept with the times - back then, that's how everything was seen. But now I feel a little conflicted because god damn, I hate stereotypes and I'm usual...more I actually liked this book. I only read the reviews afterwards and noticed that a lot of people complain of the stereotyping, and embarrassingly - I was so in love with the characters that it didn't phase me, I'm ashamed. I did notice that the 'blacks' were all painted as stereotypes but I figured that the author was just using a voice that kept with the times - back then, that's how everything was seen. But now I feel a little conflicted because god damn, I hate stereotypes and I'm usually the first to jump up-and-down and shake my fist.

I loved Lily, I have been struggling to actually like a protagonist in a novel for a long while, so was pleased when I took to Lily immediately. I think that it was a real honest, true voice of a fourteen year old, you could feel the wide-eyed wonder, the naivity and the angst without it being irritating. I loved how she grew and learned; gained courage and wisdom; without the morals of the story beating you over the head. I absolutely loved August and Rosaleen. To be honest, I loved them all. I was even rooting for Zach and Lily to hook up - it made me feel like a teenage reader again, in parts.

I loved the feminist undertones, these women were strong, capable and gutsy. I love the part where August explains why she never married. I loved how the women's spirituality was dealt with an off-beat 'religion' and even though I'm atheist - I still thought that the way that these women had made sense of the world, was empowering and beautiful. It was rather pagan; peaceful yet powerful. I found most of the book to be highly original and kept reading not only because of Kidd's great use of words, but because I really have not ever read anything like this before! I love unique.

I loved the storyline, I loved the beautiful prose. I think too, that I was so fascinated by this book because it is so far removed from my life and what I know of the world. Being Australian, reading about the South (from Kidd's perspective anyway, taking on board the fact that she stereotypes) was a page-turner for me. Some of the passages in the book were really quite stunning. Here's my favourite paragraph.

Every human being on the face of the earth has a steel plate in his head, but if you lie down now and then and get still as you can, it will slide open like evelator doors, letting in all the secret thoughts that have been standing around so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the top. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long....less

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Elaine rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

06/26/07

bookshelves: mainstreamlitfic

Read in June, 2007

A coming-to-age novel set in South Carolina at the height of desegregation. Lily is a lovable pre-teen who'd grown up believing she killed her mother (accidentally) and is trying to escape a brutal, abusive father. Filled with a cast of eccentric characters, Lily runs away with Rosaleen, a black servant, and finds herself in a beekeeper's sanctuary, where secrets come spilling out of the closet for a cymbal-clashing ending. Although rendered very close to the voice of a believable pre-teen, ...more

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Ali rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

05/01/08

bookshelves: novels

Thanks a lot to Sue Monk Kido! It’s true; Words are the most beautiful things existed in the world, but they die as fast as they were born, unless you convert them to act! This is so simple but a fact, as beautiful and strong as life.
This is a large combination of beautiful moments, scenes, words, principles and characters in this, which I loved and enjoyed, such as May, the one sister who “has no walls around her heart”, and the description of “wailing wall” where one deal with her...more Thanks a lot to Sue Monk Kido! It’s true; Words are the most beautiful things existed in the world, but they die as fast as they were born, unless you convert them to act! This is so simple but a fact, as beautiful and strong as life.
This is a large combination of beautiful moments, scenes, words, principles and characters in this, which I loved and enjoyed, such as May, the one sister who “has no walls around her heart”, and the description of “wailing wall” where one deal with her / his own suffering. I love what August would call “Bee yard etiquette; Don’t be afraid as no life – loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be idiot, wear long sleeves and long pants … if you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t”. yeah! This is right, absolutment! And above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved!
I would jumpe up of joy when August said: “Stories have to be told or they die, and where they die, we can’t remember who we are, or why we’re here”. This is simply a verse, I actually consider the whole book as a long beautiful poem, narrated by a lady.
I love the idea that May, July and August (the three sisters) are free of any restriction during their own month; May in May, June in June and August in August, I’ll try to do the same in August as this is also my month!
And I’m absolutely agree with August saying “Everything needs a God who looks like them” that’s why that black people like black Madonna”! I love the stories August tell about her mother, specially that where her mother tease Mary Madonna saying; “you know what? You should have had a girl instead”! I lived with the three sisters in the beehouse / pink house while reading the novel. And I should confess that I fell in love with August, such a lady, living Madonna. Yeah! “Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We’re all so human, … there is nothing perfect, there is life”!
...less

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Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

05/18/07

Read in May, 2007

I'm picking this up again out of desperation. it's pretty bad. the pacing is terrible, the characterization is spotty, cliched, and rarely believeable, and there is so much shlocky dime-store 'wisdom' stuffed into the pages that it's a wonder anything ever actually happens, plot-wise. writing from the point of view of a child or adolescent is hard, and authors rarely get it right. this book certainly doesn't.

oh god, and the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter are so hit-you-over...more

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Kerry rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

03/08/07

Read in January, 2003

recommends it for: Chicks

Okay, hear me out. This is SO not the kind of book I normally read. It's the kind of book my mother reads. You know the type I'm talking about: "Reviving Ophelia", "Not Without My Daughter"...mother-y books. It was, in fact, my mother who demanded I read this book, because she read it in her book club. DOUBLE red flag. That is when I normally drop the book and run as fast as possible away from her, screaming and flailing my arms. But when she gave me this book I happen...more

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Mayla rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

03/23/08

Read in February, 2008

The Secret Life Of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd

Penguin Group, 2003, $14.00, 336 pgs.
ISBN 9-78-014200-1

“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” (Kidd 148). The Secret Life Of Bees allows us to discover more about creatures we think less of. Bees – what do they do? Disgusting and small, how complicated can things be for them? All they do is make honey and buzz, being sticky a...more

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Holli rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

04/24/08

Read in January, 2006

I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like The Secret Life of Bees. It really strikes a chord. We're all like Lily--poor white girls searching for a rich black mother. I read Kidd's Dance of the Dissident Daughter and realized that we're all searching for the sacred feminine, the black madonna who has been in exiled. Maybe The Secret Life of Bees will help bring her back.--HR

From Publishers Weekly
Honey-sweet but never cloying, this debut by nonfiction author Kidd (The Dance of the Dissid...more I haven't talked to anyone who didn't like The Secret Life of Bees. It really strikes a chord. We're all like Lily--poor white girls searching for a rich black mother. I read Kidd's Dance of the Dissident Daughter and realized that we're all searching for the sacred feminine, the black madonna who has been in exiled. Maybe The Secret Life of Bees will help bring her back.--HR

From Publishers Weekly
Honey-sweet but never cloying, this debut by nonfiction author Kidd (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter) features a hive's worth of appealing female characters, an offbeat plot and a lovely style. It's 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act, in Sylvan, S.C. Fourteen-year-old Lily is on the lam with motherly servant Rosaleen, fleeing both Lily's abusive father T. Ray and the police who battered Rosaleen for defending her new right to vote. Lily is also fleeing memories, particularly her jumbled recollection of how, as a frightened four-year-old, she accidentally shot and killed her mother during a fight with T. Ray. Among her mother's possessions, Lily finds a picture of a black Virgin Mary with "Tiburon, S.C." on the back so, blindly, she and Rosaleen head there. It turns out that the town is headquarters of Black Madonna Honey, produced by three middle-aged black sisters, August, June and May Boatwright. The "Calendar sisters" take in the fugitives, putting Lily to work in the honey house, where for the first time in years she's happy. But August, clearly the queen bee of the Boatwrights, keeps asking Lily searching questions. Faced with so ideally maternal a figure as August, most girls would babble uncontrollably. But Lily is a budding writer, desperate to connect yet fiercely protective of her secret interior life. Kidd's success at capturing the moody adolescent girl's voice makes her ambivalence comprehensible and charming. And it's deeply satisfying when August teaches Lily to "find the mother in (herself)" a soothing lesson that should charm female readers of all ages. (Jan. 28)...less

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Christina rated it:

(review of isbn 0755330692)

03/15/08

bookshelves: 2008

Read in March, 2008

About a week ago I saw a girl in my Spanish class, Natalie, reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I decided to give the book a shot.

Summary Off Of Back Cover: “Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life ob Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around a blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them bot...more

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Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

10/10/07

bookshelves: crap

Read this in a couple of hours while I was babysitting. Not always a good sign; particularly when the reason I am looking for some post-bedtime-for-bonzos reading material is that the only other house options are natural health and yoga magazines, as I am a dedicated chainsmoker with terrible posture.

Some of the ideas patly blurbed on the back seemed compelling. Mary definitely wasn't a WASP, so that's interesting; beekeeping is fertile for extended metaphor; and tough runaway girlchildren ...more

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Morgan rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

03/15/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Southern women who haven't read enough Southern women books

Being from the South, I am quite familiar with the whole "Southern girl coming of age" genre. I have read many of these books, and the best are framed with nuanced, real characters that raise the book from cliche (Bastard Out of Carolina is a good example of this). This was not one of those books.

I am not totally blasting this book--much of it was written well, and parts were almost enjoyable. Lily was (most of the time) a pretty likable character, and I actually cared about her ...more

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Hannah rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

11/26/07

recommends it for: Anyone

Reading the Secret Life of Bees is like meeting the best friend of your childhood within the confines of 302 pages of prose. Lily Owens is a 14-year-old girl who only wants a place to belong after running away from her miserable father with her black nursemaid Rosaleen. With nowhere else to go, Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by three eccentric sisters: black beekeepers who hold the clues to Lily’s past, and quite possibly her future. Expertly set in 1964 in the heart of the American South, Li...more

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Bitterpeas rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

04/10/08

bookshelves: reviewed-finished

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a coming of age story of a girl that is haunted by the memory of her mother being alive. The story takes place after the Civil Rights Act was passed but while there were still acts of racial discrimination. Lily is white and this setting affects her culturally in the beginning, but when she ends up in a home with black women, she naturally loves them. Her age is not emotionally shown because she has grown up with an abusive father, T.Ray. He ha...more

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Aldin rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

03/18/08

Read in February, 2008

The book the secret life of bees is abouta 14 year old girl that has a lot of problems as she starts to grow up. She lives with her crazy father, and her servant Rosaleen, which is like a mother to her in the story. The book takes place in the 1940s so racism was at a very high point in society at the time of the book. Lily and her father have a horrible relationship together and cant seem to see eye to eye on anything. Lily soon decides to make a decision that would have a big effect on her lif...more

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Jody rated it:

(review of isbn 0142001740)

04/23/08

bookshelves: welcome-to-my-bookcase

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2006

In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words &...more