When I first heard
about The Bees by Laline Paull, I was
skeptical, but then I remembered the same skepticism I had when I heard about The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. Trees
affected me deeply, and completely changed the way I look at trees. A slight buzz drifted through journals and
newspapers about the novel, so I decided to plunge in and see for myself. One of the things that drove me to this
decision were the three excellent blurbs on the cover by Margaret Atwood, Emma
Donoghue, and Madeline Miller. I have
read all three of these authors, and I trust their judgment.
Debut novels almost
always throw up a red flag, but I believe this is one of the best I have seen
in a long time. The author’s note on the
jacket flap is sparse. She studied
English at Oxford, screenwriting in Los Angeles, and theater in London. She lives in England with her photographer
husband and their three children.
The novel tells the
story of Flora 717, a “sanitation worker” in a hive, set in the English
countryside. The hive runs under a
strict hierarchy: the Queen – referred to as the “holy mother” – then
“princesses” referred to as the “Sage Class,” then forager bees, drones (males
who live off the hive, but die when they first mate with a queen). Flora has aspirations of a higher status, but
breaking into that 1% at the top of the hive is nigh near impossible.
The bees have an
intricate system of communication involving the smells they leave behind and
follow home. The have elaborate dances
to transfer the knowledge of blooming flowers to the other foragers. I recall writing a paper about "The Dance Language of Honey Bees" when I was in high school. They also communicate telepathically through
their antennae about their hopes, fears, and sins.
The novel is heavily
allegorical with many references to “Holy Mother,” “Devotion meetings” when the
hive gathers to experience the love of the mother. A constant chant among the bees is “Accept,
Obey, Serve.” They pray for the mother
to lay healthy eggs, chanting “Hallowed be thy womb” (75). The hive really rises to the level of a cult.
Paull writes,
“conversations always concluded with the acknowledgement that Her Majesty
continued to lay at magnificent speed and volume and was more beautiful than
ever, and as she was the mightiest force in the universe, this rain must be a
sign of her displeasure, and so they must all work harder. Accept, Obey, and Serve” (137).
After a forbidden dalliance with a drone, which may have been non-consensual, Flora finds herself about to lay an egg. Only the queen may breed, and the penalty for Flora would be death. But a “visitation” occurs, when a beekeeper removes part of the comb, and Flora’s egg is destroyed.
I will never look at
bees, bee hives, and honey the same way again.
Laline Paull’s splendid novel, The
Bees, is a most entertaining read, and I gladly give it 5 stars
--Chiron, 6/30/14
