2008 Woodie Awards
In My Book
Kerry Sullivan
Issue date: 11/13/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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At some point in our academic careers, we've probably all come across books by literary masters Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. Their novels discuss the struggles of strong, young African-American women during times when segregation and discrimination were at their peak in the southern United States and whose personal lives added an element of distress to their stories. Susan Monk Kidd is the newest member of this elite group of skilled novelists who tell tales of racial prejudice and personal hardship, with the publication of her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees.
Set in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees is the story of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl plagued by the constant memory of her mother's death. Lily lives in Sylvan, South Carolina with her angry, peach-farming father, T. Ray, and Rosaleen, a black woman who T. Ray hired to act as Lily's "stand-in mother." When Rosaleen decides that she wants to register to vote at the "colored church" in town, Lily offers to accompany her in order to away from T. Ray for a few hours. The two women encounter obstacles during their journey which eventually force them to flee the small town of Sylvan for Tiburon, South Carolina, where they befriend three unusual bee-farming sisters. As Lily and Rosaleen hide out and work with the beekeeping sisters, Lily learns more about her mother than she ever could have discovered had she remained at home.
The most exciting part of The Secret Life of Bees has to be Kidd's character development and description. Even though all of her main characters are women (except for T. Ray), she finds a unique way to identify each of them that leaves a lasting impression in the reader's mind. Lily, for example, is the character we can all relate to, whether we are male or female, old or young, from the North or from the South. Lily struggles with her identity, adult authority figures who have questionable motives, and a world whose rules she often doesn't understand (or follow, for that matter). She knows what she believes in, and is willing to fight for what she thinks is right. She is brutally honest about her hopes, fears, likes and dislikes. She wonders what her mother was like, and questions if her memories of the woman are accurate. And above all, she worries that she may have caused the death of the one person who she loved most and who loved her in return.
Set in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees is the story of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl plagued by the constant memory of her mother's death. Lily lives in Sylvan, South Carolina with her angry, peach-farming father, T. Ray, and Rosaleen, a black woman who T. Ray hired to act as Lily's "stand-in mother." When Rosaleen decides that she wants to register to vote at the "colored church" in town, Lily offers to accompany her in order to away from T. Ray for a few hours. The two women encounter obstacles during their journey which eventually force them to flee the small town of Sylvan for Tiburon, South Carolina, where they befriend three unusual bee-farming sisters. As Lily and Rosaleen hide out and work with the beekeeping sisters, Lily learns more about her mother than she ever could have discovered had she remained at home.
The most exciting part of The Secret Life of Bees has to be Kidd's character development and description. Even though all of her main characters are women (except for T. Ray), she finds a unique way to identify each of them that leaves a lasting impression in the reader's mind. Lily, for example, is the character we can all relate to, whether we are male or female, old or young, from the North or from the South. Lily struggles with her identity, adult authority figures who have questionable motives, and a world whose rules she often doesn't understand (or follow, for that matter). She knows what she believes in, and is willing to fight for what she thinks is right. She is brutally honest about her hopes, fears, likes and dislikes. She wonders what her mother was like, and questions if her memories of the woman are accurate. And above all, she worries that she may have caused the death of the one person who she loved most and who loved her in return.