Sunday, October 26, 2003

While the cover of The Secret Life of Bees is one of the most tactilely pleasing covers in recent memory, the text itself hasn’t struck me as much the other pieces I’ve read in weeks past. The prose is well constructed, often sublime, but there’s something about the content that just doesn’t jive with me. The quotes that preceded each passage annoyed me, though I’m not entirely sure why. With the exception of the three sisters, the other characters could have been fleshed out more, yet even the three sisters seemed typecast from time to time. Weeks later, I can still recall bits and pieces of how characters acted in Interpreter of Maladies, especially in “A Temporary Matter,” “Sexy,” and “This Blessed House.” That simply won’t be the case with this book.

Above all, there was a noticeable lack of motion in the text. There’s small town, and then there’s stagnant town. One of the reviewers hailed Sue Monk Kidd as a literary descendent of Carson McCullers, and I recall leaving The Heart is A Lonely Hunter with the same greasy, heavy feeling. My biases considered, then, this book is probably a good read for those who enjoy McCullers.

Anyway, gentle reader, it’s time for The Da Vinci Code! Too bad my book ended up in a town miles away from my mailbox.