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The Bee Book
A surreal story of honeyed sweetness, predatory stings, and metamorphosis.
In a coming-of-age story inspired by second-wave feminism, the intelligent and curious Habella confronts her passions and those of the men around her. From her first period, to unsettling sexual encounters, to her dissatisfying life as a mother and wife, The Bee Book follows Habella as she negotiates the complexities of her desires as they conflict with the oppressive norms of patriarchy. In this genre-defying work that brings together fiction, poetry, visual art, games, and more, we follow Habella—deeply inspired by the lives of bees—as she seeks self-liberation.
Originally published in 1981, this new edition features an introduction by Stephen Cain and Eric Schmaltz.
In a coming-of-age story inspired by second-wave feminism, the intelligent and curious Habella confronts her passions and those of the men around her. From her first period, to unsettling sexual encounters, to her dissatisfying life as a mother and wife, The Bee Book follows Habella as she negotiates the complexities of her desires as they conflict with the oppressive norms of patriarchy. In this genre-defying work that brings together fiction, poetry, visual art, games, and more, we follow Habella—deeply inspired by the lives of bees—as she seeks self-liberation.
Originally published in 1981, this new edition features an introduction by Stephen Cain and Eric Schmaltz.
195 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1981
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October 30, 2025The Bee Book is less a novel and more a bricolage of visual art styles.
While there are sections of standard narrative prose, they are consistently interspersed with and juxtaposed against images, photographs, scientific figures, anatomical diagrams, mathematical and chemical equations, drawings, musical scores, dance steps, handwritten notes, letters, typewriter art, and theatre scripts.
Plot-wise, this is a novel steeped within the ideology of second-wave feminism that ostensibly tells the story of Habella Cire, a woman who from childhood is conditioned to become emotionally, sexually, and intellectually constrained by the patriarchal institutions she engages with (academia, religion, marriage, etc.) and the various restrictions they impose upon her.
Though, to reduce this story to its most basic plot line—that of an intelligent and insightful woman who ultimately settles for and comes to feel trapped inside her domestic life and passionless marriage—would be a great disservice to the larger themes and experiences that are being explored here.
Given The Bee Book’s highly experimental structure and unabashed presentation of its occasionally difficult subject matter, it was perhaps an unsurprising, if unfortunate, outcome that the book did not become more firmly entrenched within the Canadian literary landscape upon its original 1981 release. Yet now, some forty-five years later, this arcane work of Canadian feminist/postmodern fiction is being given another chance to take flight by way of a rerelease.
Read my full review here:
https://thebcreview.ca/2025/10/24/270...
While there are sections of standard narrative prose, they are consistently interspersed with and juxtaposed against images, photographs, scientific figures, anatomical diagrams, mathematical and chemical equations, drawings, musical scores, dance steps, handwritten notes, letters, typewriter art, and theatre scripts.
Plot-wise, this is a novel steeped within the ideology of second-wave feminism that ostensibly tells the story of Habella Cire, a woman who from childhood is conditioned to become emotionally, sexually, and intellectually constrained by the patriarchal institutions she engages with (academia, religion, marriage, etc.) and the various restrictions they impose upon her.
Though, to reduce this story to its most basic plot line—that of an intelligent and insightful woman who ultimately settles for and comes to feel trapped inside her domestic life and passionless marriage—would be a great disservice to the larger themes and experiences that are being explored here.
Given The Bee Book’s highly experimental structure and unabashed presentation of its occasionally difficult subject matter, it was perhaps an unsurprising, if unfortunate, outcome that the book did not become more firmly entrenched within the Canadian literary landscape upon its original 1981 release. Yet now, some forty-five years later, this arcane work of Canadian feminist/postmodern fiction is being given another chance to take flight by way of a rerelease.
Read my full review here:
https://thebcreview.ca/2025/10/24/270...
Displaying 1 of 1 review