Prodigal Summer
by Barbara Kingsolver
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Book Reviews of Prodigal Summer
Book Review: Superb Storytelling
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading this book is like sinking into steamy, warm bath. You become immersed in the pleasure of it, and your mind becomes thoroughly and almost unconsciously absorbed in the experience. The day I picked it up I wasn't even interested in reading. The next thing I knew, I was on page 80. The novel consists of the stories of three groups of people, told in the third person and in alternating chapters. The first is about a fortyish, female forest-ranger, living in the woods, clearing paths, observing nature, and excited by her discovery that coyotes have come to the area. Her solitude is interrupted by a youngish fellow with whom she develops a relationship. The next is of a young widow, living on her husband's farm with her in-laws, and unsure of how to deal with the fact that she is now the owner of it all. The last is about an older farmer, set in his ways, and his somewhat cantankerous relationship with his neighbor, a new-fangled modern woman, in his eyes, who he perceives as having foolish ideas about farming.
Yes, it's all very rural, taking place in the western, hilly part of Virginia, I think, and if you love books about farming, nature and animals--both wild and tame--you will absolutely love this. The forest-ranger tells us of predators and their role in nature, and observes and comments on all of the beasts and birds that inhabit--or formerly inhabited--her little mountainy corner of the world. From the widow--trained in the big city as an entomologist--we learn about the insects and moths on her farm, and also farming itself, which means deciding which crops will sell, or which livestock will sell, or not sell, etc. From the old man and his nemessis we learn about similar things, but these two seem to function more as the Greek chorus of the novel, debating with one another life's philosphies as they relate to dirt farming.
As interesting as this is, a novel itself lives or dies with the human stories, and this one succeeds brilliantly. Every single one of these stories is hugely compelling. It is the kind of book in which you find you are disappointed when a chapter ends, only to become totally engrossed two pages into the next. Ms. Kingsolver is particularly gifted with dialogue. Not only is she able to advance plot and character through it, she is also able bring out the hidden nuances and subtleties inherent in all spoken language. A clever, delightful tension is created as we learn things about her characters that they themselves may not wish to reveal, or may not even know about themselves. I particularly liked those between Lusa, the young widow, and her 17-year old brother-in-law. Lusa emerges as responsible, educated, and a little vulnerable; the young man emerges as kindly and strong, but also very young, and very rural. These characterizations are perfect, but not terribly more so than the others, all of which are done extremely well.
Of course the nature business serves as a perfect metaphor for these lives, as it can hardly help doing; all of us being part of it. As the book goes on we realize that the characters in it are related to one another more so than is initially apparent, and this emerges as the central theme: we are all of us a part of each other, a part of nature, and all that we do has an effect on it. Whether it be shooting some animal or simply failing to write a thank-you note to the next door neighbor, our actions have meaning.
I will admit to being a little put off by the one-sided nature of Ms. Kingsolver's discourse. Okay, shooting predatory animals and using pesticides is bad, but couldn't we at least get a glimpse of what the counter argument might be? And isn't it just a bit manipulative to show us that the organic farmer's apples are the biggest in twelve counties (or something), and that the goat-farming woman who stands to lose the most by a coyote invasion doesn't seem to mind?
But these are small criticisms. The book is so wonderful in just about every other respect that I will gladly overlook this. It is a novel that really has everything and is an absolute joy to read.
Book Review: Tobacco romance
Summary: 3 Stars
Kingsolver's career as a science writer is successfully merged with her matchless descriptive skills in this novel. Set in the tobacco growing region of Appalachia, she uses the four women and a retired geneticist to discuss evolution, predator-prey relationships and modern farming practices to foster realistic thinking about environmental issues. These run from "pest elimination" to herbicide use. She deftly relates the different sex ploys of moths, coyotes and humans. The result leaves the human patterns more inexplicable than ever. The middle-aged Deanna encounters a man in the bush, and we never quite discern which of the pair is the seducer. Lexington Lusa loses a husband, but gains an adolescent. And a septuagenarian, to his everlasting shame, gets an erection over his neighbour, who is nearly as ancient as he.
It's unclear what the target market is for this book. Clearly, it isn't her former neighbours in Appalachia. Kingsolver's patronizing attitude toward the farm country patois is almost embarrassing. "Political correctness" hasn't reached down to regional speech patterns yet, apparently. Those tobacco farmers are unlikely to buy into her attempt to explain evolution and it's unlikely she's going to hamper coyote hunting there or anywhere else. The urban readers who have already learned about Darwin will buy this book out of loyalty. Will they learn anything new? Perhaps, but if they wander the countryside trying to sell Kingsolver's ideas as she does, their reception is likely to be a warm one.
Will her buyers pick up this book for its plot? Hopefully not, for their disappointment will be severe. As each character is introduced within their environment, the resulting events are glaringly predictable. Deanna's sexual perplexity conflicts with her newly acquired environmental outlook. What prompted her to write a thesis on coyotes remains an enigma. Lusa, a transplanted farm wife from the city, MUST somehow end up with the farm, making a go of it in novel fashion. It seems to be a genetic trait, but again, the causes remain vague. The crusty old man, Garnett Walker III, is the most predictable of all, and the cruelest. Kingsolver gives us a shambling clown, self-contained, irascible due to his infirmities and in constant contention with the world. Kingsolver may find cataracts, memory loss and dizzy spells humorous, but it will be interesting to see her outlook if these afflictions strike her at that age.
Her persistence in portraying all men as inadequate in one way or another has grown more than a little shopworn. Opening one of her books leads you inevitably into a mob of resourceful, enterprising women, all successful somehow even in the face of adversity. That adversity is always men - even when the failing is simply dying at "the wrong time." Walker is derived from the father in Poisonwood Bible, an over-Christianized geriatric who finds it difficult, strangely enough, to shed nearly eight decades of his upbringing. His "redemption" makes compelling narrative, but the genders could have been reversed without losing the impact. A young man is told to shove off, but, of course, only does so after his partner becomes pregnant. Formula stuff.
Kingsolver's descriptive powers will entice her legions of fans to this book. The city element among them will nod sympathetically. Rural readers, even outside Appalachia, may be confronted with some unpalatable truths, but it's unlikely their views will be modified by this novel. It's a good beach read for those who want to relax and escape, but there's nothing serious to reflect on here. Such concepts are better sought elsewhere.
Book Review: A Compelling Peaceable Kingdom
Summary: 4 Stars
What's not to love about the novels of Barbara Kingsolver? In beneficent books like ''The Bean Trees,'' ''Pigs in Heaven,'' and ''Animal Dreams,'' she creates vivid domestic utopias, usually influenced by the wild landscapes of rural Appalachia or sun bleached Arizona, where she declares herself pro organic gardening and antiwar, in favor of good sex and against rudeness. In the beckoning kingdom of Kingsolver, thinking women (sexy even with their middle aged bodies and stubborn ways), responsive men (sexy even when impermanent), and free range children (handfuls but always worth it) can live in harmony, breathe clean air, and listen to National Public Radio. She offers a balm, a seductive glimpse of an abundant Eden near at hand for even the least spectacular, least perfect, least wrinkle free of readers.
After the exciting, rewarding leap she took with the bestselling ''Poisonwood Bible,'' away from home canning and deep into the lives of an American missionary family in the Belgian Congo of the 1960s, the new novel is a return to Kingsolver's ''classic'' style and subject matter. We're back in fertile southern Appalachia, in Zebulon County, in a season so glorious with dappled things as to leap right out of a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem. And up and down the valley, women and coyotes are sniffing the air.
Literally. In the mountains, pheromones fly when Deanna, a solitary wildlife biologist who champions nature's predators for their underappreciated contribution to ecological balance (she's divorced, not yet 50), meets a much younger man, a hunter, while each is tracking the elusive coyote, canis latrans. In the hollow, Lusa, a young farmer's widow (a splashy multicultural mix, half Palestinian and half Polish Jewish, not yet 30) unknots the tangles of distrust that separate her from her late husband's firmly rooted kin. Across the county, Nannie, an old nonconformist lady (not yet 80, her orchard pesticide free), bickers with the fusty old widower next door.
It will come as no surprise to her acolytes that Kingsolver eventually twines all three of these admirable specimens of feminine self actualization, and that coyotes are seen and heard regularly. Blended and otherwise do it yourself postnuclear family groupings have always enchanted Kingsolver, as has the interconnectedness of humans and the rest of the natural world.
The mating habits of a luna moth, the marvelous secrets revealed in animal droppings, and the best thing to do when surprised by a deadly copperhead snake equally inspire her, and the writer's prose sings sweetest when she's closely observing the earth with no thought to making poetry. Of an oak tree upended by a storm, she notices, ''the fallen tree still burgeoned with glossy oak leaves -- probably still trying to scatter its pollen to the wind and set acorns as if its roots were not straggling in the breeze and its bulk doomed to firewood.''
But then, goodness gracious, Lusa has deep thoughts like, ''We're only what we are: a woman cycling with the moon, and a tribe of men trying to have sex with the sky.'' And Kingsolver herself has palpitations over Deanna's intense erotic response to her young lover/ hunter. (''She could not remember a more compelling combination of features on any man she'd ever seen.'') When they go to bed for the first time, ''It was the body's decision, a body with no more choice of its natural history than an orchid has, or the bee it needs, and so they would both get lost here, she would let him in, anywhere he wanted to go.''
Cue the birds, the bees, the coyote's wail, and pour yourself a mug of mint tea--a luscious literary view of women.
Book Review: THE BEAUTY OF "NATURE" BY KINGSOLVER
Summary: 5 Stars
If you ever wanted to get a greater appreciation of nature, predators and their prey, and survival of the fittest, then you'll probably really enjoy Kingsolver's latest book. I was totally in awe of her knowledge, most of which I'm sure did not come just through research. The jacket cover mentions that she earned a graduate degree in biology before becoming a full-time author. This is quite evident throughout and it becomes obvious to the reader that this is a labor of love on her part. Let's put it this way -- if ever I was a contestant on the millionaire show and a biology question came up, I'd want Barbara Kingsolver as my "phone a friend."What is a prodigal summer? The author describes it as the "season of extravagant procreation" and, from that point, the story begins. This procreation will be experienced by all different forms of life found within these pages.
Kingsolver, who so beautifully told her Poisonwood Bible story through the eyes of the four daughters and their mother, uses this same writing style once again in Prodigal Summer. This time though, the chapters aren't headed with the characters' names but instead are indicated by their particular field of interest.
The Predators section describes Deanna Wolfe, working for the forest service and living by herself in an isolated cabin. She has also penned a thesis on coyotes and it's her dream to come across this predator in her small world in the Appalachian Mountains.
Moth Love is devoted to Lusa Landowski, a young, beautiful city girl who has studied entomology and is now a bug expert and lover. She also inherits a farm and has to decide whether to stay in Zebulon Valley and commit to that lifestyle or return to Lexington, Kentucky.
Old Chestnuts explores the relationship between Garnett Walker, an 80 year old widow, and his love affair with the chestnut tree. During his lifetime, he is trying to recreate this almost extinct tree type within his Zebulon Valley region. Added to this mission is his love/hate relationship with his neighbor, 75 year old Nannie Rawley, and owner of an organic apple orchard.
Midway through the book, the connections between these individuals begin to surface as you know they would. Just as subtly, the connections between the underlying characters and their particular love of nature is explored. How to poison things without using poison? How predation is a sacrament? How birds never doubt their place at the center of the universe? How moths speak to each other via scent? How every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot? These are just a fraction of the questions Kingsolver poses -- all the answers lie within these pages.
Barbara Kingsolver once again leaves the reader with food for thought. I guarantee that, after reading this book, you will never look at a moth the same way as you did before and probably won't kill another spider. For as she explains, "every choice is a world made new for the chosen." So if you, as the predator, choose not to kill a lesser life form, there begins a new life for that "prey" or that chosen species.
Since I would never categorize myself as someone who is "into nature", on an enjoyment scale I would only have rated this book with four stars. The fact that it is so well-written, with fabulous character development, well-researched content, and extraordinary subject knowledge by the author, it positively deserves a five star rating.
Book Review: Ms. Kingsolver is becoming her own religion
Summary: 1 Stars
I will begin by saying that I have read all of BK's books and consider myself a fan. And I am seriously disappointed with this book. I support the author's view on things in this book (Rachel Carson is one of my personal heroes) but the problem is Kingsolver has gotten so SURE of herself. In Prodigal Summer, her characters are so black and white and her antagonists are simple and dumb (and by dumb I mean to use the proper definition of "being unable to speak"). She frequently gives her protagonists a soap box to stand on and lets them preach, preach, preach and of course the antagonists they are pitted against have nothing to say in return, no thought-provoking balanced argument serving to show that there are no easy answers in this world of ours. As I've mentioned before my personal views coincide with Kingsolver's and I WISH that the antagonists of my life were as dumb and as easy to debate as the small-minded, religious, pesticide-spraying, wildlife-hunting bunch in Prodigal Summer. The other huge problem I have with this book is how inaccurate some of it is. This is the first book of BK's in which I am knowledgeable about some of the subject matter. I am disappointed by her ignorance of what the circle of life has evolved into today (no, that hamburger did not just take ONE life) and am appalled by her unwillingness to concede that there might be some things she isn't knowledgeable about . Some of Kingsolver's "proclamations": Deanna's feeling "a little bit anemic" from not eating meat. You can neither be a little anemic nor get anemic from not eating meat. The idea that all women naturally cycle with the moon and should be able to tell when they are ovulating by the calendar is incredibly false. Deanna adds "How can people be so STUPID about their bodies?" Oh my Ms. Kingsolver, it is the luteal phase that is consistent not the pre-ovulatory phase, you gotta do some extra things to calculate when you are ovulating other than just looking at the moon. And even the L.P. varies from woman to woman. I could go on and on but I think there's a 1000 word limit? BK even stoops to cheap shots. When asked if she was a vegetarian Lusa says with a laugh "No, I'm one of the other Christianities." And we all know how BK feels about Christianity. Your veil of tolerance is slipping a bit, Ms. Kingsolver. Perhaps the most disappointing is that after reading all of BK's other books I was inspired. Inspired because I learned something and inspired to learn more. After the Bean Trees trilogy I researched the Native American situation in our country today. I read Winona Laduke and other authors. The Poisonwood Bible was an amazing experience and a catalyst that changed my life in many ways. Needless to say, I felt cheated after reading Prodigal Summer. Bottom line is Prodigal Summer seems to have come out of a precocious, intelligent but arrogant twenty something author bent on telling the world how stupid they are instead of the author that I had come to respect.