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Best known for two popular novels, The Secret Life of Bees (2001) and The Mermaid Chair (2005), Kidd writes about women dealing with secrets from their past as they undertake journeys of self-discovery. Drawing on her own background growing up in the South and her quest for understanding, the author explores relationships between women, especially between mothers and daughters, and the effects of the loss of a parent at an early age. in addition, religious and spiritual concerns underscore the stories. Early in her career, Kidd was the author of inspirational nonfiction works presenting her reflections on many of these ideas from a personal point of view. Critics have praised the language, dialogue, and form of Kidd’s books.

Works in Biographical and Historical Context

Kidd was born in 1948 in Sylvester, Georgia. inspired by listening to her father’s stories, she spent much of her childhood writing, but she stopped the practice at the age of sixteen when she focused on her future career. After earning her BS degree in nursing from Texas Christian University in 1970, Kidd worked as a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, and was later an instructor in nursing at the Medical College of Georgia.

Inspiration

In the early 1970s, Kidd became interested in spirituality, psychology, and mythology and began writing again, but focused on personal nonfiction. She published freelance articles and essays about her experiences and spiritual journey, and eventually became a contributing editor for Guideposts magazine. Kidd also published books on similar subjects. When Kidd was in her forties, her nonfiction writing took on a new direction by becoming more oriented towards feminist religious studies, as she moved away from fundamentalist Christianity. Because she retained a deep desire to pen stories as well, she attended courses and conferences in writing fiction and began writing her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, in 1997.

Personal quests are a theme of her spiritually informed nonfiction, which includes God’s Joyful Surprise (1988) and When the Heart Waits (1990). The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (1996) looks at Kidd’s move away from her Southern Baptist background and fundamentalist Christianity.

Awards

The Secret Life of Bees became a runaway bestseller, producing more than 3.5 million copies and appearing in twenty languages. Kidd had already received such literary honors as the Isak Dinesen Creative Non-fiction Award in 1994. She also won many awards for The Secret Life of Bees, including the Book of the Year Award from the Southeast Booksellers Association, Literature to Life Award from the American Place Theatre, and the Book of the Year Award (paperback) from Book Sense.

Her short stories have been published in Best American Short Stories, and her articles have appeared in periodicals including Reader’s Digest and Anima. In 2008, The Secret Life of Bees was made into a movie starring Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning.

Works in Literary Context

Kidd’s novels take place in the Southern U.S. and center on the relationships—often difficult and fraught with conflicting interests, as well as haunted by past mistakes and misfortunes—that occur there. Kidd’s two novels focus on women who dissociate themselves from problematic relationships with men, go on a journey of self-discovery, and learn about themselves and secrets from the pasts of their loved ones. Psychological and spiritual concerns are also important. In The Secret Life of Bees, based on a short story she had written earlier, the author also touches on racism and race relations. Kidd names two books she read as a youth that influenced her world-view and writing career: Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, and The Awakening (1899) by Kate Chopin.

Coming of Age

Set in the mid-1960s, The Secret Life of Bees focuses on the story of teenage narrator Lily Owen, who is being raised by her cruel father, T. Ray, and Rosaleen, the family’s African-American servant. Influenced by Kidd’s memories of the civil-rights era, the author depicts Rosaleen being arrested for standing up to intimidation while registering to vote. Lily rescues Rosaleen and the pair flee to Tiburon, South Carolina, a location inscribed on her deceased mother’s cross. The escape allows the two characters the freedom to find themselves. Kidd also emphasizes the strong female relationships at Tiburon’s Black Madonna Honey apiary, where Lily and Rosaleen find refuge. There, Lily learns the truth about her mother’s tragic death while finding a mother figure among the three African-American sisters who run the shop. In addition, Kidd emphasizes the concept of the Black Madonna as a metaphor for a larger, spiritual mother. The bees and their work are also a metaphor for life.

Spirituality

In her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, Kidd explores another woman in crisis, but here the focus is on midlife concerns. Like Lily, Jessie Sullivan must leave home to find herself and a home with meaning. Jessie must also deal with a problematic parent—her devout mother is cutting off her fingers in what might be a fit of religious mania—and a deceased one—her father died more than three decades earlier. Jessie’s journey involves leaving her

overbearing husband to return to her childhood home in Egret Island, South Carolina, and care for her mother. Jessie’s quest to connect with her mother is as difficult as Lily’s, but she is able to learn secrets of the past, including why her mother is still upset by her husband’s long-ago death. The self-discovery is also personal as Jessie rediscovers aspects of herself, including her lost artistic vision and personal passion. She falls in love with a monk, Brother Thomas, who is about to take his final vows and has his own crisis of faith. Though this relationship does not work out and she returns to her husband, Jessie is freed from her past guilt about her father and has learned much about herself. The titular chair is a metaphor, a symbol of the depths to which one must look to solve spiritual problems.

Works in Critical Context

Kidd’s two novels were generally well-received. Lauded as a solid debut effort, The Secret Life of Bees was praised especially for the portrayal of the female characters, who were seen as realistic, full, and deep. Kidd’s depiction of Lily was especially singled out as an accurate depiction of a moody teen who evolves over the course of her journey. Critics also noted Kidd’s subtle plotting, ability to balance issues with humor, rhythmic dialogue, and knowledge of the time and place in which the novel is set. While a few critics found the plot of The Secret Life of Bees predictable and the story too tidy, The Mermaid Chair received even more mixed reviews. Kidd was again praised for her beautiful writing ability and use of language, vivid descriptions of life in the South and emotionally rich, sharp, writing. A number of commentators, however, found the book overly sentimental, generic, and saccharine. Kidd’s non-fiction is generally praised for its form and content.

The Secret Life of Bees

A writer for Publishers Weekly noted that the book ”features a hive’s worth of appealing female characters, an offbeat plot and a lovely style.” In what he called a ”sweeping debut novel” in his Library Journal review, David A. Berona pointed out that ”the stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant that they will bring tears to your eyes.” Beth Kephart, reviewing the book for Book magazine, observed: ”Goodness—what it is, what it looks like, who bestows it—is the frame within which this book is masterfully hung, the organizing principle behind this intimate, unpretentious, and unsentimental work.”

The Mermaid Chair

Kidd’s follow-up to her successful first novel tells the story of Jessie Sullivan, a middle-aged housewife and part-time artist who is drawn back to her childhood home after receiving some disturbing news about her estranged mother. The secrets of the past collide with the uncertainties of the present in what a writer for Publishers Weekly described as an ”emotionally rich novel, full of sultry, magical descriptions of life in the South.” In her review for Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Reese panned this effort by Kidd as ”a goopy follow up” to her best selling debut. Conversely, while reviewing Kidd’s novel for Time, Lev Grossman pointed out that the author’s ”writing is so smart and sharp, she gives new life to old midlife crises, and she draws connections from the feminine to the divine to the erotic that a lesser writer wouldn’t see, and might not have the guts to follow.”

References

Berona, David A. Review of The Secret Life of Bees. Library Journal (December 2001): 173.
Dyer, Lucinda. ”Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees.” Publishers Weekly (August 6, 2001): 49.
Grossman, Lev. ”Sex and the Sacred: A Bittersweet Novel of Midlife Crisis and Forbidden Love from the Author of The Secret Life of Bees.” Time (April 4, 2005): 69.
Huntley, Kristine. Review of The Secret Life of Bees. Booklist (December 1, 2001).
Kennedy, Dana. Review of The Mermaid Chair. New York Times Book Review (March 31, 2002): 24.
Kephart, Beth. ”Sweet as Honey. Book (January-February, 2002).
Reese, Jennifer. Review of The Mermaid Chair. Entertainment Weekly (April 1, 2005): 75.
Reynolds, Susan Salter. Review of The Secret Life of Bees. Los Angeles Times (March 24, 2002): R15.
Rifkind, Donna. Review of The Mermaid Chair. Book World (April 10, 2005): 6.
Sue Monk Kidd Home Page. Retrieved December 1,2008 from http://www.suemonkkidd.com. Last updated August 12, 2005.