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A review by desterman
Here Is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan
3.0
I heard about this on a podcast, and as a fan of verse novels, the premise of Irish poet Sarah Crossan’s story really grabbed me. Ana is in her late thirties and a lawyer. She takes a call one morning from a woman who needs to declare her husband’s death and access his will, as he has just died in a car accident. This all seems fairly routine, until we discover that the dead man in question has been having an affair with Ana for the past three years. After yet another heated argument about him leaving his wife for her, she had not heard from him for a few days and just assumed he was angry with her.
The novel uses flashbacks scattered throughout to explain how the affair began and how it has progressed over such a long period of time. One of the major complications for Ana is that her grief must remain private and she is expected to carry on as normal, despite losing someone so close. This leads to some serious complications in her relationships with others, including the widow of her secret beau.
I enjoyed the free verse style of this novel, it’s bright and vibrant and moves the story along at a good pace. The elements of fragmented, disjointed prose helps to capture the tumultuous life Ana is experiencing – trying to hold it together on the outside as her inner life is destroyed. It is full of tension and addresses themes related to moral and sexual ambiguity, as well as infidelity. It also deals with the obsessiveness of desire. Ana is often frustrated with coming second to a woman she doesn’t know: “I wanted you to tear/ the world to shreds/ to get/ to me/ I wanted to be chosen.” I came to wonder whether it was this thrill that drove Ana in the first place, rather than any deep love and affection.
The main aspect I struggled with was Ana herself. She’s a very unlikeable character, and not just because of her unfaithfulness. Her long suffering husband is reasonable, yet frustrated, though she treats him with utter disdain. Her children also seem to be almost invisible, simply a barrier in her relentless pursuit of this other relationship. She’s not an endearing friend, and it is also heard to see what her lover sees in her. These factors made it difficult to empathise with her and I found myself getting irritated by her by the end of the story.
A more likeable, complex protagonist could have made this really sing, but as it is, it didn’t totally work for me.
The novel uses flashbacks scattered throughout to explain how the affair began and how it has progressed over such a long period of time. One of the major complications for Ana is that her grief must remain private and she is expected to carry on as normal, despite losing someone so close. This leads to some serious complications in her relationships with others, including the widow of her secret beau.
I enjoyed the free verse style of this novel, it’s bright and vibrant and moves the story along at a good pace. The elements of fragmented, disjointed prose helps to capture the tumultuous life Ana is experiencing – trying to hold it together on the outside as her inner life is destroyed. It is full of tension and addresses themes related to moral and sexual ambiguity, as well as infidelity. It also deals with the obsessiveness of desire. Ana is often frustrated with coming second to a woman she doesn’t know: “I wanted you to tear/ the world to shreds/ to get/ to me/ I wanted to be chosen.” I came to wonder whether it was this thrill that drove Ana in the first place, rather than any deep love and affection.
The main aspect I struggled with was Ana herself. She’s a very unlikeable character, and not just because of her unfaithfulness. Her long suffering husband is reasonable, yet frustrated, though she treats him with utter disdain. Her children also seem to be almost invisible, simply a barrier in her relentless pursuit of this other relationship. She’s not an endearing friend, and it is also heard to see what her lover sees in her. These factors made it difficult to empathise with her and I found myself getting irritated by her by the end of the story.
A more likeable, complex protagonist could have made this really sing, but as it is, it didn’t totally work for me.