In the decade since
her mother's death by gunshot, 14-year-old Lily Owens has grappled with
nagging questions on top of her grief: Was it really Lily herself who
accidentally pulled the trigger, as her mean father claims? Had her
mother abandoned her?
Lily's father, T. Ray, a Southern peach farmer, neglects and abuses
her. She finds affection only from her black caretaker, Rosaleen. The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 has just been passed, and Rosaleen goes to
register to vote. She ends up jailed for an incident involving three
racist white men. Lily manages to spring Rosaleen from jail, and they
head for Tiburon, South Carolina, because Lily found among her mother's
belongings a picture of a Black Virgin Mary with "Tiburon, S.C.,"
written on the back. Lily notices the same photo on jars of honey in a
Tiburon store and is told the beekeeper/honeymaker, August Boatwright,
is from town.
August, who lives with her sisters June and May, offers Lily and
Rosaleen bed and board in return for work. The white girl and black
caretaker spend a contented summer with the African American "calendar
sisters," Lily learning about beekeeping and being mothered by August
and even, she feels, by the huge statue of the Black Madonna that
August and her friends venerate. It takes months before Lily tells
August the truth about her past, and then she learns that August is a
link to her mother. In the comforting routines of the beekeeping farm,
with August and all the women of the "Daughters of Mary" group around
her, Lily comes to grips with her past and learns from August to "find
a mother inside you."
The plot of The Secret
Life of Bees strains credulity in places, but readers are
advised to suspend disbelief because the book has many rewards: a
heartwarming message, lively writing, and vivid characters. Another
interesting aspect is the lore of beekeeping. It's not just a
coincidence that August Boatwright is a beekeeper; Kidd suggests
parallels between a bee colony and its queen and Lily's own experience.
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