Set in the American South in 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act and intensifying racial unrest, Sue Monk Kidd's ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is a powerful story of coming-of-age, of the ability of love to transform our lives, and the often unacknowledged longing for the universal feminine divine. Addressing the wounds of loss, betrayal and the scarcity of love, Kidd demonstrates the power of women coming together to heal those wounds, to mother each other and themselves and to create a sanctuary of true family and home. Captured by the voice of this Southern adolescent, one becomes enveloped in the hot South Carolina summer and one of most tumultuous times the country has ever seen. A story of mothers lost and found, love, conviction and forgiveness, ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ boldly explores life's wounds and reveals the deeper meaning of home and the redemptive simplicity of "choosing what matters."
This novel is a treasure, a favorite of mine. Truly magical (for me). I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOops! Somehow I deleted my comment so here it is again:
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant to say this evening but didn't quite get to finish is that on the one hand with a genre like Science Fiction, you automatically suspend your 'rational' beliefs because if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to believe in any of the story or characters; on the other hand with a genre like (contemporary) Southern Lit (more so than with traditional Southern Lit or Southern Gothic), you sometimes have to suspend those same beliefs which, for some, may be harder to do, despite having a magical/Spiritual aspect, because most of the stories are a 'real life' type situations and people as opposed to say alien life forms and planets beyond Earth.