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heidihaverkamp's review
3.0
Interesting premise and some fun twists and imaginings of what it would be like to be a paid hermit on a rich man's estate. But in other ways fell a bit flat, with some random plot elements and an ending that felt superficial and a bit too perfect.
kategci's review
4.0
Steve Himmer's debut novel, The Bee Loud Glade is a beautifully written story about a man who is hired to become a mute hermit while living among the flora and fauna of a private estate. Finch, who answers a spam email has been fired from his job which seemed to be a lot of energy spent doing nothing. He comes to embrace the outdoors and living alone with nature. This is a very peaceful read about a man discovering how to live a meaningful life and learning what skills and talents he may have been hiding, not only from others, but from himself. The story embraces other idea and themes and is very different from what I usually read. That said, I highly recommend it as a change of pace, especially for a lazy summer day.
callieisreading's review
4.0
Excellent read, very introspective. I can't wait for more from this author!
hmonkeyreads's review
5.0
A strange little book about meditation and appreciating the quiet, small things in life.
Finch begins the story as an office drone who has a boring job and a boring, unsatisfying life. He eventually falls into the opportunity to become an estate hermit for an eccentric millionaire and over time he becomes a grizzled, skinny, nearly blind hermit who lives off the land in his bee-loud glade and finds that his spartan life is more valuable that money.
A book that highlights the beauty of meditation, nature, silence, and connections (however brief) with other people.
It's not a book for everybody, but if you've ever daydreamed about wandering around in the backcountry of our National Parks or retreating to Walden Pond, I think you'll enjoy it very much.
(I TOALLY want to be somebody's hermit now!)
Finch begins the story as an office drone who has a boring job and a boring, unsatisfying life. He eventually falls into the opportunity to become an estate hermit for an eccentric millionaire and over time he becomes a grizzled, skinny, nearly blind hermit who lives off the land in his bee-loud glade and finds that his spartan life is more valuable that money.
A book that highlights the beauty of meditation, nature, silence, and connections (however brief) with other people.
It's not a book for everybody, but if you've ever daydreamed about wandering around in the backcountry of our National Parks or retreating to Walden Pond, I think you'll enjoy it very much.
(I TOALLY want to be somebody's hermit now!)
kfan's review
5.0
I was watching The Road Warrior the other day. (I know, right? I hadn't either.) It was at the part where Max's car, the last of the V8 Interceptors, is ruined, and he gets flown back to the oil rig and kind of has to make a decision about what he does next. And I thought: Wow, this reminds me so much of The Bee-Loud Glade.
Which is not to say that The Bee-Loud Glade perfectly encapsulates a dystopian/post-apocalyptic Australian sub-continent punk esthetic. It doesn't! At all. But it is to say that this book, written by my friend Steve: not only did I love it, but it genuinely affected me, seeping into my brain & being, and becoming part of the cultural (pop- and otherwise) lens through which I experience the world.
I think this book hit me at the right time. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the manuscript last year, and all I really knew about it was that it was about someone living off the grid. So I waited to read it until I was on vacation at the beach for a week. No internet and no TV, you know? OK yes I read it on my Kindle but still. That's actually fitting. This isn't an anti-technology book. It's not an us vs them book, or a turning-back-the-clock book. It's something else, something much bigger, more honest and meaningful and universal, and more fun, too.
I am hesitant to talk too much about what it was about, for me. But I have lived in the country and I have lived in the city. I have not known my neighbors, and I have hated my neighbors for letting me know far too much about them. I have struggled, my whole life, with wanting to be left alone, and wanting to be part of something bigger. So when I read this book, it just sang to me. No reservations or complaints or hesitations whatsoever. I am really glad that it exists.
Which is not to say that The Bee-Loud Glade perfectly encapsulates a dystopian/post-apocalyptic Australian sub-continent punk esthetic. It doesn't! At all. But it is to say that this book, written by my friend Steve: not only did I love it, but it genuinely affected me, seeping into my brain & being, and becoming part of the cultural (pop- and otherwise) lens through which I experience the world.
I think this book hit me at the right time. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the manuscript last year, and all I really knew about it was that it was about someone living off the grid. So I waited to read it until I was on vacation at the beach for a week. No internet and no TV, you know? OK yes I read it on my Kindle but still. That's actually fitting. This isn't an anti-technology book. It's not an us vs them book, or a turning-back-the-clock book. It's something else, something much bigger, more honest and meaningful and universal, and more fun, too.
I am hesitant to talk too much about what it was about, for me. But I have lived in the country and I have lived in the city. I have not known my neighbors, and I have hated my neighbors for letting me know far too much about them. I have struggled, my whole life, with wanting to be left alone, and wanting to be part of something bigger. So when I read this book, it just sang to me. No reservations or complaints or hesitations whatsoever. I am really glad that it exists.
lcline1981's review
The Bee-Loud Glade begins with a man and his lame job. He's a blogger- just kidding - I mean, he is, but it's not like that. He works for a company that manufactures artificial plants, and he is hired to blog about the product under the guise of many different customers. He doesn't do much, and eventually his employer figures it out. And then he is without job, until a very strange opportunity comes his way: the opportunity to be a hermit for hire in a very rich man's very beautiful garden.
Reading the first pages of this book, I knew I was going to like it. And I really did. It's pretty early to say, but I could see it being a favorite of the year. Himmer's approach to addressing concerns about the drudgery of work, and disconnection with the environment feel so entirely fresh (even though it does have a folk story or allegorical quality that other reviewers have pointed out). I haven't read a book like this one before. The voice of the narrator is spot on, and his evolution in the garden feels authentic. The themes in the book are also the ones that I really like to read about. There is a whole lot in here about artificiality and illusion, and how the search for the authentic is impossible. Finch, the narrator, must wade through so many layers of illusion in his life to find what is meaningful experience: fake plants, fake bloggers, a fake garden filled with surveillance, etc. And it is only as he goes blind that he begins to reach the core of experience that he is seeking.
Although the book could have been nothing but pages of contemplation on the issues that I bring up above (and I probably would have still liked it), it isn't that. The book is well-plotted. I didn't want to stop reading it, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I liked Finch, and I felt with him as he passed through trials and tribulations on his path to his own personal enlightenment, which, like I said, is nothing like anything you might read in a self-help book. Highly recommended.
Reading the first pages of this book, I knew I was going to like it. And I really did. It's pretty early to say, but I could see it being a favorite of the year. Himmer's approach to addressing concerns about the drudgery of work, and disconnection with the environment feel so entirely fresh (even though it does have a folk story or allegorical quality that other reviewers have pointed out). I haven't read a book like this one before. The voice of the narrator is spot on, and his evolution in the garden feels authentic. The themes in the book are also the ones that I really like to read about. There is a whole lot in here about artificiality and illusion, and how the search for the authentic is impossible. Finch, the narrator, must wade through so many layers of illusion in his life to find what is meaningful experience: fake plants, fake bloggers, a fake garden filled with surveillance, etc. And it is only as he goes blind that he begins to reach the core of experience that he is seeking.
Although the book could have been nothing but pages of contemplation on the issues that I bring up above (and I probably would have still liked it), it isn't that. The book is well-plotted. I didn't want to stop reading it, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I liked Finch, and I felt with him as he passed through trials and tribulations on his path to his own personal enlightenment, which, like I said, is nothing like anything you might read in a self-help book. Highly recommended.
heat_her's review
5.0
This is Steve Himmer’s debut novel, and it’s an allegory that asks the reader to think about a number of things: the connection (or lack thereof) between wealth and happiness; the meaning of society; the meaning of work; and what it means to be solitary in a world full of technology built for the purpose of connection. How much can a person really disconnect from society and the hustle and bustle of the world? Throughout the book, Himmer pits nature against technology, but never attempts to define one as being better than the other–he makes the reader aware of the good and bad in both, and leaves it for the reader to decide how s/he feels. He also dives into religion a bit, but again, he doesn’t take sides. There is no lecturing in The Bee-Loud Glade, just good storytelling that gives the reader things to consider and think about on his/her own.
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xeni's review
5.0
I don't know what to say to this book. It has left me with a lot of questions, but also a sense of peace mixed with peculiar nostalgia.
It's probably a fair amount of the worlds population that wishes removal from the world of noise and pollution to a land of simpleness, contemplation and peace. I certainly wouldn't mind it most days, confronted as I am with living inside an ancient monolith of a dirty city filled with so many rotten feelings. That's not to say that there aren't nice things to be found here... It just seems easier to love the purity and simpleness that are sunrises and gardens and wild forests and rivers. And that is what I wish for myself.
This novel, one that I've glanced at before but only chose to read now thanks to some sort of noise about it over in the Collage Students book group, is a strange conundrum. Finch is a man who doesn't want much, or need much from life. So when he gets fired and then lands the perfect job of solitude, introspection and laziness, all while being paid a hefty sum, it doesn't look like much of a tale. And yet there is an undercurrent of mystery to this tale. The novel jumps back and forth in time, trying to uncover the mystery for the reader slowly. I am *so* glad that the author decided to do away with all the annoyingness that is the abhorrent literary device of foreshadowing. Inferior (in my eyes anyway) authors love to look back in time and then spoil the whole story by saying *insert Jaws theme* but things were about to get much, much, MUCH worse! *dum dum dum* Himmer doesn't do this. Thank goodness. There is something along the lines of plot foreshadowing, except I'd rather call it plot uncovering. Just enough information for us to want to know more, but not so much that we're filled with a sense of dread and despair. It was lovely and refreshing to read a story written in this style! Would that more authors were influenced thusly!
Another thing I'd like to compare and contrast the writing with is that of Paul Auster's works. The whole idea of writing a story about not much at all seems also to be his specialty. But while the new York Trilogy frustrated me and made me violently angry with it's 'leading nowhere' type of approach, Himmler managed to have his story lead almost-nowhere. I won't give away endings, except to say that the lack of a very definite black/white was not a bad thing. The grey was a trifle annoying, but understandable.
In conclusion, I just want to say that this book doesn't deserve five stars. But it earned it. There is not much substance to the story (if you had to make one of those grade school plot analysis graphs, it'd be pretty boring, probably) and yet although I didn't learn anything precise, I still feel as though I gained something positive from this novel.
The only thing still really bugging me is how realistic this book is!
P. S. If I felt very livery I could start analyzing the recurring theme that is gardens and it's connection to Mr. Crane, Finch, their insides, the world at large and how we all need something like it, physically, spiritually, mentally, etc. But I'll leave that for another day, another read.
It's probably a fair amount of the worlds population that wishes removal from the world of noise and pollution to a land of simpleness, contemplation and peace. I certainly wouldn't mind it most days, confronted as I am with living inside an ancient monolith of a dirty city filled with so many rotten feelings. That's not to say that there aren't nice things to be found here... It just seems easier to love the purity and simpleness that are sunrises and gardens and wild forests and rivers. And that is what I wish for myself.
This novel, one that I've glanced at before but only chose to read now thanks to some sort of noise about it over in the Collage Students book group, is a strange conundrum. Finch is a man who doesn't want much, or need much from life. So when he gets fired and then lands the perfect job of solitude, introspection and laziness, all while being paid a hefty sum, it doesn't look like much of a tale. And yet there is an undercurrent of mystery to this tale. The novel jumps back and forth in time, trying to uncover the mystery for the reader slowly. I am *so* glad that the author decided to do away with all the annoyingness that is the abhorrent literary device of foreshadowing. Inferior (in my eyes anyway) authors love to look back in time and then spoil the whole story by saying *insert Jaws theme* but things were about to get much, much, MUCH worse! *dum dum dum* Himmer doesn't do this. Thank goodness. There is something along the lines of plot foreshadowing, except I'd rather call it plot uncovering. Just enough information for us to want to know more, but not so much that we're filled with a sense of dread and despair. It was lovely and refreshing to read a story written in this style! Would that more authors were influenced thusly!
Another thing I'd like to compare and contrast the writing with is that of Paul Auster's works. The whole idea of writing a story about not much at all seems also to be his specialty. But while the new York Trilogy frustrated me and made me violently angry with it's 'leading nowhere' type of approach, Himmler managed to have his story lead almost-nowhere. I won't give away endings, except to say that the lack of a very definite black/white was not a bad thing. The grey was a trifle annoying, but understandable.
In conclusion, I just want to say that this book doesn't deserve five stars. But it earned it. There is not much substance to the story (if you had to make one of those grade school plot analysis graphs, it'd be pretty boring, probably) and yet although I didn't learn anything precise, I still feel as though I gained something positive from this novel.
The only thing still really bugging me is how realistic this book is!
P. S. If I felt very livery I could start analyzing the recurring theme that is gardens and it's connection to Mr. Crane, Finch, their insides, the world at large and how we all need something like it, physically, spiritually, mentally, etc. But I'll leave that for another day, another read.
taueret's review
5.0
A book in which nothing lt all happens, which I was unable to put down. A heroic journey inwards, from alienation In mainstream urbania to innocence and integration in solitude. Shimmering with almost-allegory, gentle and warm and funny. I never re-read anything but I will reread this.