The Murmur of Bees

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Esos cambios entre narrador omnisciente y narrador en segunda persona me parecieron muy idóneos, sobre todo porque esa narrativa en segunda persona correspondía a la perspectiva de un adulto que recordaba su niñez y por momentos la perspectiva era precisamente la de su niñez lo cual resultaba muy ingenioso y divertido para tratar temas importantes. The novel tells the story of a family, and it also covers parts from the Mexican revolution and the Spanish flu. This landowning family, young and old, live together and earn money from their lands. Their land is so vast that the farmers who process them are almost part of their family. And one day, another unexpected person is added to this family; Simonopio. Abandoned under a bridge, this baby becomes an indispensable part of the Morales family, and he completely changes their destiny. I’m in love with Simonopio I feel like there was a narrative of “We’re All In This Together,” especially as the pandemic was at its peak, but of course, that’s never really been true.(Cynical, I know) Getting Into it:

Someone can tear open an orange nearby, and the aroma transports me to my mama’s kitchen or my papa’s orchard.” (p. 16) Consider The Nightingale or The Trouble with Goats and Sheep if you want to delve into a broader discussion of secrets. Magical Realism I think I was predisposed to favor Espiricueta. Espiricueta is the underdog. He wants what’s best for his family, and he strives, but all he gets is starvation and degradation. The Morales family don’t understand, because he is the coyote and they are the lions. The lions are noble, and the coyotes are villians, in the original sense of the word; landowners versus villagers. And yet, in real life, lions will devour their children and laze about while the lionesses do work, while coyotes are faithful and attentive to their kin. So when Espiricueta does beastly things, it didn’t make me shift my alliance so much as lose a protagonist. It made me like Espiricueta less when he proved to be a monster, but it didn’t make me like the Morales family more. From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel—her first to be translated into English—about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution. Descriptions of landscape are something the book could use more of to pull together the cornfields, orange groves, towns glimpsed from train windows, caves, slopes, and canyons. These settings are included but not detailed in the ways that would provide a sense of this place as a whole. This may be more an issue for American readers than for Mexican ones, who, perhaps, take this area of northeastern Mexico for granted geographically.The magic is the novel’s great charm. The image of Simonopio, always with a bee or two alighting on him, is striking. We’re told these look like moles on his cheek or throat, except they move around. Another strong image is of Simonopio asleep in the shed he has turned into a bedroom, snoozing underneath the rafters to which his warm, murmuring hive clings through the night. I re-wrote my review for this because my first review just didn’t do it justice. I’m not sure this one will either, but this story by Sofia Segovia, and translated by Simon Bruni, is wonderful and deserves some extra love.*** 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. 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. As part of its essence, the house also preserved the laughter and games of its children, the scolding and slamming of doors, past and present. The loose tile my grandfather and his twenty-two siblings trod with their bare feet and my father trod in his childhood was the same one I trod as a boy. That tile was a betrayer of mischief, for with its inevitable clunk, the mother of the time would be alerted to whatever plan her offspring had hatched. The house beams creaked for no apparent reason, the doors squeaked, the shutters banged rhythmically against the wall even when there was no wind.

This is one of those books where you either make the connection or you don't. If you do then you will not be bothered by the pacing of the story, but if you don't, you will have a difficult time staying focused, you'll keep hoping, wating for something impactful to the story to happen. When nothing ever happens, you'll just give up. This book is too long. Partly because it spends way too much time over-explaining everything instead of trusting the reader to not be a total idiot. The Murmur of Bees can be described as magical realism, and though there is some magic in Simonopio’s gifts, most of it really comes from Segovia’s enchanting words. She gives rich descriptions, lushly describes both the characters and the settings, so that everything feels alive. The magic is subtle but pervasive, giving the book the feeling of a fairytale.The story creates an atmosphere that seduces the senses with rich descriptions of the land, nature, as well as tragedy. The story, told by the grandson of the original Morales patriarch, is, of course, sympathetic to the plight of landowners who lost much of their wealth during the revolution. At the same time it is imbued with the humanity of those who struggle to survive, and who are darker-skinned than the landowning aristocracy. Simonopio felt responsible for Francisco Junior’s well-being after his birth. Francisco Junior spent most of his early childhood with Simonopio, learning how to speak like him and translate his speech for others. Meanwhile, Espiricueta had been stalking Lupita, the washerwoman, for four years. He approached her one night, and the next morning, Simonopio found her murdered. Beatriz and Francisco wanted revenge, but Simonopio did not know who the murderer was, either. Francisco armed his men with the intention of fighting off the agrarians, whom he believed were responsible. After Simonopio wandered the orchards, he promised Francisco Junior never to leave him again. What did you know about that pandemic before reading the novel? What did you learn or feel reading the historical fiction account of the pandemic in Linares? Did you find any parallels to Covid-19? Life Gifts

And the translation was, to sum up, poetic. Dear Simon Bruni, congratulations! I cannot imagine how beautiful the book must be in Spanish! Nana Reja: Nurses Guillermo Morales as a baby after his mother dies in childbirth and becomes a wet nurse in Linares; an old woman by time of this story Other books to consider to delve into memory include Educated a Memoir and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. SecretsWhat is your reaction to this magical realism? Do you let yourself be immersed in it? Do you ignore or discount it? Have you read other novels that incorporate events that seem just past your periphery of factual? Everyone Knows You Go Home, by Natalia Sylvester has an opening sentence that is one of my favorites of any novel: A complicated picture of Mexico emerges. We see a society that understands magic and miracles as a part of life, but sees also that political upheaval, violence, and endless, wrenching class struggles are part of it, too. There is mysticism and magic woven into the fabric of daily life through the bees that follow and lead Simonopia, through Simonopia’s mysterious disease that saves the family from contracting the flu during the pandemic, and through Simonopia and Francisco Morales Jr’s ability to communicate clearly with one another. Many passages float lightly above reality. Evil in this book comes in the form of a tenant farmer who turns bitter and vengeful with the years. While author Segovia is clearly on the side of the Morales family, she is not unsympathetic to the landless farmer, whose worldview has been shaped by centuries of inequality and indifference. Esa ficción aplicada a los atributos mágicos del personaje principal me encantó y creo que fue de las cuestiones que más destacan de esta novela y que, personalmente, más disfruté.

Reading Vox's 11 questions you’re too embarrassed to ask about magical realism may provide you with some new perspectives on the depth and breadth of magical realism.

Set in a small town in Mexico and translated from the Spanish, The Murmur of Bees spans decades centring on the Morales family and the events that happen both to and around them. When Nana Raja finds little Simonopio under a bridge, with a disfigured face, and covered in live bees, there are plenty who say the child has been kissed by the devil. But he is taken in by the kind Morales family who raise him as their own. Constantly protected by his bees, Simonopio has a unique outlook on life and though he does not speak, he is able to predict future events with the visions that he sees when he closes his eyes. Both a gift and a curse, Simonopio’s abilities may just be the undoing of him and his family… When do you think about aging? Do you remember jumping higher than necessary without knowing how you would land or what consequences there would be? Do you remember when you stopped doing that? Are there other actions that you stopped doing as you have aged? Do you recall when was the last time you performed some of those actions? Death From his birth in 1910, it is clear there is something unusual about Simonopio Morales. It isn’t just the birth defect which disfigures the infant’s face and robs him of speech – when old Nana Reja finds the little boy abandoned under a bridge in Linares, Mexico, Simonopio is blanketed by bees. Though some mutter that the child was disfigured by the devil’s kiss (or the devil himself) the Morales Cortéz family, a prosperous farming clan, adopts Simonopio to raise as their own. How reliable is Francisco, Jr. as a narrator as he tells this story as an old man? How do you think is age and recollection have changed events or moments? Have you ever felt that not knowing would help you move on better than knowing? Do you have memories of events that you heard about rather than experienced directly and wish you hadn’t learned about them? When has knowing been beneficial and when has it been harmful?