The Keeper of the Bees: A Book Review

My very first attempt to summarize and review a novel. Details are given, but spoilers are few. Keep that in mind and happy reading.

Maybe you already know. But it’s very possible you do not. I keep bees. I have yet to call myself a beekeeper for reasons I won’t belabor here other than to say, I lack a full grasp of the basic knowledge. I had a sweet young girl ask me recently, “Andrew Peterson is often talking about all of the things that his bees are teaching him. What are your bees teaching you.” What a thoughtful young lady she is. And she obviously thinks more highly of me than she ought (of which I did tell her.) You see, Mr. Peterson is a very well known and wonderful artist in many rights. He started his successful artistic pursuits as a talented musician, has written incredible books (I’d compare him rightly, to CS Lewis), produces a TV show based on those books, and runs a publication company. His insights on all manner of subjects is thought provoking. I, on the other hand, am daily trying to keep my head above water.

I do love my bees. I do love walking out to the bee yard and making sure they’re ok, providing them with sugar water if necessary and filling the water buckets. I especially love the gift of honey and listening to them. They are marvelous creatures. I’m sure as I grow personally, and grow in my understanding of the intricacies of their nature, I will also grow in the awareness of the reality of all the Creator has to teach me through them. Maybe someday I will somehow share those thoughts with you.

For now, I offer this summary and review of The Keeper of Bees: a book I happened upon probably because Audible is listening and somehow knows I enjoy reading about bees. And because I am a natural contrarian, I did not want to like or listen to this book when it was suggested to me. However, it is a book about bees and I could not quite resist. To my embarrassment, I did not even notice that it was written by Gene Stratton-Porter, the same author of A Girl of the Limberlost (my Grandmother’s favorite book) at the time of purchase. That realization came about when one of my kiddos noticed and asked me. Those kids keep me humble.

Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was a naturalist which shows up significantly in her writing. The Keeper of Bees is no different. Her descriptions of each of the areas in which Jamie (the book’s main character) travels, accurately paints a picture of beauty in the reader’s mind. It is the inner dialogue the reader must grapple with along the way because Jamie, a wounded WWI vet, is on his own for much of the story. Even when engaging with others, we are treated to what he himself is thinking and just how he is perceiving each situation.

Returning from war, Jamie finds himself desperately wounded with nowhere to live because his parents have both died. The doctors, working at his treatment facility, want to send him elsewhere as their protocol is not giving the intended life sustaining results. Jamie, still technically owned (in a certain since) by the government, walks away before they can send him along to a place he rightly views as a place other vets go to die.

When I say walks away, he does just that: walks away. He starts walking, meeting various kinds of people along the way, right to the coastline of the Pacific Ocean whereby upon his arrival he meets a stricken man stumbling out of his perfectly kept home. Jamie, who very probably is in need of a doctor’s immediate care himself, must immediately phone an ambulance to carry this very sick man away. Jamie has now entered into in a particular kind of redemption story.

We subsequently find out that man needing emergent care, is also The Bee Keeper; a man whose home and garden (bee and flower) are immaculately kept. This man has, for whatever reason, given over this burden of responsibility to Jamie who is a complete stranger and passerby. Jamie takes his job very seriously and so desires to care well for the bees, garden and home that the idea of life, instead of death begins to take root in his mind. They are but a vague flicker but for a man without hope for much of anything, that flicker sets to flame the night he meets the Storm Girl.

Jamie often finds solace near the ocean. One night close to the time of his arrival, he plants himself on a rock during a storm that would once again change the course of his life altogether. There he meets a girl in a desperate situation. She needs his help. She needs his name. She needs his last name in particular for her baby. There was a time, not so long ago, that a child without a father’s last name was known as a shame baby and often could not go on easily in polite society. Jamie, being the tenderhearted man he is, agrees to give this baby a name by marrying his mother. He also agrees never to seek to find the mother or the baby because he still believes at this point that he will be dead in a few months.

Except he isn’t. After marrying the Storm Girl, something shifts in Jamie. Those ideas about living life, and healing his body begin to kindle brighter. His thankfulness is growing. His acknowledgment of the Creator God, who he owes his very life, is in fact real and knowable becomes more firm. He decides he will do what he can to live by eating the fruits of the Bee Keeper’s garden, wading in the healing waters of the Pacific Ocean, working hard with the bees and be sustained by a sweet neighbor’s healthy cooking. And live he does.

Because this was an Audible listen and not a book I read with my eyeballs, I lack the quotations or annotations to clearly articulate just how poignant Stratton-Porter’s writing is here. She demonstrates a keen awareness of humanity’s inner workings. The dialogue, especially between the Little Scout, and Jamie is extremely thought provoking. Often times in modern writing, those like the Little Scout (another main character), who is the Bee Keeper’s helper and confidant, are shoved in your face as someone to “listen and learn from” because they lack the power. In this case, the Little Scout would lack the power of the adults and has a higher knowledge that we adults need to learn from. But because this is not a modern tale, we can just happily enjoy the fact that sometimes children by their ability to be quite honest, help to humble us in many ways. There are ways in which children naturally look at the world because they do not have much experience with it, that helps remind the adults around them that there is much to consider and to not over simplify every issue. Or conversely, some issues aren’t as complicated as they seem. They can remind us about what matters most, and to remember to have courage.

Interestingly, in the plot of characters, the bees are not front and center, but a delicate side note. They are always there in the background, and only in the foreground momentarily. I appreciate that their descriptions are accurate as well and they add a layer of interest to the story. Making them a prominent theme could have had the potential to steal a bit from the relational, and personal growth aspect of the story. As they are, they only add to the story.

There is much that could and should be said about the interworking of all the relationships in the book even when it comes to the bees. The Little Scout, the Bee Keeper and Jamie in particular are interwoven in such a sweet and tender way throughout the story. I wish I had time to explore ideas about how this books reminds us just how much we need family and community. About how friendships are found in the most unlikely of places. And about how we are all seeking some kind of redemption.

But I must go. Groceries must be bought. Dinner must be made. Bees must be watered.