I'm not gonna lie, when I first heard that we were going to be reading the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, I couldn't have been less excited. As I made my way through the novel however I was pleasantly surprised by how engrossing the story ended up being for me.
The vivid descriptions the Kidd musters are just as thick and rich as the honey that the bees work so hard to make. This beautiful writing style is coupled with a story that is both gut wrenchingly sad and glorious at the same time. The trials that the main character Lily endures throughout the course of the story are enough to make you shed a tear or two along the way.
In fact, while I blame being sick and generally depressed, this was the first book to bring a tear to my eye since reading Where the Red Fern Grows in like 4th grade, (why did they make us read a book where dogs die?) so clearly Kidd has created something special here when it comes to making you feel her writing. I would recommend this book to nearly anyone who likes to read, it it amazingly well written and a story that I won't soon forget.
I'm glad you did get something out of it and found it powerful. I think you hit on a key aspect of her writing style.
ReplyDeleteStill, I think I'll do a poll on the last day and get folks opinions, thumbs up or thumbs down, for keeping Bees vs Absolutely True in for next semester's 100 students. Even though Alexie features a male protagonist, it seems everyone could relate to Jr. but I'm not convinced the same was true of Lily, even though Bees is the thematically richer book...we will see...