Natural Order

by Jonathan Penner

Connecticut beekeeper Jerry Hook struggles to keep his business afloat as he copes with his conflict with his son, Eli, whose quest for a deeper meaning leads him to Cyril, the malignant guru of a reincarnation cult

170 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[Michael Tolbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finding, Natural Order, with its unique cover intrigued me. Realizing only two people had rated it on Goodreads interested me even more. This was an odd read. A really odd read. A story about a beekeeper, whose marriage is falling apart, mostly due to having an affair with his ex-wife and his son is in a cult. The narrative of the story follows Jerry Hook the beekeeper and his son Eli as he navigates through the cult. The chapters that featured Jerry were my favorites. These chapters felt very reminiscent of Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson. The chapters that surround Eli were a little discombobulating. Seriously the portions that were incoherent. Overall not my favorite read but still glad that I went on this little adventure.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this in a little free library on a tiny one mile long island off the coast of Maine. I was so surprised to see the book barely exists on good reads. I really enjoyed penner’s writing style and storytelling. The book was very poetic and in a style that I’d like to write a novel in eventually. I’ll definitely be looking into reading more work by him!