Beka Lamb is a coming-of-age novel set in 1950s Belize—at that point still the British colony of British Honduras—which follows a year in the life of a young girl. While first published in the 1980s, stylistically and in terms of tone, this book reads like a throwback to an earlier time—with the exception of a couple of explicit references to menstrual cramps, you could have told me this was written in the 1930s and I'd believe you. There's a fairly strong strain of respectability politics/moralising to Zee Edgell's writing which, when combined with the glacial pace and a structure which undermined any sense of drama, meant that this isn't a book that clicked with me. However, Edgell's portrait of mid-century Belizean society is a vivid one with a great sense of place to it, and her dialogue a great introduction to the rhythms of Belizean Kriyol speech. Recommended only if you're a fan of mid-century coming-of-age/grappling-with-colonialism literature. ( )

If you want to read a book from Belize, you will almost certainly end up reading a book by Zee Edgell (1940-2020). Her first novel, Beka Lamb, was published in 1982, making it the first novel to be published in Belize after it gained independence. Edgell hasn't gotten much competition from other writers since then.

The story is set in Belize City in the early 1950's. Belize is still called British Honduras and is a British colony. Slavery may have been abolished a century earlier, but people don't have equal rights or opportunities. The best positions and the prettiest houses are for the British and other whites. Other groups, such as the Maya, the Creoles, the Caribs and the migrants from the Spanish ex-colonies, have little say in the administration.

The plot of Beka Lamb can be summarized quite simply: we follow a year in the life of the (black) teenager Beka Lamb, largely via one long flashback. It all starts when Beka has to tell her parents that she hasn't passed to the next grade. That isn't easy, because Beka's parents have projected all their ambitions to rise up the social ladder on her. For example, she is the first in the family to go to secondary school. The story ends a year later, when she wins a gold medal in an essay competition. In the meantime she has improved her life, she studies hard and no longer tells lies or makes rude comments in class.

That all sounds pretty moralistic and boring. And maybe it is. The drama seeps into the story through Beka's friend Toycie, who accidentally becomes pregnant. In the early 1950s and within the conservative Catholic community, such a pregnancy means the end of all hope for a better future.

You could argue that although at first glance the story revolves around Beka and Toycie, the real protagonist of this book is the country of Belize itself. And that Beka's coming of age may well symbolize the coming of age of the nation of Belize. This story takes you on a ride along the history of the colony and its political situation in the 1950's, the call for independence, the relationships between the population groups, between men and women, between old and young, and between rich and poor.

In a way it is a bit of a strange book to read, a kind of political pamphlet disguised as a novel. Interesting, but also really a document from another era, and stylistically not comparable to the modern literature we are used to now. I would only recommend it to people who want to know more about the history of Belize. It is useful to look up some additional information on the Internet every now and then. And moreover, it is refreshing to read something completely different every now and then. ( )

This is a proper novel with all the constituent parts and competently written, but it’s quite obviously been designed as a school text. If you are a teacher who is not sure if you can handle another year of The Village by the Sea you will love this book and consider it a masterpiece. It’s constructed out of a series of short passages on a whole range of issues which can be excerpted and you can fill class time with questions like “How are gender roles balanced in the Lamb household?” and “Why does Beka feel like a watermelon?”. You might also like it if you enjoyed Little Women. I don’t mean that as a compliment.

I read the book out of curiosity as I’d never before seen a book by a Belizean. I found some of the passages interesting where they revealed something about Belizean culture, but the compartmentalised nature of the issue-raising agenda bred a lack of subtlety in the text and it was for the most part mind-bendingly dull. Things improve slightly in the second half of the book when the plot saunters by and waves. At one point I did consider abandoning it but at only 171 pages I pushed on through to the end. ( )

My favorite book by a writer of color (one of my top 5 favorite novels EVER!) is Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell.

Around the world for a great book pays a visit to Belize. This novel takes place in Belize City when it was still part of one of the last British colonies in the New World mainland. The time is World War II and while some Belizeans are fighting in the British Army, others are agitating for independence. This includes members of young Beka Lamb's family, especially her grandmother, although her father is more keen to not rock the boat. Despite all the political turmoil around her, Beka's biggest problem is getting passing grades at school. While she's a talented essayist she struggles with all her other subjects, and faces expulsion from the elite private school she attends. Worse, her best friend Toycie is pregnant and the father won't acknowledge. As Belize is hit by a hurricane and Toycie goes mad and then dies, things get rather melodramatic. Beka Lamb is interesting for it's historical detail, but not a very interesting book. ( )