The Honey Thief

by Elizabeth Graver

Elizabeth Graver's first novel, Unravelling, was hailed on publication as "exceptional" (The New York Times Book Review), "a pleasure" (The New Yorker), and "exquisitely poignant and sensual" (The Boston Globe). Now, in her second novel, she proves herself to be a major voice in American fiction. The summer that eleven-year-old Eva is caught shoplifting (for the fourth time), her mother, Miriam, decides the only solution is to move out of the city to a quiet town in upstate New York. There, she hopes, they can have the normal life she longs for. But Miriam is bound by a past she is trying to forget, and tensions escalate. It is only when Eva meets a reclusive beekeeper that she-and her mother-can find their way back to each other, and can begin life with renewed promise. A haunting novel of memory and desire, The Honey Thief reveals the healing power of friendship and the ineradicable bonds of mother and child.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Historical Fiction, Novels, Coming Of Age, Mental Health

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 1999

About the author

Elizabeth Graver’s novel, Kantika, is a multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home. Inspired by the life story of the author’s maternal grandmother Rebecca, Kantika was selected by the New York Times as a 2023 Best Historical Novel and Notable Book of the Year, and by NPR as a Best Book of 2023 and translated into Turkish and German. Kantika was awarded a National Jewish Book Award, the Edward Lewis Wallant Prize, the Julia Ward Howe Prize and the Massachusetts Book Award.
Elizabeth Graver's previous novel, The End of the Point, set in a summer community on Buzzard’s Bay from 1942 to 1999, was on the long list for the 2013 National Book Award and a New York Times Notable Book. She is the author of three other novels: Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling. Her short story collection, Have You Seen Me?, won the 1991 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and Best American Essays. Her story “The Mourning Door” was award the Cohen Prize from Ploughshares Magazine. The mother of two daughters, she teaches English and Creative Writing at Boston College.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5) Ever since I read The End of the Point, I’ve meant to try more by Graver. This was her second novel, a mother-and-daughter story that unearths the effects of mental illness on a family. Eleven-year-old Eva has developed a bad habit of shoplifting, so her mother Miriam moves them out from New York City to an upstate farmhouse for the summer. But in no time Eva, slipping away from her elderly babysitter’s supervision and riding her bike into the countryside, is stealing jars of honey from a roadside stand. She keeps going back and strikes up a friendship with the middle-aged beekeeper, Burl, whom she seems to see as a replacement for her father, Francis, who died of a heart attack when she was six.

Alternating chapters look back at how Miriam met Francis and how she gradually became aware of his bipolar disorder. This strand seems to be used to prop up Miriam’s worries about Eva (since bipolar has a genetic element); while it feels true to the experience of mental illness, it’s fairly depressing. Meanwhile, Burl doesn’t become much of a presence in his own right, so he and the beekeeping feel incidental, maybe only included because Graver kept/keeps bees herself. Although Eva is an appealingly plucky character, I’d recommend any number of bee-themed novels, such as The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, The History of Bees by Maja Lunde, and even Generation A by Douglas Coupland, over this one.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Missy LeBlanc Ivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Month of November 2022 - The Thief Books

The Honey Thief by Elizabeth Graver (1999; 2000 ed.) 264 pages.

Setting: Ithaca, New York

2.5 stars rounded up. I simply didn’t find the story very interesting and was left with an incomplete feeling at the end.

This is about an 11-year-old girl, Eva, who was trying to cope in life from losing her father when she was only 6-years old. He had psychological problems and was bipolar, and he had committed suicide. It was possible she may have inherited this gene as well. After stealing a few jars of honey and getting caught, this little girl befriends the single 42-year-old man, a beekeeper named Burl, and begins to spend her days down at his house, while her mother worked, learning about bees.

I have to say, I was just a little creeped out that the author set the little girls age so young. Thank God this was written by a woman because, at times, I wasn’t so sure where the story was going. Seriously, with today being different times, and with child sex trafficking a big issue in the news, this story just didn’t set well with me.

But, it never lead to that. It really didn’t lead to anything, not even a love interest between Eva’s mom, Miriam, and the beekeeper. 🤷🏻‍♀️

“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd (2001), which is similar, is better rounded and has a more interesting storyline.

[Moses Kilolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good thing with Elizabeth Graver is that her writing seems to carry a natural ease. I didn't have a lot of trouble accessing the story. Though there were lapses here and there. But the bad thing about the honey thief is this, (just what I felt - is that it leans too much towards the aspects of what ails her characters rather than how the same characters deal with what ails them. I don't know if that makes sense. But there seems to be so much hesitation in her characters to reveal themselves. Whether it was meant to be a stylistic device to really create suspense or show their vulnerability, it didn't seem to me to deepen the story or develop the characters much better. But I loved her attention to detail about bees, about bipolar, and the intrigues of growing up on the part of Eva. But the ending, it lacked that punch. Burl should have fallen for Miriam, or vice versa, or a drastic alteration of their lives or something.

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful serious book about the most serious form of bipolar disorder. Eva, an eleven-year old girl and her single mother Mim move into a rural area, leaving their New York City life behind. About half of the story is their city life and half rural, so a stark contrast.

Jewish Mim and her Catholic husband had married quickly and Eva had joined the world shortly thereafter. They barely knew one another really. There was love though. When her husband has a serious breakdown though, things are never the same and readers are taken through the phases of his breaking down and the coping skills required of those around him. Religion, ethnicity, and dysfunctional parenting are all on the table.

In their rural home, they must start over in a hundred ways. Eva is left alone and discovers a farm near by with a man who keeps bees and this sparks an interest in Eva that blossoms. Burl has problems, too. Just about every character mentioned does. Slowly, in a highly protracted manner, the truth emerges to Eva about her father's demise, and to Mim who realizes Eva's bad behavior is a result of hidden truths.

This is a sad story about mental health that offers a glimpse into the life that family member live with when someone in their tribe is afflicted. Well written. A tad too gloomy.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a 4 star book for me until the end. It left too many loose ends & there were too many things left unaddressed. Was Eva sick or not? Sure as hell seemed that way to me, but then Burl seems to try & convince Miriam that she's not (which is exactly what she'd want to hear.) The masterbation scene was totally unnecessary. The dinner with the guy Miriam's dating was pointless. The way Miriam told Eva the truth about her dad's death was awful, and not realistic. I don't need a neat & tidy perfect happy ending, but an ending would have been nice. Still, I liked the characters & the story itself - it just left me wanting more.

[Sheila Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good story about how fragile and yet strong people can be. A little girl and her single mom move to from NY to a small rural town and the girl becomes friends with a bee keeper.

[AidanL · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book because I saw it in a library and it looked interesting, so I decided to give it a chance. I tried not to judge this book by its cover because if I did I probably never would have read it, and I kinda wish never picked it up. I somewhat regret reading this because overall it just wasn’t that good. During many parts of this book, I found myself very bored and on the verge of falling asleep. There were some parts where I did actually like what was happening, but overall it just wasn’t great.

The Honey Thief is about an eleven-year-old girl named Eva who has a poor relationship with her mother, Miriam, who tries desperately to fix this. After Eva is caught shoplifting for the third time, Miriam thinks that it would be good for them to move out of their apartment in Manhattan to a small town in upstate New York so they can have a fresh start. Miriam struggles to provide for the family and Eva feels lost in a place where she knows nobody and she has no friends. Eva meets a middle-aged man named Burl who quit his job as a lawyer in Philadelphia and moved back to his grandparent's farm where he works as a beekeeper. Throughout the book, Burl helps Eva by teaching her the ways of being a beekeeper, which keeps Eva calm and relaxed, which ultimately helps her in the long run with her mother. By the end of the book, the relationship between Eva and Miriam is revamped and Eva learns to love dealing with the bees, the beehives, and the bees honey.

There were some things in this book that worked even though I wasn’t a fan of this book. I definitely liked that Eva and her mother, Miriam, do actually get closer after they move out of New York and into a small and quiet town in New York. Using the beekeeper that they met in New York, their relationship gets stronger and they begin to love each other again. I also liked how much the author included the friendship between Burl and Eva and how that helps to strengthen the daughter and mothers relationship. Graver makes Eva’s seemingly obscure friendship with Burl make her relationship with her mother back to the way it was before Eva started shoplifting.

Although I did like how Graver makes the relationship stronger between Eva and Miriam, there are some things that I do not like. Sometimes I felt like the book just rambled on about things that weren’t as important and I didn’t feel like I needed to know. The book itself just didn’t engage me as much as it might have for other people, and overall it was just not a book that I would recommend to anyone. Maybe the book just wasn’t my style, but it was just a book that I did not look forward to reading.

[Sophie E · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this book because after I read the back It got me interested because it sounded like a girl around my age or a little younger and I was interested to see what it was all about.

The book starts off with explaining how it was Eva Baruch's third time getting caught shoplifting. After this, Eva's mother, Miriam, decides it time to move out of their apartment in Manhattan and start new lives somewhere new. They move to a farmhouse near the finger lakes of New York. To Eva, this was not the best news. She was moving to a new place with no friends and she wouldn't know anybody. Eva visits a man named Burl. He was a lawyer but quit to take over his grandparents honey bee farm. Burl teaches Eva the tricks to take care of bees and how to gather honey from the bees. The reader will soon be introduced to her father who was bipolar. He passed away when Eva was 6. Miriam becomes very worried that Eva has the same condition.

Something I liked about the story was how the author developed the characters and showed their emotions well and showed how they felt in all the different situation. It helped me better understand what was going on in the story.

Something I didn't really love the story that there were a lot of things mentioned in the beginning that went unsaid or didn't have a resolution to. It was also very slow and didn't get to the point until the very end and it was even more confusing.
I would recommend this book to someone maybe a little older or if you like slow books or a novel that includes many small problems that become solved throughout the whole story.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book dragged a bit for me. It was a heartbreaking story of the struggles of those affected by mental illness. I didn’t really see where the Burl/Alice part added anything to the story. It felt like it was just put in there for steamy sex scene purposes.

[theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

started off promisingly, a widow decides to move out of New York City in order to make a better life for her young daughter. the neighborhood they're living in is changing (crime, drugs) and so is 11 year old Eva who has begun shoplifting and acting out. Miriam, the mom, thinks a move to upstate NY is the way to change the course of their lives. life, as we know, isn't as simple as that.

it's summer so school is out, Miriam doesn't have the money to send Eva to camp, there are no other children nearby so Eva is isolated with only an elderly sitter for company. one day while riding her bike Eva discovers a simple roadside "stand" offering honey for sale. there's no one around, the honor system cash box is there, the jarred honey looks so pretty...

we meet Burl the beekeeper who befriends lonely Eva. Burl teaches Eva about the bees, and how he's trying to save his colony from the diseases that are killing it...

ok, so i liked the story up until this point when it took on a darker turn.

everyone in the story was "damaged" or hurt or needed help in some way and honestly i found the theme depressing. poor Eva was obsessed with the possibility that she'd lose her mother, Miriam obsesses over the death of her husband who was a suicide brought on by his bi-polar disease and also if Eva would be genetically at risk of bi-polar disease, Burl was hung up on his "lost love" and having been inadequate in his father's eyes for not becoming an attorney and opting for a quite life on the farm...

then.... there's an accident which brings the three of them together. meh.

i did find the bee keeping information interesting. the hard look at mental health issues was unsettling, to put it mildly, but well rendered, i thought.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books where I think "people can't be this upset all the time! Can they?" The book follows Miriam and her daughter Eva. Eva is 12 and has started shoplifting. In order to make a change, they move from the big city to a small farm in upstate New York. There Eva meets a reclusive beekeeper named Burl and after stealing some honey from him, returns to become his protegee. And the three characters work on healing.

Kind of.

In fact, it's one of those books that is full of flowing language and beautiful imagery of bees and life and NOBODY TALKING. I realize that there are people in the world who don't talk and don't like to share, but when a book is full of characters that never share, I get frustrated. At first I was really understanding of the character of Eva. She's 12 - she's in puberty, she's relocated, she's a thief. There's not a lot going for her. But how can you be that miserable all the time without anyone ever caring enough to talk. Her mom preferred to stuff everything inside and just keep hoping that things would get better.

The characters were well done. I felt like I knew a lot about all three main characters - no secrets, and their desires laid bare. I thought it did a good job of teaching the reader about bees without becoming too textbook.

There was a great dramatic climax that I really enjoyed, but I was very tired by then of all the emotions and unspoken angst. And then the resolution after it was terrible. I realize that not everything can end perfectly, but at least other things end. This was felt like Elizabeth got up to get a cup of coffee and someone accidentally published the book while she was in the kitchen.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book fell short for me. There was so much left unsaid and so many possibilities that were ignored.

The book is about Eva, an adolescent girl who grew up in New York City, but moved to the country with her mother after a bout of petty thefts for a change in scenery. Eva meets Burl, a honey bee farmer and develops a bit of a friendship with the man, as he teaches her about bees and provides a companion to her when she's alone.

We learn about Eva and her father's bipolar diagnosis. We learn about his unfortunate death years prior. We learn that Eva's mother worries that Eva has the same condition.

We also learn about Burl. About how he went to law school and did nothing with it. How he loves bees. And about his past relationship with Alice.

But there isn't much intersection between Eva and Burl's lives except for the bees. There were many possibilities - Burl could have become interested in Eva's mom. Eva could have been diagnosed with BPD. But none of that happened. This book told two stories of two people that essentially ran next to each other, without much connection between them.

[Hubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Focuses on three characters: a mother (Miriam) and her kleptomaniac daughter (Eva) who move into the countryside away from New York, and a beekeeper whom the daughter befriends. The mother is somewhat overprotective of the daughter, but Eva is the one in the novel who shows some true strength, almost at times taking care of her mother. Eva's father, diagnosed with depression, died when she was 6 by committing suicide; this event casts a pall over their lives subsequent to that tragedy. Burt the beekeeper carries some sad history of his own, a former love, Alice, who flits in and out of his life. Burt himself serves as a fixture in the natural landscape of the countryside, as do the bees to which he tends.

The meat of the novel lies in the descriptions of nature, the interactions between humans and nature, and familial relations fraught with difficulties. Though there were some tense and typically exciting moments in the novel, the slow pacing, references to the past, and sobriety of the scenes is what makes this story special.

Highly recommended.

Note: Met the author.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is ok, just ok. Sort of veers between different people and sometimes I have to figure out who I am now reading about and think about ...ok, what was this about again?

It's sort of a set of stories in a way. It's the story of Eva's (main character) parents, how they met, how her father went crazy, how her father died. A back story.

Then it's the story of Eva and her stealing and how she and her mother moved out of the City and into the country.

It's the story of how Eva befriended a bee keeper when she moved to the country.

It's the story of the bee keeper and his sort of girlfriend, Alice. That's another back story.

I suppose at the end it will all pull together but honestly, I find it boring. I keep putting it down and kind of forcing myself to finish because Eva is kind of boring, her mother is boring, Francis her father is sort of boring and the bee keeper is boring as well. They just don't pull me in at all

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this book had so much potential and this author had a really great story to tell...but, she didn't quite tell it.

I reached the end of the book and had to sit back and think about the story (not a bad thing). the problem with this is that there was no resolution. Sure, the main character had a problem and then she overcame it, but the reader was not part of this transformation.

I feel like the author had all of the strings to this plot tightly in her hands, but she never found the right way to weave together the mother/daughter, bee/society, or sexuality/familial relations. As a reader I was left wanting more, but feeling like the door had been closed on my curious face.

Overall disappointing, sad face.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

It starts out as interesting, with three main characters, an eleven-year-old girl, Eva, her mother, Miriam, a widow, and a single man, Burl, who abandoned a legal career to keep bees, all trapped in a sort of isolation. Although I found the lessons on beekeeping to be extremely boring, the sections dealing with Eva at least held my interest. Then all the explaining started. The book goes into the backstories of the adults, principally Miriam's marriage to Francis, Eva's father, and his subsequent death. There is also an entirely unconvincing subplot involving Burl and an old friend/girlfriend/occasional lover, Alice.

The entries of Francis and Alice into the story turn the novel into a tedious slog. The Francis story is way too predictable, and his character is pretty unsympathetic, because he always seems like a bit of an ass. Which would have made him a good match for Alice, who adds nothing to the story. In each case, it is difficult to figure out what Miriam and Burl find attractive about Francis and Alice. Eventually the story regains focus when it returns to the mother-daughter relationship, and the complications that ensue when one tries to keep important matters a secret.

It isn't a horrible book. It's pretty well written, moves along, and raises some important issues. But I don't really recommend it.

[Melanie]

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.

[⭐️ (inkwitchery) · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE HONEY THIEF by Elizabeth Graver

Oh this was incredibly heavy and heartbreaking.

As a trigger warning, the story deals with mental illness (bipolar disorder), depression, anxiety and how these affect the relationships between husband/wife, mother/child, friends and family. Then there’s the added stressors of dysfunctional parenting, poor communication, opposing religious beliefs and meddling in-laws - it’s A LOT.

I can’t say I enjoyed reading this as it is not a happy, feel good story. However, I do appreciate the raw and honest way the author conveyed the complex and harsh realities of living with someone with a mental health condition while caring for a child and themselves.

The end left me feeling underwhelmed and frustrated due to the lack of any significant resolutions or meaningful character arcs/progress. There were too many things left unsaid and left to the imagination. I did learn a lot about bees and honey so there’s that.


Rating: 3/5 ⭐️

[Heather Steed · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book just missed the mark for me. There were parts I enjoyed, and parts that seemed unnecessary, but overall there were just a lot of things that irked me. I joked to my husband that this was the second book I'd read recently where I'd found a spelling error and I should just give it up right then. Although I kept reading, I didn't find myself really engaging with any of the characters because there were so many things about each of them that really bothered me. I guess they're just flawed, like all of us, but by the end of the book I felt like each of them would have benefitted from therapy, a thought that was really driven home when Miriam quit going to her therapist because she thought "her daughter deserved to have at least one parent not in psychotherapy." OK...

[Liz Destefano · Rating 2 out of 5]

11-year-old Eva’s “shoplifting for the last time and her mother Mariam decides that they have to move away from the city to a small town upstate New York
But nothing really changes once they move away Eva still having a hard time to get along doesn’t make friends with anybody she can’t get along with her mom
And as a story progresses, you find out her father had bipolar, and I think it runs with his daughter, and Miriam feels that her daughter is going the same way as her husband who died from a drug overdose
The friendship that she makes with a beekeeper is a little different and weird, but she does learn about being a beekeeper
The book was a little strange for me. I’m not sure if I really enjoyed this one

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an interesting book. It captures how alone and broken communication can be even in a crowded, busy locale and lifestyle. I liked all the main characters even though I didn't always understand the 'whys' of some of the verbal outbursts. We have our comfort zones...outside of interpersonal relations: for Burl, his bees. For Eva...busy New York City. But the book suggests if we ditch some of our inner fears and attempt communication we can burrow out of our shells and find we're not so 'alone' as we thought. We can find companionship, harmony and comfort in another person.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read with complex and endearing characters. I found myself frustrated with but also deeply understanding the actions and reactions of Eva, Miriam and Burl throughout the book. When I finished the last page and turned over to the acknowledgments I found myself surprised because I was so engrossed in the book I didn't even realize I had reached the end until there was no more to read.
One thing I didn't love: this doesn't affect my rating, as it's more of a personal preference and not an actual issue, but this book was kinda spicy at times and I didn't much appreciate that.

[Bill Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the rating system had half stars. I would pick 3.5. Graver juggling of this story is believable, tragic and hopeful. I found myself wishing she didn’t close the door at the end as quickly as she did. My favorite chapters are told from Eva. The stuff with Burl is probably second favorite. I wish she didn’t have Eva have the one scene with Burl and the picture. I don’t see how that was helpful to advance any part of this novel. This was a story with some semi broken people trying to make a life, and by the end I was hoping for the best for all of them.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miriam hopes that her move to the Finger Lakes area of New York will be a fresh start for her daughter, Eva who keeps shoplifting in NYC. She is a widow, and anxious about her daughter making friends and fitting in before school starts in the fall. Eva does make friends with a local beekeeper. The back story comes out of her father's illness and death, and then a crisis occurs with the beekeeper. I like the way Elizabeth draws her characters, but the ending was confusing.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gentle, wistful, and loving are the the words that come to mind when I think of this book. Each character is flawed, as is the book in minor ways. The story telling draws you into the characters and the characters draw you into their stories. Some reviews are harsh, but for me, the languishing beauty of the countryside, and the metaphor of the honey and bees as life in its conflicts and love is appealing.

[Kelly Castle]

This is a story about an 11-year-old girl who moves with her mother to the country and becomes friends with a neighboring man who keeps bees.

I enjoyed the book for the most part, following the story of the relationships between the girl and her mother and the girl in the beekeeper. I could identify with all three of the main characters.

There are a number of references to male body parts and one scene of sordid activity.

[Kidlitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a good read, if you can stand the mother/daughter who drive every scene - neither of them are likable or particularly interesting but their life force is strong. Their insistence on being themselves no matter how much conflict they find themselves in wears the reader down rather as a toxic relationship can do - yet you believe it's a perfect realistic depiction of a mother and daughter battling their way to a better understanding of life and their relationship. Exhausting but worth it.

[Kasandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book captures very well the push and pull between mother and daughter that happens at adolescence, as well as the confusion and emotion that come from growing up with a single mother. Touching and believable, these characters fully come to life, and the story is vivid, certain, and well-told. Highly recommended.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva is an eleven year old living in NYC during the 70s. She misses her father who has died and feels neglected by her mother. To compensate for this she steals. After being caught shoplifting, her mother Miriam moves them to a house in the country. Eva befriends a bee keeper Burl and slowly her feelings begin to heal.

[Lynette Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story kept my interest to the end. The author had a way of getting in the character's heads that really made you feel you were a ten year old girl, or a man with bipolar disorder, or a young widow trying to figure out what happened. Yes, there were loose ends but the reader can imagine how those things turn out after the book is over.