Let's Bust a Recap : The Secret Life of Bees

Next up in the I-Read-This-Book-Solely-to-Watch-the-Movie Tour is Sue Monk Kidd's 2001 debut novel The Secret Life of Bees. My sister Lyndsey read this several years ago and highly recommended it so when I happened upon it in a Little Free Library a couple years ago, I snagged it to add to my never-ending unread shelf. I didn't even realize that there was a wildly popular film adaptation until I happened upon it at one of my local Friends of the Library bookstores a couple months ago. I went ahead and snagged that too but didn't plan on getting to the book or the movie before the end of this year. 

But then my mom came over looking for a book to borrow for a trip. And I was all, "Oh hey, I just got the movie adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees, but I have to read the book first so you should read it and then I'll read it and then we'll watch the movie together." So that's exactly what we did. I even pulled my BFF Christina into the scheme and she read it and watched it with us too. 

First of all, my sister Lyndsey was right: The Secret Life of Bees is an excellent book. Set in South Carolina in 1964, we follow our fourteen year old protagonist Lily Owens on a journey to find her mother. Her entire young life has been shaped by her mother's devastating death when she was just four years old, and after the black woman who has raised her gets in trouble with the town's racist jackweeds when she tries to sign up to vote, Lily and Rosaleen find themselves on a pilgrimage to Tiburon, South Carolina where they end up at the Boatwright sisters' honey farm. 

I fell in love with Lily and Rosaleen. And I fell in love with August, June, and May Boatwright. I fell in love with the Daughters of Mary. And with Zach too. Sue Monk Kidd has a true gift. Her 1964 setting in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement perfectly informed the story she was telling without being heavy-handed. Lily's tender coming-of-age throughout the novel was superbly wrought as well. I felt for every single character fleshed out on the page, and I ached for the injustice of it all. Of motherlessness. Of ignorance. Of abandonment. Of rejection. The Secret Life of Bees is such a beautiful book.

And the 2008 film adaptation was equally beautiful. After we finished watching it, I announced that whoever was in charge of bringing The Secret Life of Bees to life on the screen should be in charge of every book-to-film adaptation for the rest of time. While I wouldn't say it was as well-cast as Far From the Madding Crowd (Queen Latifah is not how I pictured August, and Jennifer Hudson was too sweet to play Rosaleen, although Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo killed it as June and May) the screenplay was the créme de la créme of film adaptations and you could see the love that every single person involved—including the actors—had for the book. This was a low-budget movie and all the leads took significant pay cuts to be involved. 

Beautiful book, beautiful film. If ever you were going to read a book and follow it up by watching the movie, this is the combo to do it for. This would be especially great for a book club. I had interesting discussions with both my mom and Christina after finishing the book and then again after finishing the movie to compare and contrast. The Secret Life of Bees isn't all rainbows and butterflies; there is some very hard content including suicide, domestic abuse, and extremely ugly racism, but if you can stomach it, I'd highly recommend it. 

What's your favorite book/movie adaptation combo? As in, you loved the book and thought the adaptation did it justice?