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A.K.'s Reviews > The Secret Life of Bees
The Secret Life of Bees
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by
A.K.'s review
bookshelves: am-i-taking-crazy-pills, southern-us, reviewed-by-yt, womans-work
Oct 10, 2007
bookshelves: am-i-taking-crazy-pills, southern-us, reviewed-by-yt, womans-work
Read this in a couple of hours while I was babysitting. Not always a good sign; particularly when the reason I am looking for 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 are a favorite, chixploitation or no. But while I was looking for short and sweet plot, this book knocked me about the head with near-narcoleptic tropes about culture, color, gender and otherness. Did you know that every poor white in the south beats their children and/or is criminally negligent? Did you know that black folk are all like, all proud and exotic, even the womenfolk?!? Did you know this is bullshit, Sue Monk Kidd?
It is embarassing for me that this book sees more media attention than the literal hundreds of books in/about the South written with clarity, subtlety, and brutal grace. Some Flannery fucken O'Connor oughta burn that vaseline right off the lens. Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature is an even easier start.
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 are a favorite, chixploitation or no. But while I was looking for short and sweet plot, this book knocked me about the head with near-narcoleptic tropes about culture, color, gender and otherness. Did you know that every poor white in the south beats their children and/or is criminally negligent? Did you know that black folk are all like, all proud and exotic, even the womenfolk?!? Did you know this is bullshit, Sue Monk Kidd?
It is embarassing for me that this book sees more media attention than the literal hundreds of books in/about the South written with clarity, subtlety, and brutal grace. Some Flannery fucken O'Connor oughta burn that vaseline right off the lens. Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature is an even easier start.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
October 10, 2007
– Shelved
December 22, 2009
– Shelved as:
am-i-taking-crazy-pills
July 22, 2011
– Shelved as:
southern-us
December 2, 2011
– Shelved as:
reviewed-by-yt
January 23, 2017
– Shelved as:
womans-work
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A.K.
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 11:03PM)
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Oct 11, 2007 08:09PM
or a snob...
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Or both -- and a good thing, too! I think sassy snobs are too few, especially when it comes to good detail writing put to bad use (this book) or fantastic writing languishing in a publisher's inbox (so many others).
You recommend it to maroons??? Do you know any maroons??
I think they're all on some island with Bugs Bunny...
I happened to like this book, but read your review because it looked funny; and I was not disappointed. You are hilarious. Do you have a blog? My favorite quote of your review: "...the reason I am looking for material is that the only other house options are natural health and yoga magazines, as I am a dedicated chainsmoker with terrible posture." Too funny.
OH, thank you for saying that the empress is naked! Half-way through, I decided I wasn't dense, that I DID like good magical realism, and that SKM was using far too many evaluative adjectives, phrases, paragraphs.... The character of the girl's father, especially, was as flat as Homer Simpson, but not nearly as well drawn. Yes, and I agree with you about Flannery O'Conner - she's much more brutal and compassionate.
It's spelled "morons." And maybe that's why you didn't like this book.
Liza, I agree with you 100%. Still laughing :)
wow, this review was so spot-on it kind of made me all a-flutter! so, uh, what are you doing this weekend? want to go get coffee and trash Eat Pray Love?
Too bad you can't see past yourself. It must give you great pleasure to trash a book that spoke to millions of people in a most soul lifting way. Not sure if you read the same book as the rest of us. You must have read your version through the special cynical filter.
Although this book is on my list of favorites, your review is fantastic. While I managed to find much to love in the book, you pointed out some obvious flaws. And, you have a way with words. I'm cracking up...
Only one white man was abusive. The lawyer was OK and the cops weren't too bad.
