After Sue Monk Kidd, author of two best-selling novels “The Secret Life of Bees” and “The Mermaid Chair,” published her first novel, she received the “initiation” of becoming a writer when a woman approached her to praise her novel.
“The woman claimed that it was the best book of the year,” Kidd said. “I was shocked and of course thanked her. Her response to that was ‘Well, dear, it is only February.'”
Kidd said it was at this time that she realized her fans would always keep her in perspective in terms of her writing and for that she is ever grateful.
“I don’t really see myself as a novelist since I wrote non-fiction for so long,” said Kidd on March 24 at a discussion and book signing held at Fairfield University.
Despite Kidd’s reluctance to call herself a novelist, the South Carolina native indeed looked the part of tortured artist in an all-black suit, bold gold necklace, bright red lipstick and choppy black haircut as she read excerpts from her newest novel “The Mermaid Chair.”
Kidd’s discussion revolved around the motifs of her new novel in which her main character, Jessie Sullivan, a 42-year-old wife, mother and artist, returns to her tiny hometown of Egret Island to take care of her mentally unstable mother. The story follows Jessie as she becomes “more comfortable with her own soul.”
Kidd did admit that most of her story ideas come from her own life experiences.
Her novel “The Secret Lives of Bees” centers on a community of black women who help a young girl come to terms with her racial and ethnic identity.
“I grew up surrounded by these beautifully eloquent black women and everything they said to me really resonated,” Kidd said. “You will often find lines they have said verbatim in my novels.”
Like it’s title indicates, “The Secret Lives of Bees” revolves around the main character Lily finding herself while she works as a beekeeper for the community of black women or the “girls in the pink house” as Kidd often referred to them as.
This feature of the novel also came from Kidd’s own life experiences.
“Believe it or not, bees lived in the walls of my country house,” Kidd said. “However, my family just did the southern thing and normalized the situation by making the room into a guest house. When guests came, my mom would actually clean the honey off the floor.”
Kidd commented that it seemed only natural that bees and eloquent black women would be included in her novels.
When confronted with the question of whether or not her books are completely autobiographical, Kidd tried out a new response rather than her typical blunt ‘no’.
“I like to use this quote I found recently in response to that question: ‘Authors don’t write about things that did, but rather about things they wanna try out.'”
Along with her better-known novels, Kidd has also written two acclaimed memoirs “When the Heart Waits” and “Dance of the Dissident Daughter”. She has been awarded the 2004 Book Sense Paperback book of the Year, nominated for the Orange Prize in England and chosen as Good Morning America’s “Read This!” Book Club pick.
Overall, the audience at the discussion included the variety of middle-age mothers and grandmothers with canes. However, a few Fairfield students did attend the book signing.
“I thought the discussion was really nice,” said freshman Barbara McCalley. “After coming tonight, I’d really like to read her non-fiction books.”
Meredith Clinton ’06 agreed. “When I saw that she was coming to campus, I was so excited,” Clinton said. “I always find it really interesting when you get to meet people that you don’t normally see – like authors of novels who hide behind their books.”
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