The Secret Life of Bees, a Novel by Sue Monk Kidd

Although The Secret Life of Bees is a work of fiction, this is a beautifully written honest portrayal of life in unfairly segregated South Carolina with the Jim Crow laws, through the signing in 1964 of revised Civil Rights laws to end segregation, allowing registration to vote to African Americans and other minorities. A time of civil disobedience and riots still happening, and in the midst of it comes this wonderful story of love, color-blindness, joy and happiness.  Sue Monk Kidd is an amazing author, with a gift of feeling her characters and creating them in such a way the reader feels all the nuances, too.  This book is very difficult to put down once begun.

There is also a mystery running through the book, as Lily, a young white girl tries to find solace in her difficult life and protection for the only woman she has had love from, Rosaleen, a black woman who has been brought in from the orchards to raise her after her mother dies while Lily is just a toddler.  With a volatile father who has no parenting instincts, her life is nothing but fear and pain.  When Rosaleen learns that she can now go and register to vote, as long as she could write legibly, the two of them walk into town where Rosaleen gets into a ruckus with some white men who are out for trouble, is beaten then both she and Lily are packed off to jail.  Lily's father gets her out and punishes her and the next day Lily hears that Rosaleen is in the hospital from a further beating while in jail, and through some quick thinking manages to rescue her and run away together.

Lily has no idea where they should go, but she had found some things of her mother's and one item, a picture of a "Black Mary" fastened to wood with the name of a small town on it, seemed to guide her, so that is where they head.  Once they finally find their way into the town, a chance visit to a small grocery store brings Lily face to face with stacks of honey with the exact same face pasted on it. Finding out where the person lives who supplies this opens great new doors for the two runaways.

Here is a new world, with kindness, love, caring, hominess, and a honey farm.  From this point on, both Lily and Rosaleen find the peace and caring they need and are absorbed into the family for an unspecified time.  The things they learn about life, and indeed about bees and beekeeping gradually open up their hearts and minds to possibilities.  While still fearing her father or the police will catch them, they cannot bring themselves to talk about their own lives, and no one pushes them to.  This is the beauty of the story. Heart-warming yet the veil of danger at all times. Love flows from all around as the honey flows from the supers when they are full. There are many quotes about bees, one for each chapter, that link the life of bees with human life, which is fascinating.

When Lily's father finally finds her, the overwhelming force of love from so many beats him back and he heads for home at last.  There is so much to be learned from this book in so many ways. Soul-searching and finding one's soul; the optimism for the future, the freedom of being oneself, the peace, love, and joy available when we are ready to accept it. This is a remarkable book and I would recommend it to everyone.  5 stars.

Memories Vision by Ken Coleman

Reviewed for Front Street Reviews
First posted Aug 26, 2009

Ken Coleman has put together a wonderfully historic pseudo-biography that reads like a true interview of Queenie Jones, "most famous, notorious, and controversial black female entertainer of all time". I personally could not tell if this was a fictional account of an actual person or straight fiction. This centenarian has seen it all. The good, the bad, and the ugly, but mostly in reverse order. Being a black girl in the south in the early 1900s she witnesses the worst of America's history with the lynchings and murders of black people just for being there. Some of her story is reminiscent of that of Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, Josephine Baker and later even Eartha Kitt and more, in particular finding a safe place to perform in France. But I am ahead of myself here.

Take a small girl who is very close to and admiring of her preacher father, only to lose him when he was caught by white men when he went after the light coloured boys who raped her at the young age of 14. Queenie was left with feelings of shame, guilt, and pregnant as well. As she says "I deserved it. I was being punished for being forward with boys. God was teaching me a lesson, one that took me another fifty years to learn." This is the way her life began, seeing children and men hung, stumbling over corpses, just because they were black.

This is not necessarily the story of white vs. black though. This is a story of love, of growth, of fame and fortune, and finally peace. This is a running history of America as told from the lips of one person who lived it all, the complete century. But it is also a story of awakening.

For what seems an unfathomable reason and is not explained in the early part of the book, Queenie has asked a young Jewish writer to come and write her memoirs. Steven Eidleberg can not understand why she has asked for him, and the most she would tell him was that one of his stories showed insight and compassion, she called it brilliant, Pulitzer prize material. But throughout the book he can not shake the feeling that more is involved.

The entire interviews are held in the hospital in secret while Queenie reminisces but grows weaker with every day. The life she led as a great, but raunchy, entertainer through the thirties to the sixties are a revelation of how many did live. A big woman with a bigger presence and amazing talent, her anger and lack of trust through those years made her tough and scrappy, and placed her in situations where only her great talent and fame saved her.

The interaction between these two extraordinarily different people is a marvel to behold. Steven feels spellbound by the story and believes this book will be his best writing ever. A story that "needed to be told". But his devotion to both the story and to Queenie herself causes a lot of rumbling in the Jewish community and gradually affects his marriage, but he can not let go. So much of the history of the black people he had very little idea of because it was virtually ignored in the Jewish community, and yet there are commonalities too, both races ostracized for different reasons. Both are outcasts, and both are in a way segregated. The book gives the reader a lot to ponder on these relationships and on the history of both. Understanding how the blacks accepted their lot is very psychological and I for one found these comparisons and reasonings of great interest.

The book is packed with famous names in the black music genre and the author has made it all feel very real and intense, and yet there is a full retinue of feelings described and eventually dealt with as the laws changed. There is an open joy in Queenie and yet she could fist-fight with the best of them. She could pack any venue with her talent. She survived the decades in whatever manner she was able. She was still performing into her 70s, was internationally famous, and always controversial and confrontational. A period of time comes into her life that brings her into a relationship that changes her completely.

What more can I say, there are surprises through the book, but especially toward the end. There is humour, great insight, an unusual but close connection between the writer and the singer as he writes as fast as he can to get the full story before she passes away. There is a wiseness in Queenie of age that probes Stevens insecurities and blind acceptance of the life he leads as a Jew. I particularly enjoyed one quote "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear". How often true. The book is very conversational in nature and I really enjoyed reading it. I feel I learned from it too. Mr. Coleman has done a remarkable job of writing the story in the voice of Queenie and of Steven, so much so that it is difficult to remember it is a fictional story.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe’s debut novel is a well-crafted, deeply researched and exceptional work centered around the Salem witch trials of the 1600s and reaching out to the present time. The novel features several real people of history in real situations but extended by imagery and imagination to fill in the blanks. Holding a PhD in American and New England History she has brought these times to life in a very realistic way. She also has the advantage historically of being descended from two of the accused witches so has invested a great deal of effort into this amazing story.

Katherine has taken her university experience and interwoven it into the research that Connie Goodwin, her protagonist, undertakes for her choice of dissertation. An accidental discovery in her grandmother’s home she has been asked to prepare for selling, brings her right into the world of old Salem. The book reads smoothly and consistently while building the tension throughout. The characters grow, and almost come alive as the reader gets more involved in the story. This is an interesting time of American history, referred to in the book as the Salem Panic. In fact, Connie soon finds that the dynamics of what she has discovered has put her in a very delicate and dangerous position with her university advisor.

The fact that she is dealing with two distinct time periods in the same location does not disturb the flow at all. In fact Katherine has called these sections reverting in time as “Interludes”, which means you are not suddenly propelled from one instance to another. There is enough mystique in the book to keep the interest flowing, enough history to really get a feel for the time, enough mystery, a dash of romance, a froth of magic, maybe a bit of vision, a bit of sadness, all continuing to build toward a fascinating ending. Yet through most of the story Connie is considering this a project and that she is detached from the reality. An altogether enjoyable experience, it is my hope that there will be more books to come from Katherine Howe. An wonderful journey bringing the past to the now in an incredibly entertaining manner. Grabbed me and didn’t let go! Definitely recommend, don’t forget to read all the notes beginning and end, very interesting.