Unsheltered and Undone: Barbara Kingsolver novels complete, what to read?

Kudos to me: I really know how to drag something out.

I've been worried about running out of Barbara Kingsolver novels since at least 2007. And now, having finished Unsheltered, here I am.

Packing and Unpacking the Human Condition

I'll spare you my in-depth review of Unsheltered, because for one thing, this isn't really a review site.* Also, The Guardian ran two reviews: one very favorable, the other not-so-much. Both sides of the story, so to speak. For what it's worth, I think the AP's review was better than both of those.

But since this is my blog, I'll admit, I didn't fall head over heels for the book. At first.

As poet/author Kate Clanchy noted in her (not-so-favorable) review in The Guardian, the plot was difficult to follow at times. Actually, "plot" seems too strong; there was very little action. But there were two deaths, a birth, a little bit of sex, and a whole lot of backstory. So let's call this a story.

And in the story, I found characters to love. OK, one character: Mary Treat. AND SHE'S REAL! (I love it when that happens. She studied all sorts of plants and insects, and several species of ants are named after her. Um. Did I mention this isn't really a book review site?) Treat's correspondence with Charles Darwin from the "utopian" society of Vineland, NJ could have stood alone. But it actually worked quite nicely as scaffolding for the story, so I read on. Plus, there is Kingsolver's habit of turning out great - GREAT - sentences.

As The Guardian's Benjamin Evans points out in his (favorable) review, "Kingsolver powerfully evokes the eeriness of living through times of social turmoil."

Indeed.

Somehow in 400-odd pages she manages to weave bits of our modern world (Trump, Education, Corruption, Climate Change) into the broader canvas of life (greed, snobbery, love, kindness, evolution, death) and turn it into a story.

Not bad. Except sometimes it feels like a kick in the head. But, being a good writer that doesn't want to alienate her readers, she includes enough hilarious Greek curses to make us laugh. With apologies to anyone who understands, "Putana thalasa pouse gamoun ta psaria." (Something about the whore ocean where all the fish...never mind, it probably loses a lot in translation.)

She also includes some tantalizing prose to keep us reading. To wit, this nugget that encapsulates that oh-so-funny feeling when realize your tiresome, tyrannical father in law was once just as unbelievably hot as your husband -

"She'd kindly offered no judgment on Willa for failing to see the resemblance, the evergreen human crime of denying the past and seeing oneself as an original." 

 So, even though I'm out of Kingsolver fiction, I'll keep reading. I haven't read picked up Animal Vegetable Mineral yet, and I know its time is coming. But what about novels? Who can recommend some great new fiction?

Please tell me what you're reading and what I should check out at the library!

*What do you mean this isn't a book review site?

Funny you should ask. I started this blog about a hundred years ago because I wanted 1- some blogging practice and 2- a way to keep track of what I read, liked, didn't, wanted to read, would recommend to friends, and why. Also, I was hopeful that my reading friends would chime in and add their own seat-of-the-pants reviews. Or blathering diatribes on what they were reading. And here we are. If you'd like to submit a review, or un-review, please, do!

Get in touch via my Facebook Page or website. Thanks for reading!

Do You Stick with Certain Authors, or do they stick with you?

A while back I began compiling a list of some of the books that have stuck with me. The process is harder, the list longer, and my memory worse than I expected.

But little victories are sweet. I recently had the great pleasure of "matchmaking," that is, making the just-right recommendation to a friend about a book. In this case, when Patty and I were talking about (what else) books, I felt like I knew just the sort of read she was looking for. And Michael Creighton was her man.

A week later, she (almost giddily) told me she had ordered the book.

Gulp! Ordered it, and not from a library? Made a commitment like that just on recommendation? Naturally, I was nervous. What if it didn't work out? Imagine my relief when, a few days later, she told me she'd considered skipping that day's workout to spend some more time with Michael.

Whew.

The book: Timeline, a delightful forensic/time-traveling < 500-page adventure published in 2003. I can't take full credit for this particular match, however - my friend John recommended the book to me several years ago.

Regardless, Patty's happy, I'm happy, and  - here's a really cool thing about this type of matchmaking - I can keep setting my friends up with Michael.* 

In addition to Michael Creighton, Barbara Kingsolver is another author I'll stick with (and recommend, virtually anytime). What about you?

* Yes, that Michael: the author Jurassic Park, among others. Airframe was the first title I read of his - for what it's worth, I've heard that it hit just a little too close to home for certain airline industry execs. Prey is tied (with Timeline) for my "favorite" Creighton book. And - while my hubby disagrees - I didn't think The Andromeda Strain was all that.

Funny thing about matchmaking: there's really no accounting for taste. ;D

Ah, Vacation

I need a t-shirt that says, "Five days in ARUBA and all I got to read were two books and two magazines." I'm not complaining - they were good books and good magazines. As a good deed, I left the National Geographic mags on the plane to save the next passenger from those hideous Skymall catalogs. (Apologies to the wonderful writers employed by said publication.)

I digress more than usual; let's just say the Aruban sun overheated my brain. More later on the books I read, both fiction, both of which I'd recommend, with caveats - Cinda Williams Chima's YA The Warrior Heir and Kevin Henkes' MG Olive's Ocean.

The vaca wrapped up nicely with a brief but warm chat with my seatmate, another Barbara Kingsolver fan. Ah, I love vacations, those temporary interludes away from most of life's little details.
Te Aworo!*


*Te Aworo means "goodbye" in Papiamento, the language of the people of Aruba.

Oh, the Piles!

After my son used the wicker magazine rack as a step-stool a few too many times, I sighed and decided it had to go. (The rack, not the boy.)

Which means I had to face up to the fact that about two dozen magazines had been collecting dust inside the rack. Among the National Geographics and various science mags, some Design News and NASA Tech Briefs were tossed in for good measure. I'm almost caught up...sigh...almost. I love reading those mags, I really do. But I love reading a lot of stuff. A lot.

Like books by Barbara Kingsolver. I have to admit the one I just finished, The Prodigal Summer, has been my least favorite of the Kingsolvers I've read so for. Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven were so much more...um, immediate? raw? I'm not sure what descriptor I'm searching for... even The Bean Trees, which was published before Prodigal Summer and the much-acclaimed Poisonwood Bible, was more gripping.

That said, I can't quit the darned book, of course. BK has quite a way with words - and even more talent with characters.

Maybe someday she'll write about a lady who keeps magazines piled up in her living room, as surrogate stepping stools...

More Like Animal Dreams, Please

Barbara Kingsolver knows how to write. She describes people, places, things, and feelings in such a way - in only a few words - that they get under your skin, and you understand all you need to know about them. The language she uses isn't lengthy or flowery; it's overwhelmingly beautiful in its simple perfection.

While many writers can say a lot in a few words, what sets Kingsolver apart is how expertly she uses those few words to tell a story; even her descriptions move the action forward. Consider the expedient, but unrushed unfolding of Animal Dreams:

about the place, Grace, AZ: [p. 40]

people here spent their childhoods tearing through the homes of their future in-laws

about the shy doctor, the boyfriend left behind: [p. 41]

He could face new flesh wounds each day at work, but he avoided actual people.

about going home: [p.69]

My father, the only real candidate for center of my universe, was content to sail his private sea and leave me on my own. I still held that against him. I hadn't thought before about how self-sufficiency could turn on your in old age or sickness. The captain was going down with his ship. It became possible for me to go back to Grace.

The main character and narrator of Animal Dreams is Codi, a self-described educated vagabond. Codi returns to her childhood home to check on her father, who may or may not be dying. I'm afraid to review the plot further, for fear I'd make the book sound like "just" another can't-go-home-again story, and that would be ridiculous.

In fact, for the most part, Animal Dreams is about going home, and within its pages, Kingsolver (once again) proves that a good storyteller can make even the oldest stories worth hearing again.

Barbara Kingsolver, beyond the Bible

Poisonwood Bible may be Barbara Kingsolver's best selling title, but fortunately it's not the only book she's given us. I'm soaking up Animal Dreams now. At about a third of the way into one of her books, I try to slow down, to a slow-motion crawl. Her books are that good to me - her characters so dear, and the stories so real that even though I know they're just ink on paper, I also know the end (of the book) is coming and I'll be a bit depressed when I'm done with it (and them).

Sigh.

In this case, of course, once I've closed Animal Dreams I'll have plenty of other reading to do. I picked up Team of Rivals at the library, again.

Sigh.