Book: Grey Bees
Author: Andrey Kurkov
Country: Ukraine
Review: 4/5
When the conflict started again this year, I sought out books that could help me understand and appreciate the trauma that people were living through when it seemed difficult to imagine these things happening so far away from my own home. Looking for a more recent book from Ukraine, I chose Grey Bees, a 2018 novel from celebrated Ukraine author Andrei Kurkov. I read a number of novels from Ukraine and by Ukrainian authors during this time as it is my way of trying to better understand what people are going through. Reading as well an interview with the author where he said, “Before 2014, Ukrainian literature was about sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, but then it became very militant, very politically engaged. Now there are hundreds of books about the war, dozens of historical novels,” I recognize that I’ve only scratched the surface of what literature the country has to offer and most of these have been driven by the ongoing conflict.
I found Grey Bees to be a longer read, and while some parts seemed slow, I was never bored by the day-to-day life of the protagonist Sergey Sergeich which unfolds at a leisurely pace. I found there to be an even mix of events, setting, and a progressing plot driven by the introspective thoughts of Sergey. It did remind me of the other books that I read for this country in the fact that the characters are extremely well written, easy to visualize and get along with, well-rounded and funny. In some ways it felt serialized, split between the various locations visited by Sergey and his bees and the key characters that are encountered along the way. I was surprised that for a book centred on a war, it overall didn’t have a shock factor, rather the horrors of conflict are listed more subtly, Sergey being so used to the violence and life without modern amenities. One review that I enjoyed described it as, “perhaps one of the most gentle war novels I’ve ever read…and it’s honestly all the better for it.”
There was a charm to the book despite the setting, Sergey’s simple mission of finding a better life for his bees leading him through the country and often saving him from harm. I did feel left wanting more of some elements: although too few for my wishes, I loved the parts that spoke of the intricacies of beekeeping and the beautiful characterizations of the bees, Sergey often telling them off for acting like people. I felt like topics of Sergey’s broken family life and disability were left for the reader to decipher and I feel these topics could have been faced more directly without distracting from the overall narrative.
Overall, a well-crafted novel that is well worth the read. Stay tuned for other book recommendations for this country and other countries, and follow my journey on Instagram @beyondpageone and find more reviews on my GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/116494925-kaitlyn-nightingale Thank you and happy reading!
Feature image from Goodreads.