Like Bees to Honey
by Caroline Smailes
Nina Aquilina travels back to her homeland, Malta, to visit her ageing parents who had previously disowned her. The stay turns out to be somewhat unexpected, as she finds out that Malta is where diseased spirits go to heal and move on to another stage in life. She talks with the spirits and drinks beer with Jesus while trying to find her identity and culture that she has left behind in her youth.
The story embodies Maltese culture beautifully. Caroline Smailes immersed herself into the character and allowed the reader to experience something unique. Although Nina is Maltese, her establishing a family in England and being disowned by her parents had led to her loss in faith and culture. The re-exploration of her identity allows readers who are not familiar with Malta to be introduced to the rich culture. Dialogues include a few Maltese words, and the story occurs in historically rich locations and includes local cuisine. These are all aptly described in a way that connects you the story better.
Something I particularly liked was the rhythm of the story. It had hints of monotone and repetition, especially when describing sounds. The presentation of the book was also quite different. Although some reviewers disliked this style, I found it effective in aiding the concept of not being encapsulated by time. There’s a lack of urgency and it adds to the effect of identity diffusion. This monotony also helped me relate to Nina easier. I could focus on Nina’s depressive ambience, rather than complicated and bombastic writing.
It’s a two-edged sword almost. A technique that contributes to the magical story-telling can be interpreted as alienating writing, depending on the reader. Especially in the case of Nina, a person wouldn’t be so attentive and selfless to observe all around her, but rather focus on who is speaking, and it is a rare occasion I forgive the abundant use of dialogue tags. I am convinced that the writer did this intentionally (just a hunch).
The novel included a few chapters from the point-of-view of two spirits (or ghosts, whatever you want to call them). In the paperback version, their pages have a black border. This is a subtle difference (it is not distracting) to distinguish between Nina and the particular ghost’s point-of-view. However, their chapters did break the pace.
Personally, I really liked Tilly’s character and chapters, but, this almost had a drawback when I went back to Nina’s point-of-view. Although it was interesting, and I’d love to read a whole book from Tilly’s personality, I feel the author went too much into her life and away from Nina’s story. I didn’t particularly enjoy that dissociation.
Flavia Bellini’s part—not sure what to say about it. As a reader who was brought up in the Maltese-Catholic background, I was already quite familiar with the cultural and religious context. Thus, Flavia’s part was personally too long and somewhat boring. It’s a historic, religious story, repeated within this novel. I didn’t particularly find it useful within the story, at least not for the length that it took. That section did distract me from the main story, but perhaps it was pivotal considering Nina’s religious background and her attempt at rediscovering her identity and tracing religion along that line.
I read the book in a short span of time, which is a great sign. I’ve rated the novel 4/5 stars (I really liked it) on Goodreads. Most of my good ratings are influenced by impeccable character depth and/or outstanding writing. Like Bees to Honey is a unique work, and I judged it on a different scale, almost. Its storytelling sets it off from anything I have read previously, and that gets bonus stars on itself. I transported myself into the story quickly, empathising with Nina early on.
I even shed tears by the third chapter, and a book had never done that before. It’s a combination of great storytelling and similarities between Nina and I. The shame that Nina brought to her Catholic family for getting pregnant outside marriage is similar to what I felt when I came out as gay. Consequently, both Nina and I had lost our identities, and perhaps, this was one of the reasons I could immediately understand some of Nina’s experiences.
Overall, it was quite a pleasant read, significantly unique and deserves a place on your bookshelf (do read it with an open mind).
Sources and Links:
Book: Like Bees to Honey
Book Cover: Goodreads
Book Review: Jeremy Mifsud
Hi poetrybyjeremy,
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This is a great review of the book. I can imagine that it couldn't take you long to read the book if you found so many similarities between you and the main character. It's also kind of easier to review a book if you're coming from the similar environment, sharing similar struggles.
I haven't heard about this book yet but I might give it a go when I have a little bit more time :) Thank you for the extensive review! It is very helpful!
I read it in less than 6 days. and that's quite fast for me (especially since I had other things to do in those days). I like finding books that aren't well-discovered but deserve to be :)
I do love this review, it wasn't outrageously long yet you were able to get me to want to read the book. Actually, the tittle of the book captivated me but the review definitely left me wanting to know more about what happened in this story...
Well, I think that cultural and religious context in the book might very much be useful to people like me that know very little about Maltese culture😃
You must have read this book more than a few times since you do find similarities you and Nina. We do connect with people but there are times that we find things (books) that we connect to, it seems like this book has a special place in your heart.
This is one type of book I will definitely want to read...
Oh, that's great feedback. I wasn't sure if I went on for too long or not. I'm glad it did peek your interest.
I attempt to be as honest as possible, and yeah, had quite a pleasurable experience. I've only read it for the first time last week, but won't rule out rereading it.
😃 but I am sure you didn't 😁☺
I thought it's one of the books in your library not knowing it is a new find (is it?). When was the book published?
The book was published in 2010.
It's from my friend's library, actually.
Oh, great!
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
You have a beautiful prose writing style, @poetrybyjeremy. I was swept along by your descriptions of the book and read every word. It’s testimonial to the strength of your writing that I didn’t want to skim!
It’s intriguing that you say there is a mundane aspect to the book that makes it work. Interesting! I love ghosts, I’ve discovered. Must add this to my list.
I need to spend more time on Goodreads. I have an account, but since I’m in two book clubs, I don’t have a lot of freedom to choose my reading material! 😊 Can you follow certain reviewers? Sounds like you are a regular.
I'm humbled by your high-praise.
Yes, on Goodreads you can follow (or add friends) reviewers, and see their updates and reviews on timeline (or on their profile). I do suggest you to be more active on goodreads for two reasons:
Yes! I started actually figuring out how it works today. I went through and rated all the books it presented to me that I have already read, with the exception of some of the Victorian classics. I read so many of them in college and graduate school, and I can't read them anymore. Odd, huh? Because Goodreads gives you more of what you rate, I just skipped over most of those! Thanks for the encouragement to get going with that. It really reconfirmed my love of reading. There are so many intriguing books and just not enough time.
The 'not-enough-time' goes the same for everything, but that's why we got to pick what we like and not waste time on things we don't ;)
I agree 100%. And life is way too short to read bad books!
Thank you for your review of Caroline Smailes book. I like the way how you describe your experience while reading it and I like the way you pointed those moments that you like and why. When people buy a new book it is difficult to say from the coverage how book is going to be and very often we rely on our friends or family opinion. Blogging on Steemit allows us to get opinions of people who we do not know but then it is also interesting how sometimes we noticed how some of us thinking alike and like the same stuff. I am grateful that you shared your reasons why you like it and found similarity in the life of the author and you own.
It takes a lot of awareness. Reading is an intimate experience, which makes it difficult to write an unbiased review. To extract objectivity is practically impossible, and retelling the personal experience cannot be done to its full essence.
I'm glad you enjoyed the way I wrote the review, it's my first in this structure.