Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Murmur of Bees

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia

12 reviews

emilb's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Overall I really loved this book. The slow meandering prose is fully a matter of taste - I loved how it jumped ahead only to loop back in a few chapters so we slowly develop a fuller understanding of what's happening. It reminded me of the dance of bees at times.

The one thing I found hard to deal with was the depiction of class and race. I am not from Mexico, so I don't have an instinctive line to the culture in the way many others will have. What I found a shame was that the only non-white characters who were sympathetic were the loyal servants and labourers who found purpose and happiness in serving the blue eyed fair skinned land owners, while the story did what it did to the indigenous main villain. I wish we had seen more nuance in this aspect.

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lauren_tidwelll's review against another edition

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While it has moments of hope and lightheartedness, I found several themes and moments in this book incredibly heavy and difficult to read. Definitely look at the content warnings before reading.

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star's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

hope ur prepared to cry as much as i did!!!!!!! god i sobbed and sobbed through this book.

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antoniac's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this book. An emotional journey, powerfully written. Multiple narrators and time frames worked very well.

Agree with previous review that there are some parallels with modern readers to descriptions of the flu epidemic.

I would say to pay attention to content warnings - this can be a difficult read at times, and I imagine could be quite traumatic for some readers, especially the chapters from the perspective of the antagonist.

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thatothernigeriangirl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this book and I’m beyond grateful that I didn’t allow the size scare me.

In its characters, I learn that life is best lived in the moment; that classism mixed with colorism is an evil that can mix with other — sometimes sleeping— evil to breed worse evils that upend peoples’ lives. I appreciate how I was able to come away from the book with this knowledge especially.

I adore Simonopio throughout my reading experience. His character is the epitome of selflessness and innocence. It was so painful watching him carry the weight of the gift that he possessed. I also loved his relationship with the bees, with his godparents, his nana Reja, and especially with Francisco jr.

I’m grateful that this book allowed me to feel several emotions in — almost — equal intensity. I was sad, VERY anxious, and cried UGLY tears; but I was also happy and giggly and warm.

With such exquisitely beautiful storytelling, The Murmur of Bees is a novel you need to experience at least once— NEED!

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feliciana's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

Things I appreciated/liked:
The relationship between Simonopio and the bees

My reasons for the 2 star rating:
This book tells the story of the Morales family living through the influenza, Mexican Revolution, and the Great Depression. On the surface, the Morales family is portrayed as kind, benevolent, hardworking, deeply devout Catholics who are trying to survive many hardships and hold onto their land. In reality, The Morales were a wealthy, light-skinned privileged family with many means and resources to avoid the tragedies that were striking many poor and indigenous communities. I will give specifics from the book to demonstrate this, but I think it’s important to understand a little bit about the history of Mexico first.

The reality of Mexico is, and was, much more complicated than the book portrays. The Morales represent the wealthy landowners of the Haciendas during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Under his leadership, many indigenous communities lost the land that their families and peoples had shared communally for generations, and those same lands were given over to wealthy landowners and Jesuit priests. The stealing of public land and privatizing it was not something new under Diaz, this had been happening since Spanish colonization, but it was accelerated under Diaz. One of the ways that this happened was to force the indigenous communities to show written titles to the land, which obviously they did not have since they shared the land communally. This forced many indigenous, as well as poor non-indegenous, and mestizos to leave their villages, or become campesinos to the wealthy landowners of the same land that they had lived on for generations. Some indigenous groups continuously resisted and fought back such as the Yaqui, who lived in lands that are now present day Arizona. Under Diaz, he forcibly removed and transported many to Chiapas, a state bordering Guatemala, in the south.

The treatment of campesinos, peones, servants, etc. varied from each Hacienda, but the reality is that many were forced into servitude, given very low wages, and exploited. Many became sharecroppers in the hopes of eventually buying off the land they worked (on top of their daily duties), with few becoming successful.

This history is important, because it played a huge role in contributing to the Mexican Revolution. In Segovia’s depiction of the Morales, she portrays them as the victims of the Revolution and its aftermath, neglecting that it was ignited by inequality, social class divisions, racism, and oppression.

Colorism/Anti-indigenous:
Colorism continues to plague Mexico. Look at billboards, actors, musicians, etc..and you will be lucky to find indigenous or dark-skinned people highlighted. Segovia does not disappoint in this. Her portrayal of the antagonist, Anselmo Espiricueta, and his family were described as “So bedraggled were they-covered in dry and desiccating dirt, their cheekbones protruding, their dark skin turned a deathly pale…” pg. 124

The author portrays Anselmo (one of the few indgenous people in the book) as ignorant, machisto, violent, ungrateful, selfish, abusive to his children and a murderer, whereas the light-skinned, wealthy Morales family as the fair and rightous.

“Spanish was not Anselmo’s mother tongue, and his previous experience did not include speaking to the landowner,....The fast, relentless words of this northern landowner entered one ear, reached his mind like a whirlwind inside his head, and then escaped out of the other ear as quickly as they arrived.” pg. 125

Segovia continues to build up the Morales family who are the “saviors” of those down on their luck, and some of those unfortunates, such as Anselmo are ungrateful for their help.
“They were also sent soap and lotion for lice, fleas, and ticks, which they had been forced to accept.” pg. 127

“Then came the worst insult: the offer to pay for the Espiricueta children’s schooling. To send his daughters to the charity schools for girls, his sons to the ones for boys….Then she spoke to them about the opportunity to better themselves by learning their letters and numbers…” pg. 127

The other implied indigenous person in this book is Nana Reja. The book begins with her and as well as describes her as dark skinned. Her infant child dies at the beginning, and so the solution is for her to be brought to the Morales family, (3 generations back) to nurse the white baby whose mother was dying. Thus Nana Reja became the nurse maid for the next 3-4 generations, nursing around 22 children. Nana Reja is at the service of the light-skinned landowners. The book does not touch upon where she came from, her grief and loss. It’s pretty much implied that the Morales family saved her from darkness by giving her another baby to nurse in place of her dead one.

Privilege and Classism:
The Morales were clearly a wealthy and privileged family. When the influenza hit their town, they were able to pack up all their workers and moved to lands farther out in the country to quarantine. This was such an unrealistic option for the majority of Mexican families. The workers should feel grateful that their employer took them with him, despite that it was so they could continue to work on the land. At this point, we start to see more of “evil” Anselmo, who sends his wife to go get him cigarettes in town, despite Sr. Morales warning him to not send any of his family in town, or they would not be able to travel to the country with the rest of the workers. His wife and many of the children get the flu and die.

During the Mexican Revolution, the Morales were fearful that “revolutionaries” would kidnap their daughters who were coming of age, so they sent them to Monterrey to a school ran by nuns. When the girls started being courted in Monterrey, Sr. Morales decides to buy a house their so Sra. Morales can visit the girls and chaperone their time with the boys.
Segovia used the word “revolutionaries” as “bad”.

At one point, there was an incident when young Francisco Junior came home after playing in the mud. “ My mama had been right: my shoes were beyond repair and no good, even as a gift for the workers’ children.” pg. 265

These are just a few examples, but more are sprinkled through the book.

Ableism:
Simonopio was born with a cleft palette. Due to this, everyone had a difficult time understanding him, in turn causing him not to talk. Although he is “adopted” by the Morales, and is described as their godson, he is never given the same opportunities as the Morales children. Everyone thinks he is mute, and also portray him as simple. The only character in the book who is written as treating him as a brother with real affection for him is Francisco Junior. At one point in the book, Francisco Jr. is 4 years old and speaking gibberish, which turns out not to be gibberish at all, but the language of Simonopio, who can talk. Instead of the family attempting to learn to understand Simonopio’s language, they tell him to stay away from Francisco Junior until he can talk “properly”
This family had the means to seek out ways to support Simonopio and his speech, but I guess Simonopio’s purpose was to find the orange trees and encourage Sr. Morales to go to California the next day and bought more for his land, to keep from the land being lost by the agrarian reforms after the revolution.

I struggled with how Simonopio is supposed to be so grateful that this wealthy family took him in. He shouldn’t complain or want for something better. In the end, Simonopio asks his bees to sacrifice their lives trying to save Sr. Morales and Francisco Junior.
When Sra. Morales moves the family to Monterrey, Nana Reja and Simonopio decide to stay in Linares. Simonopio is supposed to be her godson, who she raised since infancy, but, out of sight, out of mind.

In the end, I found The Murmur of Bees a white-washed historical fiction telling from the perspective of the oppressors portrayed as those being oppressed.

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nyne's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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sarah984's review against another edition

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emotional informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I thought the language (and translation) was beautiful, and the history was interesting to me, but the book itself was also annoying. There are only three categories of people in this book's world: benevolent put-upon landowners, childlike peons who are so grateful for the landowner's kindness, and evil ungrateful peons who are greedy and hurt people for no reason. Annoying.

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acoffeeandagoodbook's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This slow-paced novel is beautifully written. The story unfurls slowly, drawing the Morales family to a disaster you know is coming. The end feels almost inevitable, and instead, what matters here is the journey to get there.

The translation is excellent, and I can only imagine how beautiful this book must be in the original Spanish.

I love a family saga, and this one is a triumph. Sad, yet hopeful. I also love a bit of magical realism, which this book also handles beautifully. It's never made clear why the mysterious Simonopio has such a mystical bond with bees, or how he is able to know some things before they happen. Instead, it is left up to the reader's imagination to fill in the blanks of this fascinating character.

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carolinacortez's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

"Mis recuerdos, mis impresiones vienen conmigo. Mi realidad, no se si la tuya, va conmigo a dondequiera que yo vaya y deja atrás la capacidad de reinventarse, de desarrollarse"

Se que me tarde un montón en leer este libro, pero la verdad lo ameritaba, la pluma de Sofía es preciosa y te encierra en la historia que te está contando super facil, me tarde por que es una historia que necesita que la estés digiriendo, que no te apresures a leerla, que entiendas lo que te esta contando y que vivas a través de las páginas la historia de Simonopio y Francisco, que entiendas que te está contando no sólo la vida de un undividuo (el narrador), si no de una familia completa, e incluso de una región.
Al principio me costó agarrarle la onda a la cantidad de nombres y el como están relacionados entre si, pero con el paso de las páginas te acostumbras y le agarras el sentido.

"El tiempo es un amo cruel y caprichoso, pues cuanto más lo deseas, más rápido se esfuma y viceversa: cuanto más quisieras escabullirse de él , más inmóvil parece."

Pd. tengo que admitir que si me emociono mucho el hecho de que la historia transcurra en Linares y que Monterrey también tenga sus menciones estelares.
PD2. si lo leen prepárense para llorar, mucho.

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