The Murmur of Bees | Sofia Segovia

A baby, discovered abandoned under the bridge in 1900s Mexico, is covered in bees, born with a disfigured face that causes many to be cautious or even afraid of him. The bees remain with him throughout the story. This is obviously a work of magical realism and the writing is truly lovely, even in translation. The translator did a magnificent job capturing the mood and cadence of Spanish. I can only imagine that's even more lyrical in Spanish. The story follows the young boy, Simonopio, and also the family on whose ranch he lives, the Morales family. The story lines meanders through time as we get to know the family, and especially a campesino who works the land in exchange for a plot of his own. This campesino sees Simonopio as a threat, a devil, and Simonopio seems him as a "coyote." This tension builds to the climax of the story. In the end, the story comes together just as it should.

While I felt the writing and the language was lovely, I had a couple of technical nits to pick. The plot was pretty thin, so I kept arguing with myself about whether this was a plot or charcter novel. But there are just too many characters to be the latter. Also, the point of view changes. All the chapter are written in third-person from the perspective of a single character, except for those of Francisco Morales, Jr., which are in first-person. This switch from omniscient third-person narrator to first-person was a bit awkward, IMHO. The deep kinship, central to the story, between Francisco, Jr., and Simonopio doesn't really start to build until at least half-way through the story (it can't because Jr. isn't born until half-way through). I'd love to hear how the story lands with a native Spanish speaker, reading it in Spanish. All that said, it's a great family-epic kind of story and a very sweet ending.