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?
"Racist jackweeds" - favorite phrase from this post lol
ReplyDeleteI also thought S.M.K. did a great job of navigating some pretty intense situations in her writing, and there were so many true-to-life quotes and nuggets of wisdom throughout the book! Thank you for including me in this read and movie watching 💜
💛 Yes! Love buddy-reading with you and if there's a movie to go along with it, all the better!
DeleteSpeaking of which, didn't we already have a book picked out to read together after "Women of the Word"?
DeleteFervent by Priscilla Shirer. But I'm okay with punting that one to next year. Or at least not even talking about starting until I get through with this insurance stuff and nieces. 🤪
DeleteNext year sounds great! Lol We're heading into holiday season, so I'm trying to be realistic about what I can actually commit to between now and January 😜
DeleteWord.
Deletesuccessful adaptations, in my humble opinion, are those that understand the differences/limitations based to form. with that in mind--I believe LOTR and the first two Jurassic Park films are the most successful adaptations I've seen--if we're strictly speaking about novels. as far as comics and/or graphic novels, look no further than The Rocketeer. that's a movie that understand its assignment FULLY. I love that movie. I think I'll watch it tonight. honorable mention: Villeneuve continues to be the GOAT. his Dune films are exemplary. I could go on. there are a lot of good ones. Walden Media's Lion, Witch, Wardrobe is a lovely film that captures the essence and message of its source. I'd also say the golden age of Disney animation (think 89 to 99) were all incredibly successful adaptations. I could spend hours discussing this. I'll stop now and watch Rocketeer. cheers.
ReplyDeleteI literally scoured your comment for any mention of Ready Player One. Where does that adaptation rank with you (since they changed up all the challenges from the book)?
DeleteReagan, I agree. Understanding the limitations is key. Trimming the source material is pretty much always necessary and I understand it; I take issue with the moviemakers when they start to fundamentally change the material they're working with. If you don't want to honor the source, then just make up your own story, for pity's sake! To add to your list: I think The Help was also a successful adaptation, and I always enjoy the first two Anne movies starring Megan Follows (the third installment they made in 2000 called "The Continuing Story" was absolute trash, I don't know who allowed it), and as I mentioned last year, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret was phenomenal.
DeleteBut now I just want to watch Rocketeer as well. 😂
And Christina, I remember Cody not caring for the Ready Player One adaptation at all after really enjoying the book.
I watched the movie before I read the book, and that made me appreciate each in their own way. I think it’s kind of cool that the movie adaptation has different challenges, but it also would have been really cool to see the challenges from the book in movie form.
Delete