On page 22 of The Secret Life of Bees, pre-reading it for Mom ...

[quietprofanity]

The main character is wonderful and virtuous and whimsical and her dad hates her so much he mocks her when she reads Shakespeare and WON'T LET HER HAVE BIRTHDAYS!!!!!!!

This is going to hurt, yo.

Comments

[temperance-doll.livejournal.com]

She's a Special White Girl who Understands the pain of black people, too.

(I still didn't hate it.)

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Yeah, totally. The end of the chapter with the three evil white dudes I envisioned as the Monty Python skit. "NOBODY expects racists in the South!"

I don't know. I'm determined to read it. The really unconvincing evil dad doesn't give me a lot of hope for it, though.