Book Review: The Bees

The Bees, by Laline Paull

In the grand literary tradition of animals taking on human characteristics, Paull has given us a hive of honeybees that are feminist, pro-labor, and loyal. She uses them to tell a tale of love, life, hope, and commitment.

She hits the mark several times over.

The Bees gives us Flora 717, your basic worker bee. She's born to clean up after the other bees, and she does it so well that she uncharacteristically gets a chance to see other parts of the hive -- the egg-delivery rooms, the nurseries, even the queen's lair. But while she stays true to her kin, she does find that she enjoys -- and is really good at -- foraging for pollen and other bee-foods. It's a top hive job. Still, a key element of Flora is that in time or crisis, pain, or adversity, she returns to her kin, working quietly and unobtrusively among them, and proudly standing by their side.

As the books goes on, she also finds something else unusual about herself, but that borders on a spoiler, so you'll have to read the book to find out.

And you should. It's an enjoyable, well-written book. Her descriptions of bee behavior are accurate -- as they should be, seeing that she credits one of the world's premiere entomologists, E.O. Wilson, as an adviser. Bees are clearly a matriarchal society; she even portrays the male drones as exhibiting the behaviour of drunken frat rats. But as will be seen, #notalldrones.

She does take some literary license -- giving the bees speech, a level of sentience that nears anthropological to the extreme, and human thoughts and feelings. All that is fine: It gives us the opportunity to be like the bees, as much as she portrays the bees as being like us.

For instance, Paull's description of the forager bees waiting for the rain to clear so they can take flight is amazingly similar to my feelings as a runner when the weather refuses to cooperate with my running plans. The bees' returning after a long day gathering pollen matches that of a runner after a grueling marathon:

          "It was all (she) could do to latch her wings, then take herself to the canteen and eat whatever was put in front of her. She sat at the foragers' table and drew comfort from their presence, and now she understood why they did not speak, for it was not possible to do anything more than eat, drink cool water ... and find a place to rest. ... She took herself to a dormitory and collapsed."

Hive behavior also borders on the religious. The motto is: "Accept. Obey. Serve." The ceremony and language of Catholicism comes into play. Consider the hive's prayer to the queen: "Blessed be the sisters/ Who take away our sin/ Our mother, who art in labor/ Hallowed be Thy womb."

This book is about bees, but more than that: It's about us. It's about our caste system, and how we are, for the most part, locked into a caste at birth and struggling mightily to improve. It's about how we can be held back not only by those above us, but by those who are our own kin.

It's also about how we can break out of that caste and fly freely.