This book was yet another nauseatingly obvious choice at this moment in my life, thick as it is with the themes of motherhood. I finished it over a week ago, have been meaning to write and yet can’t. I think that revolves around the treatment of Our Lady in the book. She is, to say the least, a central character.

SPOILER ALERT!
(I’m trying not to say anything directly spoiling-ish, but if you plan on reading this book and want to do so without prejudice, perhaps ignore me for now. You should probably ignore me anyway.)

And while I am pleased to see devotion to her used almost casually in fiction – finally someone brave enough to think us as something other than a cult – I am displeased at the author’s transformation of Mary into a universal feminine deity. Which is a complicated thought. Because even as I, a Catholic, think of her as a mother, do I believe that she is not the same consoling presence to a person of another faith? And let’s just skip over the diety bit as a non-issue. She’s not God and she’s not worshipped – ever.

But I do imagine her as a person, complete as we all are, with personality. Perhaps I was reading too much between the lines, or even oversensitive, but what turns me off is the perhaps portrayal of Mary as a spiritual feminine not uniquely herself. Almost become any of the mother legends – Isis, Gaia, Hera – with all of the proper virtues of course, but you could have swapped her icon on the jars of honey for any of their images and the story would have been the same.

Of the things to enjoy in this book, the metaphors drawn between the life of a bee and the life of the women are an entrapment I’d quickly betray myself for again. Perfect and surprising parallels. You actually learn quite alot about bees. But then again, metaphors are simply my weakness.

The characters are also very well drawn. I appreciated being brought into another culture and the perspective of Lily as the only white girl amongst a family of black sisters and their friends.

The eldest of the sisters, August Boatwright, is the keeper of wisdom among them, presenting a beautiful gem again and again. Right when you think all is lost or all is won, the next step is always one of her magical lines. It’s as if the plot skips from one beautiful stone to another.

I know, I know. I’m brief on the good stuff, heavy on the criticism. But it’s yet another of my reads to be turned into a movie. I’m going to have to find something to read that’s off the bestseller list. lol

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