The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

** Spoiler Alert - The Secret Life of Bees **

I once asked my mum (who will easily devour half a dozen books during a week-long holiday) what her favourite book was. She told me that it was The Secret Life of Bees (2002) by Sue Monk Kidd, and naturally I asked her what the book was about. Her reply: "I can't remember".

Ever since our conversation I had been meaning to read this apparently wonderful yet strangely elusive book, and I finally got around to it in February. Kidd tells the story of 14 year-old Lily, who has grown up in the awful knowledge that she accidentally killed her mother as a toddler. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s American South, the novel follows Lily on her journey of discovery as she questions her past, her future, her identity, her father and her country.

For the first 20 pages of the book I found Lily's teenage narrative voice irritating, which I believe is Kidd's intention. Many of Lily's comments carry the distinctive tone of a young teenager attempting to demonstrate her understanding of the adult world, a voice that is appropriate to the novel's genre as a bildungsroman. As the novel progresses and Lily grows more aware of the world around her, this voice undergoes subtle changes. However, Kidd never lets Lily fully discard her childish voice, and we see the author subverting the concept of a bildungsroman by purposefully failing to complete the character-building metaphorical journey that the protagonist is 'supposed' to experience within this genre.

After fleeing her home and persuading her maid Rosaleen to escape from custody, Lily travels to nearby Tiburon and stays with the eccentric, bee-keeping August and her sisters, June and May. Lily immerses herself in the sisters' lifestyle, helping to tend the bees and partaking in their part-Catholic and part-pagan religion.

The three-quarters of the novel that documents Lily's stay in the pink house is packed with symbolism, from the extracts from non-fiction bee books that Kidd uses to open each chapter, to May's wailing wall stuffed with mournful notes. These images, symbols and motifs all point towards the novel's climax when May, who feels the world's pain as her own, drowns herself in the river behind the surreal pink house.

After this climax, which is genuinely tragic despite the slightly surreal circumstances, Lily is flooded with the 'truth' about what happened to her mother. T-Ray, her abusive father, tracks her down to Tiburon, threatening to shatter her new-found tranquility, and August admits to Lily that her mother temporarily left her as a toddler. Crucially, however, Lily never quite discovers the absolute truth about her mother's death. Throughout the novel, Kidd cleverly uses Lily's apparently naïve narrative voice to suggest that T-Ray may have murdered his wife, yet the novel's finale implies - but does not confirm with absolute certainty - that Lily probably did kill her by accident after all. It is this uncertainty and rejection of the reader's assumed omniscience that subverts the sense of the novel as a bildungsroman. Kidd ingeniously allows the reader to grow frustrated at Lily's perceived ignorance, but refuses to fully confirm or reject their assumptions.

Having read The Secret Life of Bees, I can better understand my mum's comment that she couldn't remember what the book is about. Kidd weaves so many rich images, characters and themes into her novel that the end result truly is greater than the sum of the parts.  Whilst the actual events of the novel can be quickly summarised (Lily and Rosaleen run away - they live at the pink house - May drowns - Lily gets some answers), Lily's subtle yet incomplete journey, alongside Kidd's rich fabric of symbolism, leaves a profound impact on the reader that simply cannot be conveyed in a throwaway comment. Kudos to my mum for refusing to try.


If you liked The Secret Life of Bees, I also recommend...

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009) - Stockett's novel is also set in the 1960s American South and gives a humorous yet poignant account of how the American Civil Rights Movement really impacted the black community in the U.S, a key theme of The Secret Life of Bees.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007) - this novel is very different from The Secret Life of Bees in lots of ways but, like Kidd, Diaz uses a young narrator to explore the concept of maturity and persecution, and the novel's magical realist elements are comparable with the religious aspects of Kidd's novel.