Book Review: Off the Bookshelf

Day of the Bees

Knopf, 305 pp., $24

Day of the Bees hinges on a bizarre event in which Louise, the love-stricken heroine, is raped by Nazi officers, rescued by a beekeeper, drenched with honey, and stung by thousands of bees. This is bookended by a series of letters that recount Louise's love affair with a legendary painter, their eventual separation as Germany takes control of France, and Louise's subsequent assistance with the rebel forces. It's all quite intriguing, but Sanchez, in arranging his novel as a series of flashbacks, never allows his characters to convincingly react or change to the circumstances with any degree of believability. Louise at one point says, "I can cook up a plastique bomb faster than I can make an omelette." That's quite a change from her previous claim that "love letters can seem so trite." A welcome change, but one that could have used a bit of a polish among the razor-sharp observations on love, patriotism, and valor.