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A Recipe for Bees

Average rating: 5/5

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A Recipe for Bees

by Gail Anderson-dargatz, Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Knopf Canada | September 15, 1998 | Hardcover

In A Recipe for Bees, Gail Anderson-Dargatz gives readers a remarkable woman to stand beside Hagar Shipley and Daisy Goodwin -- but Augusta Olsen also has attitude, a wicked funny bone, and the dubious gift of second sight.

At home in Courtenay, B.C., Augusta anxiously awaits news of her dearly loved son-in-law Gabe, who is undergoing brain surgery miles away in Victoria. Her best friend Rose is waiting for Augusta to call as soon as she hears. Through Rose, we begin to learn the story of Augusta''s sometimes harsh, sometimes magical life: the startling vision of her mother''s early death; the loneliness of her marriage to Karl and her battle with Karl''s detestable father, Olaf. We are told of her gentle, platonic affair with a church minister, of her not-so-platonic affair with a man from the town, and the birth of her only child. We also learn of the special affinity between Rose and Augusta, who share the delights and exasperations of old age.

Just as The Cure for Death by Lightning offers recipes and remedies, A Recipe for Bees is saturated with bee lore, and is full of rich domestic detail, wondrous imagery culled from rural kitchens and gardens, shining insights into ageing, family and friendship. And at its heart, is the life, death and resurrection of an extraordinary marriage.

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      helpful to you?
    Nicole Tomasic

    Rating: 5/5

    LOVED it!

    Nicole Tomasic

    9 months ago

    I'm usually pretty picky when it comes to books and it's hard to find one that I really enjoy but I absolutely LOVED this book. There was so much to be gleaned about life, love, death, marriage, relationships, parenting, friendships, forgiveness, growing old... the list goes on. It was also very absorbing - I had only intended to read a few pages to see if I'd like it and before I knew what happened I was a good way into the book. Very readable - I flew through it (sadly - I didn't want it to end). The characters are very real and part of their realness lies in their very human flaws, which you can relate to personally or with others in mind. It's full of beautiful imagery as well. I could go on but to get to the point: it's a great book.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 2/5

    It had its bright spots...

    Corrina Austin

    2 years ago

    This book had its bright spots. I liked the parallel between the bees creating honey in a rotting carcass to the creation of a good marriage from a bad one. The central character (Augusta) was overly flawed--a good character must have flaws, but hers made her unlikeable. And the bee theme has been done.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Another remarkable Canadian writer!

    BAJ

    3 years ago

    This is the second novel that I have read by this author and I consider her to be one of Canada's great writers. In my opinion she is alongside Atwood, Munro and Laurence. I think her writing captivates and the stories are multi-dimensional. This particular story reminds me of The Stone Angel; with a strong female protagonist's retrospective of her life.

    This reviewer also recommends:
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    Cynthia

    Rating: 5/5

    A Recipe for Bees

    Cynthia

    14 years ago

    A fabulous book by the author of The Cure for Death by Lightning. I immensely enjoyed this story set on Vancouver Island and the interior of B.C. Once again Anderson-Dargatz has created vivid and memorable characters, particularly Augusta Olsen, the central character. Now a senior citizen, Augusta recalls her life as a child, new bride, adulterer, and always beekeeper. Beautifully written, descriptive and insightful, you will like and remember Augusta and her friends and family for a long time. I bet this book will be nominated for many awards - and will come out a winner!

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From Our Editors

Gail Anderson-Dargatz creates a remarkable character in Augusta Olsen in A Recipe for Bees. Augusta has attitude, a wicked funny bone, and the dubious gift of second sight. As she anxiously awaits news of her beloved son-in-law Gabe, who is undergoing brain surgery, she worries and reminisces, reliving her sometimes harsh, sometimes magical life.

From the Publisher

In A Recipe for Bees, Gail Anderson-Dargatz gives readers a remarkable woman to stand beside Hagar Shipley and Daisy Goodwin -- but Augusta Olsen also has attitude, a wicked funny bone, and the dubious gift of second sight.

At home in Courtenay, B.C., Augusta anxiously awaits news of her dearly loved son-in-law Gabe, who is undergoing brain surgery miles away in Victoria. Her best friend Rose is waiting for Augusta to call as soon as she hears. Through Rose, we begin to learn the story of Augusta''s sometimes harsh, sometimes magical life: the startling vision of her mother''s early death; the loneliness of her marriage to Karl and her battle with Karl''s detestable father, Olaf. We are told of her gentle, platonic affair with a church minister, of her not-so-platonic affair with a man from the town, and the birth of her only child. We also learn of the special affinity between Rose and Augusta, who share the delights and exasperations of old age.

Just as The Cure for Death by Lightning offers recipes and remedies, A Recipe for Bees is saturated with bee lore, and is full of rich domestic detail, wondrous imagery culled from rural kitchens and gardens, shining insights into ageing, family and friendship. And at its heart, is the life, death and resurrection of an extraordinary marriage.

About the Author

Turtle Valley is the fifth book to come from talented Canadian author Gail Anderson-Dargatz, whose novels have been published in several languages worldwide. Her first novel The Cure For Death By Lightning met with terrific acclaim and garnered her the UK's Betty Trask Award and a nomination for Canada's Giller Prize. A Recipe For Bees soon followed with nominations for the Giller and the IMPAC Dublin Award. A Rhinestone Button was a national bestseller in Canada and her first book, The Miss Hereford Stories, was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.

Her style has been called "Margaret Laurence meets Gabriel García Márquez" because her writing tends towards magic realism, but Anderson-Dargatz says the ghosts and premonitions in her novels arise from her family's stories of the Shuswap-Thompson area, which she carefully transcribed. "My father passed on the rich stories and legends about the region I grew up in, which he heard from the interior Salish natives he worked with," she explains. "And my mother told me tales of her own premonitions, and of ghosts, eccentrics and dark deeds that haunted the area."

Anderson-Dargatz has recently moved home to British Columbia's Shuswap-Thompson area, that landscape found in so much of her writing. She is married to photographer Mitch Krupp, who took the beautiful photos that are reproduced throughout Turtle Valley. Now at work on her next novel, she is an adjunct professor in the creative writing optional-residency MFA program at the University of British Columbia.

Of her inspiration for Turtle Valley, Anderson-Dargatz writes, "It all started back in 1998 when I helped evacuate my parents from the Salmon Arm fire. Almost the whole city was evacuated, in what was the largest peacetime evacuation in the history of BC up to that time. It was both terrifying and visually beautiful, as fire quite literally rained down on the Salmon River Valley. Even as we went through it, I knew I would write of it someday, and I did, in Turtle Valley."

Hardcover

384 Pages, 5.5 x 8.5 in

September 15, 1998

Knopf Canada

English

Canadian Author


0676971008
9780676971002

From the Critics

"Gail Anderson-Dargatz has something that no amount of craft can give a writer: She is hopelessly in love with and attentive to her subject, the physical world and all its gifts." -- The Globe and Mail

"A wonder to be cherished: a wise, beautiful and deeply felt novel that reminds us all that it''s never too late to fall in love." -- Chris Bohjalian, author of Midwives

"Succeeds with unexpected elegance and energy... Margaret Laurence meets Gabriel García Márquez." -- Elm Street

"A richly textured, life-affirming novel teeming with the small, hard-won victories that make life not only bearable, but glorious." -- Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"She shares the rich vision of fellow Canadians Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro.... Wonderful, salty descriptions of the prairie and its people. This is a real discovery." -- The Mail on Sunday (UK)

"I ended up reading the book in one sitting, hardly noticing that I was getting burned by the Long Beach sun." -- Geist Magazine

"(a) heady blend of earthy realism and romantic exoticism...This is a bravura work that in several ways recalls Carol Shields's The Stone Diaries. What Gail Anderson-Dargatz has achieved is a commemoration of a lifestyle and a collection of characters that live on when the novel is finished." -- The Times Literary Supplement


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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