Prodigal Summer
by Barbara Kingsolver
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Book Reviews of Prodigal Summer
Book Review: Could have been better....
Summary: 3 Stars
PRODIGAL SUMMER by Barbara Kingsolver is actually three stories in one novel. Each story revolves around a different main character.
Deanna Wolfe is the first story (Predators) and she works for the US Forest Service, living alone in the mountains in south Appalachia. Her disdain for most people keeps her isolated up in the mountains, where she happily observes nature at its finest. Early on in her story, she encounters Eddie Bondo, a man of mystery travelling through the mountains, and despite her attitudes towards people in general, she falls for him.
The second story (Moths) is centered around Lusa Landowski, married into the Widener family and the wife (and soon to be widow) of Cole, the beloved son and brother of this large clan. Their lives center on farm living, and although Lusa's dream as a child was to live on the land, she finds little happiness living on the farm with Cole.
The third story (Chestnuts) centers around Garnett, an elderly man who has lived in Zebulon county for decades, but is now a widower and is constantly battling it out with his next door neighbor Nannie Rawley. He thinks she's nuts, and she sees him as an old fart.
The problem I had with this book was that there didnt seem to be any remote connection between the three stories, except for the main theme of ecology and "preseravation of this earth". I am a big supporter of ecological causes, but not to the extent where it is being shoved down my throat in a preachy tone. Although I soon came to love the character of Lusa and her fellow Wideners, I could not warm up to Deanna Wolfe, who seemed to have no heart and was written as a very cold person. Her hatred and disdain for most people, I think, is what irritated me the most. Her dialogues with Eddie sounded to me like a text book dissertation, not true conversations held by someone in her field. I enjoyed the Garnett and Nannie wars, as I would like to call them, but they too weren't too likeable in the beginning.
Although by the end of the book the author ties up loose ends and shows how all three characters are connected in some way, I found this book was merely a means to preach about the ecology, not to tell a story. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if she had left Deanna's story out, and focused more on Garnett and Lusa's story. PRODIGAL SUMMER was my third Barbara Kingsolver book (Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees being my first two) so I had been looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations and so I only gave it 3 stars.
Book Review: Good reading although not without flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
Prodigal Summer is my first introduction to Barbara Kingsolver's book. I find her an excellent writer even though I do not agree with many of her points on environmental or ecological issues, but the book itself is a joy to read and even on those arguments which I find contrary to my own belief but nevertheless it serves as mental nourishments to enlarge one's perspectives about nature and life.From reading the previous reviews, many reviewers have focused their reviews on characters development and relationship building in the book. I personally think Prodigal Summer is a very different book for one to review base on this kind criteria and it would be wrong that if we simply treat it as a tale of romance or a literary novel on relationship per se. It is much more than that, in this book, the stories about relationship are used to deliver her strong messages about ecological balance and wildlife conservation, friendship and adversity are used as a tool in advance her arguments to establish her scientific theory thus to further enhance her political views.
I did not find Prodigal Summer an easy read like many other readers, although each story in the book was simply told through reviewing their personal conflicts, and only from those conflicts her arguments were been presented and examined and argued.
For people whose main object in reading is to find excitement in a story should stay away from Prodigal Summer because you won't find any here. But what ranked this book above many others was because it being ordinary without being plain, where you will find much philosophical means to life from those simply told stories where although they might lack in plots and characters development but were amply accomplished by the implication they conveyed, not to mention her excellent writing as a compliment should itself almost guarantee to give many hours of reading pleasure.
I gave it a 4-star because with all its merits, it did not give me a continuous reading pleasure as I sometimes find in some other books. I wouldn't call this book an UNPUTDOWNABLE because it is a book that means to make you think and argue, thus slowing down your reading time. And also, the stories themselves could be more interesting if some plots were developed.
Enough said, I will definitely return to Barbara Kingsolver again for I have already bought The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees as for my definitive reading list for 2004.
Book Review: sensitive, wise exploration of natural, human ecosystems
Summary: 5 Stars
With extraordinary grace, elegant language, thematic richness and emotional integrity, Barbara Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer" will surely elevate the author to the upper levels of our national literature. Set in the unadorned southern Appalachians during one transforming summer, the novel intertwines three disparate narratives into a seamless unity. The narratives alternate, ultimately connecting the protagonists to each other and ever more closely to their environment."Prodigal Summer," above all else, is an exploation of the idea of ecosystems. Beneath each character and conflict is the central theme of interdependence and biological/emotional mutuality. "Predators" features a proud, lonely woman whose intense defense of coyotes underscores not only her acknowledgement of the biological imperatives of predation but her joyous discovery of her own capacity (both biological and emotional) for companionship and love. Deanna Wolfe emerges as a dominant character, a truly modern champion of the visible and unseen bonds which link us to our living world. "Moth Love" explores the coming-of-age of another fine protagonist, Lusa Maluf Landowski, whose premature widowhood compels her to develop both the intellectual and emotional skills to understand the human ecosystem of her suspicious and alien in-laws. My favorite narrative, "Old Chestnuts," features two keenly-etched older characters, the strikingly independent and vibrant Nannie Rawley and her antagonist, the straight-laced and emotionally wizened Garnett Walker. Kingsolver's depiction of Walker's mind and her remarkable talent with dialect make this narrative alone worth the price of the book.
You cannot help but become friends with this book. The author's numerous botanical and animal descriptions are exceptionally well done; her characters - to a person - are utterly real and compelling. Laced within this beautifully paced book are lengthy discussions of ideas: biological determinism vs. human intervention, the meaning of family, animal/plant ..., the significance of place, the human search for meaning.
After reading "Prodigal Summer," you will surely know more of the natural world, but, you will also come away with a more profound identification with our universal quest for understanding our place in this majestically interdependent planet.
Book Review: Her Finest Achievement
Summary: 5 Stars
The books written by Barbara Kingsolver are each so different, that I really didn't know what to expect in this novel. What a wonderful surprise! The book weaves a rich tapestry of the separate lives of three sets of characters in the woods and farmland in the Appalachians. For the first third of the book or so, the three parallel story lines are each interesting but seem to bear no relationship to each other; but gradually loose threads are picked from each story line and woven into a whole that symbolizes the richness and complexity of people and natural surroundings of this region. Deanna Wolfe is an aging, reclusive scientist who has accepted an assignment with the Forest Service to live in a remote cabin and rebuild trails. Through her eyes, we are exposed to the wonders of nature and the awe with which she treats the environment. Her passion (and her doctoral thesis) is the study and preservation of coyotes; Eddie Bondo, a much younger man, hikes into her life one day and opens her heart, but she is constantly suspicious of him because he believes coyotes should be shot since they threaten farm animals.
Lusa is a recently widowed young woman thrust into the life of a farmer when she inherits the family farm from her husband. The rest of the family is slow to accept her, and her unconventional ideas about farming do nothing to bond her to the family or the community. But she gradually finds a way to win them over, and learns to love the land and make a success of her farming ventures while others are struggling.
Garnett and Nannie are long-feuding elderly neighbors, who continue to keep their distance from each other more out of old habits than for any definable reasons. Witnessing the gradual dismantling of the barriers between them is amusing and heartwarming.
The ending was unusual and seemed abrupt, but after thinking about it a while I realized that the masterful novelist has left each of us to write our own endings. She brings all these characters together after devoting 444 pages to fleshing them out, and now we get to decide how their lives will progress. I was so involved with the characters that I constantly think about them, even now, weeks after I've finished the novel. I'm sure I'll read this book again and again to rediscover the fantastic environment and fascinating characters revealed to us by Barbara Kingsolver.
Book Review: Kingsolver captures the summer and the Southern Appalachians perfectly
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this while up in the mountains of Georgia this summer. When the huge oaks and maples that surrounded me in these southern Appalachian mountains were not even tiny seedlings, when the American Chestnut tree blossomed in an glorious snowy display across the land, there was bird that inhabited these parts and regions further south. It had a wingspan of 4 feet , a pale eye, a distinctive call and a large pale beak. It was called familiarly, the Lord Bird, because folks were known to utter "Lord, what a bird!" when they spied it. The Ivory billed woodpecker was an awesome sigh, indeed, I am told. But the advance of humans depleted this marvelous bird's natural habitat, so bird lovers such as myself may never hear the call, and may never be able to see this incredible creature. (I hold out hope the reports of last year that there still may be some Lord Birds in a swamp in Louisiana are true. And I fervently wish that there may be enough of them to reproduce and re-establish the population. But even if this were so, I shall only probably see the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, and the Carolina Parakeet in my dreams and in drawings by Mr Audubon.) But lest you think I am digressing, I am not. I have just finished the last pages of Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, set in these same mountains, not too far from where I perch. All I can say is, "Lord, What a Book."
I will admit that the first part of the book took me a little time to find and follow the rhythm. I'm not exactly sure why, but it did. I even almost put it aside, deciding it wasn't for me. But I gave it a few more pages and then i was hooked. Kingsolver interweaves three separate sections and a multitude of stories together in this tale of a mountain, a valley and a summer. The human inhabitants of the stories are fascinating, but it was the natural world, flora and fauna that sucked me right in.
To read this book here was an added treat. Many a page I would read her description of the land, and then look up to see the very scene she had described unfolding before me. I felt as if the book was a gift for me, personally, tucked up in my mountain haven, to immerse myself within. Like a fine wine, a satisfying meal, or a spectacular piece of music that sets your heart soaring.