The Honey Thief
by Elizabeth Graver
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Lowest price: $3.45
Binding: Paperback
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"The first time a store manager called about Eva, Miriam had thought it was a mistake." Eva Baruch, 11 years old, has been caught stealing three times. The fourth time, her widowed mother takes drastic action and moves them from their East Village apartment to a small town in Upstate New York. Miriam explains that their new home will allow them a "normal" life; at the root of her decision, however, is a nagging fear that Eva's kleptomania is just the beginning of a bigger problem, "the snag in the stocking that leads to the run, the computer virus (it had happened in the law firm where she worked) that becomes visible too late." The transition is not easy for either of them: Miriam works long hours to support herself and her daughter, while Eva must weather the twin storms of loneliness and impending adolescence. Then Eva meets Burl, a former lawyer who has withdrawn into the isolation of his grandparents' farm to raise bees. For a while he had sat around cooking up grand plans--a cooperative farm, sustainable agriculture, or a commercial beekeeping operation, maybe even migratory hives that he'd load into a semitruck and drive across the country, following the bloom. Or an ostrich farm. He liked how odd they looked, somewhere between bird and beast, and they were supposed to be the new, low-fat red meat. Sometimes when he let his thoughts wander far enough, he'd had a farming and business partner who was also a mate. Unfortunately, the woman of his choice has married someone else, he's let the farm go to seed, and now he makes a living writing how-to books and tending his hives as a hobby only. When young Eva comes into his life and begins helping with the bees, however, he is drawn reluctantly into her life and that of her mother.
Elizabeth Graver throws these three isolated people together and then wisely steps out of the way to let them work on each other. As the story moves forward, she allows her characters to look back, gradually weaving in memories that explain Burl's choices and Miriam's fears. Best of all, she avoids the obvious resolutions; instead, The Honey Thief plays out much as life does--messy, painful at times, with no guarantees but plenty of reason to hope. --Alix Wilber
Average Customer Review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
As sweet as honey!, August 10, 2000
by CoffeeGurl
The Honey Thief is a lucid and beautiful novel about how the errors of the past haunt the present and how a widowed wife and daughter deal with bottled up feelings. Do secrets affect relationships and every day life? After eleven-year-old Eva is picked up on her fourth shoplifting charge, her mother, Miriam, decides to move from Manhattan to a quiet town in New York State. Lonely, Eva bonds with a middle-aged beekeeper named Burl. But Eva hasn't felt compelled to tell her mother about her new friend. Also, Miriam has never told Eva about her father's death. She told her he died of a heart attack. But is that the truth? The disturbing and heart-wrenching way her father died could affect Eva's future. As tension mounts between mother and daughter, Miriam wonders if she should open up to her daughter. There are some haunting scenes in this book.
The Honey Thief has beautiful language; it has a rather lyrical feel to it. I have fallen in love with this book; there are few novels about family dilemmas that touch me this way. With compelling characters and exquisite language, The Honey Thief is as sweet and as rich as, well, honey. I highly recommend this title.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
An enjoyable read, August 16, 1999
by
The book was well written, drawing the reader into the inner lives of its complex and endearing characters. The story captured the essence of how the forgotten losses of early childhood can create a lonliness and un-named longing as the years go by. Graver's portrayal of the mother/daughter relationship rings rich and true. The only 'fault' in the story, was that Graver seemed to 'sell us short' at the ending....I think she could have gone a bit further toward resolution of some of the issues. Mind you, I wouldn't like a neat and tidy ending, but this one was a bit too ambiguous. But graver's writing makes up for any shortcomings at the end. I enjoyed every page...just wish there were more of them!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Just so-so, June 30, 2005
by Cynthia
I felt that this book was just alright, I would like to give this book a 2 1/2. Nothing really awful to saw about it, yet nothing really great to say about it either. When the plot of a novel is slow (like this one), I expect greater character development and emotions. Instead I just felt passive towards all the characters.
I did not understand Burl's role in this book. Was he supposed to bring them (mother-daughter) closer together, help Eva with her stealing, teach her life lessons or what? I kept expecting Burl and Miriam to get together or at least become close friends, but that never happens. And the end, it just ends--no real conclusions, not even a direction.
I think I would have liked this book more if it focused more on the relationship between Eva and Miriam and Eva and Burl. Instead there are a lot of flashbacks with Burl and his parents and his love Alice. And then Miriam's flashbacks all involve Francis. While I thought these flashbacks, especially with Francis, were interesting, I felt the novel spent too much time in the past, and too little in the present and future. For example, the "tensions" between Eva and Miriam are only really talked about in one scene, when Miriam is on her way to work and they get into a huge argument.
I did not understand Burl's role in this book. Was he supposed to bring them (mother-daughter) closer together, help Eva with her stealing, teach her life lessons or what? I kept expecting Burl and Miriam to get together or at least become close friends, but that never happens. And the end, it just ends--no real conclusions, not even a direction.
I think I would have liked this book more if it focused more on the relationship between Eva and Miriam and Eva and Burl. Instead there are a lot of flashbacks with Burl and his parents and his love Alice. And then Miriam's flashbacks all involve Francis. While I thought these flashbacks, especially with Francis, were interesting, I felt the novel spent too much time in the past, and too little in the present and future. For example, the "tensions" between Eva and Miriam are only really talked about in one scene, when Miriam is on her way to work and they get into a huge argument.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
A Hauntingly complex and moving novel, January 2, 2000
by
I found this novel completely engrossing and incredibly moving. The story of Eva and the effect her past has on her present seemed so real to me. The characters are all trying so hard to manage their lives but have all kinds of human frailties. And I loved all the details about bees and beekeeping, which add a whole other layer to the book. As someone in the mental health profession, I also thought the depiction of mental illness and its effect on families was both accurate and wrenching. All-told,this is one of the best novels I've read in the last few years.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The honey thief stole my heart, March 21, 2006
by Melanie Eddolls
Best line in the book: "Again the thunder clapped. Still Eva stood in the field. Maybe, she thought, a girl struck by lightning would split down the middle and become two girls, and then she'd have a friend."
I had to take a breath after that one--very powerful image. The longing Eva feels to fill a void, to have a friend to assuage her grief is palpable.Yet, one can sympathize with Miriam's frustration over trying so hard to make ends meet and meet Eva's needs while balancing the child's "itchy palms" wanting to steal things to fulfill some missing ingredient with her own attempts at a life. The intertwining of the mother and the daughter is done beautifully by Graver. In a summer when honey seemed to be the main topic (Secret Life of Bees) I was inundated with the symbolism of the bees and their hives and their honey. I just happened upon the books back-to-back. Both were great but as a whole, I was more moved and entranced by Graver's work.
I had to take a breath after that one--very powerful image. The longing Eva feels to fill a void, to have a friend to assuage her grief is palpable.Yet, one can sympathize with Miriam's frustration over trying so hard to make ends meet and meet Eva's needs while balancing the child's "itchy palms" wanting to steal things to fulfill some missing ingredient with her own attempts at a life. The intertwining of the mother and the daughter is done beautifully by Graver. In a summer when honey seemed to be the main topic (Secret Life of Bees) I was inundated with the symbolism of the bees and their hives and their honey. I just happened upon the books back-to-back. Both were great but as a whole, I was more moved and entranced by Graver's work.
