January 19, 2007
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Bee Season, continued:
Twisted Honeycomb
From a review in today's New York Times by Janet Maslin of Norman Mailer's new novel, The Castle in the Forest:
"The wise beekeeper does not wear dark
clothing, lest it pick up light-colored pollen. Italian bees are
gentler and more chic than the Austrian variety. The mating box,
capping fork and spur-wheel embedder are essential tools for
apiculture. And all power in the beehive rests with a treacherous but
fragrant bitch.All this bee talk crops up in 'The Castle in the Forest,' Norman Mailer's zzzzz-filled new novel about Adolf Hitler's
tender, metaphor-fraught and (in this book's view) literally bedeviled
boyhood. So it is not a stretch for the book's jacket copy to insist
that 'now, on the eve of his 84th birthday, Norman Mailer may well be
saying more than he ever has before.' More about beekeeping--
absolutely."
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