Prodigal Summer
by Barbara Kingsolver
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Book Reviews of Prodigal Summer
Book Review: Ah! Biology
Summary: 4 Stars
Ah Biology! Experimental millipedes in the reeds do it, sentimental centipedes in the weeds do it. Soon Deanna Wolfe and Eddie Bondo are doing it. Novelist Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible) does it again, this time in an Appalachian exploration. Deanna, a forty-year old scientist, returns home to study the biology of the forests. She finds coyotes, who are strangers to the area, and takes them in charge. She also meets a human predator, out to do them harm. Despite his being a bounty hunter, an occupation at odds to Deanna's strong preservation instincts, she starts a relationship with this man, Eddie. Can it work?
Not far away from them, there are two other stories taking shape. Lusa Landowski, a widow who is lonely and broke, desperately needs a solution. Garnett Walker and Nannie Rawley are farmers who feud over pesticides and other complications.
Within these stories, Kingsolver delivers some messages, the most important being that we must nourish our own lives as well as all other forms of life on earth. Kingsolver brings this off with great aplomb.
Her book differs in many ways from her best-selling The Poisonwood Bible. Here, her writing is so good she can make peeling tree bark sound appealing.
She brings a sensual touch. Here are her descriptions of the Zebulon Mountains: ...the mountain's breath began to bear gently on the back of her neck. By early evening it was insistent as a lover's sigh, sweetened by the damp woods, cooling her nape ... In addition, her dialogue rings as true as a triangle in a symphony orchestra. Her stories always maintain interest, and her research is formidable.
Book Review: Satisfying, but not filling.
Summary: 4 Stars
If the Kingsolver you love is the one who wrote The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, and Animal Dreams, and you found The Poisonwood Bible written in a different voice and style, be warned that Prodigal Summer is closer in tone and structure to The Poisonwood Bible. But Prodigal Summer has its own power and magic. The basic storyline is the focus on nature as a major life force. But it is told from the viewpoint of three different character groups who come to understand that no one stands alone, no action is without consequence, every decision leads to results, wanted or unwanted.
The young widow must make decisions about her future and her dead husband's land while struggling with his complex family. The Forest Service employee must deal with her chosen solitude and the hunter whom she invites to interrupt it. The two farmers must come to grips with how to manage their adjoining land, organically or chemically. These elements would stand well on their own, but Kingsolver doesn't let the story lines run separate. All these people's lives cross. Their opinions differ, their ways of dealing with life and conflict differ. But they have to come up with a way of getting along. Just like real life.
The telling of this one story in different voices is a method Kingsolver does well. The story is intersting, touching, gripping and, happily for the reader, not neatly tied up at the end. Like nature, things are left unsolved, to continue along with choices made thoughtfully and thoughtlessly, but all with strong convictions. It's a good read with a careful presentation of some controversial topics.
Book Review: Not Poisonwood, but still well worth a read
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not giving this book 5 stars for several reasons, even though I thoroughly enjoyed it and was disappointed to have it end (not to mention a big fan). First, it became very predictable about midway through. Second, it sits on the border of preachiness. This is my biggest complaint of Kingsolver's works (with the exception of Poisonwood). The Bean Trees remains my least favorite of her novels for this reason. However, it doesn't diminish what Kingsolver has done here.The character Deanna bears a striking (and disappointing) similarity to the heroin of "The Loop"; woman alone in the woods after a relationship breakup obsessed with wild canines and pursued by a younger man. However, Kingsolver takes the same ecological themes of that book a level deeper and does it with her unmatched lyrical prose. While "The Loop" focused mainly on mammals, Prodigal Summer explores plants (I learned a great deal about the American Chestnut), insects (likewise about moths), as well as mammals. It brought to my mind the similarities between humans and coyotes. We are both omnivores and opportunists, move into any available crack or crevice, and are difficult to get rid of.
And then there is steam! Can you say hot? Can we really expect everything she writes post-Poisonwood to be as intense? Relax and enjoy this book for what it is - a delightful frolic rich in loosely woven characters and Kingsolverisms. If you haven't read any of her books, start now!
Book Review: A trip back to Kentucky
Summary: 5 Stars
For each person the reading of a book is a personal experience. I picked up Prodigal Summer when my Mom asked me to read it and attend her bookclub for her, as she was ill. I only got through the first third of the book before the club met. I listened to a group of older readers from a New Jersey suburb say how they liked it, but the "bugs" made them itchy. I witheld my comments until the end. For me this book gave an opportunity to suddenly be back in places I had not thougth of for thirty years. Although only a sentence, I found myself standing in the Agricultural Entomology building, experiencing the smells and seeing the hallways etc. Ditto for Euclid Avenue. I spent five years in Lexington with many trips to the East and her descriptive text sets the scene so well, I really was there again! Her characters are very real. In 1975, I visited Eastern Kentucky and dear friends on a farm. The retired farmhand looked my English husband up and down and pronounced "Funny thing, them foreigners look just like us!". It could have come from anyone in this book. The retired vo ag teacher also touched a nerve - I qualified as a vo ag teacher and as "THE woman amoung men" he certainly fit the bill! I really was sorry to reach the end - not something I say about many books. Even the bug hating ladies in New Jersey enjoyed it, so I would recommend it to anyone - expecially those with University of Kentucky links!Book Review: Sensuous, lush, a real delight!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read a few of the customer reviews, and folks, you're entirely missing the point. This is not an exploration of biology, it's a hymn to the Goddess Earth.I am a real Kingsolver fan. This book establishes new territory for her, as did THE POISONWOOD BIBLE. I was left breathless by the first chapter, where middle-aged divorcee, naturalist, and, of late, recluse Deanna Wolfe meets Eddie Bondo, who is the antithesis of everything in which she believes. Their inevitable animal attraction and coupling is just the prelude to a riotous summer in the Appalachians, where the world goes about its business of death and procreation.
The same theme is being played out at the Widener farm where Lusa, a "bugologist" from the city of Lexington has come to live with her new husband, Cole. Cole's sudden death and the hostility of her hick in-laws are no match for the attraction of the fertile bottomland she inherits. Lusa's ascent out of despair and her growing bond with the farm and her self matches the intensity of the summer's increase.
Garnett Walker, a crotchety, half-blind, retired ag teacher and his comical interactions with his neighbor Nannie adds a lovely balance to the earthiness of Deanna's and Lusa's affairs.
This book is a celebration of life, a revel in the pantheon, a howl at the moon, a caress of Mother Nature's cheek. I just got finished reading it, and I miss it already!