Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
|
Our Price: $5.09 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.19 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Prodigal Summer
Book Review: Refreshingly honest
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this book absorbing and informative. It is gently hopeful and unapologetically honest in its treatment of ecological issues and its character's predilections. Being the first of Kingsolver's that I have read, I am suprised to find so many negative reviews of it - primarily by people who have read other books by BK. It is, after all, a work of fiction - why do so many reviewers demand 'correct' information?? If Ms Kingsolver was writing non-fiction, I would agree with those of you who insist on pointing out where her 'facts' are off-beam, but can't you allow some poetic licence to a woman who can expertly weave a shimmering tapestry of the conflicting prejudices of a small town's inhabitants? She is clearly familiar with the workings of the minds of her pro- and antagonists, portraying them with compassion and honesty, although I wonder if this can be appreciated by those of us who aren't senstitive to our own taken-for-granted assumptions about our own values and beliefs... I don't think this book is 'preachy' at all, it's just straightforward - perhaps the more bitter reviewers would prefer some subtle brainwashing so that they don't notice if any wool is being pulled over their eyes? Quite frankly, I'd rather know where the writer is coming from so that I can easily determine whether to read on or not. Being deceptively coerced into believing someone else's opinion doesn't appeal to me, so I respect Ms Kingsolver for her openness in referring to ecological issues - especially for her exquisite ability to interweave ecology with human behaviour. Many of us see ecology as being 'out there' rather than in our own backyards, not just physically but also in our own minds and behaviour. Prodigal Summer succeeds in making the connections between the inside and the outside and it is this that makes it such a work of art.Regarding the comments about the 'trashy' nature of the sex etc., I didn't see these that way at all, instead I saw the portrayal of Deanna and Eddie as a particularly sensitive insight into the workings of a woman's mind when she attempts to balance the pull of her own sexual nature with her ideological and philosophical convictions. This is a dilemma for many women, and reading this was comforting - it affirmed for me that I am not the only one who has experienced such division.
If you have read other BK novels, I would advise you to add some openness to your attitude when you read this book - it's not EXACTLY like the rest, it seems. If you are seeking a replica of her previous works you might be disappointed. But doesn't that defeat the purpose of reading a book? Of our favourite authors' works, some we like more than others, but that doesn't mean that we should abandon them altogether just because a particular work didn't appeal to our particular tastes. If BK's work didn't grow and change with the passing of time, she'd really have something to worry about. As for me, I'm tempted not to read anything else she's written because it may not measure up to this one, particularly in view of the some of the negative reviews I've read here that constantly COMPARE it to her other works. It's all a matter of opinion, and opinion is very dependent on the perspective of its originator, so if you want an absorbing read and you're not afraid of someone who speaks out about their belief in life, ecology, human fallibility, hope and love - then read Prodigal Summer and you will be really moved by its beautiful language, gentle interweaving of characters and positive message for change in the world.
Book Review: Natural, startlingly human - worth reading again and again.
Summary: 5 Stars
Barbara Kingsolver's novel Prodigal Summer is undoubtedly one of the best books that I have ever read. I could hardly put it down - through Christmas Eve and Christmas day I fell hopelessly into the world she created there in the Appalachain mountains, in the woods, on the farms - the intricate and all too real human relations and inner reflections of her well rounded, surprisingly developed, fleshy characters - each with a soft, endearing quality of his or her own that makes the reader feel comfortably familiar with their thoughts and presence. The conflict between human and nature, and the conflict within oneself - that of solitude versus company, society versus wilderness. A book about change, environmental consciousness and learning to accept hardship and to do what you can with what you have, forging a path through life that is never clear yet always ripe with opportunities to recreate oneself, to start something new.
This would not be a book for everyone, I am sure - this I can see from some of the other reviews... but as a vegetarian, caring for the environment and its fine balance and being afraid that so much of what I love in the world, our natural surroundings, will be lost - as a world traveler, having been through many of the things that she describes in this book, academically, emotionally, indescribably - though in a different setting - I can't help but want to recommend this book to everyone that I know! I would love to have an opportunity to talk with the author, I would ask a million questions - I have a great respect for her, am really amazed at her work.
I am very picky about my books and a writer myself - and have a great respect for Kingsolver's talent for dialogue and description of setting, as well as the abundance of scientific information in the book regarding plant and animal species and each one's individual place in the ecosystem. Writing a book is not easy, as anyone will know - and this is a book that not only beautifully weaves its story into itself and its surroundings, but serves to bring up and address (from both sides) important issues of how we treat the world in which we live and the profound effect that each human being has on his or her surroundings, even in the smallest sense - even by stepping one foot into the forest, or how we kill a few weeds in our lawn.
One of the things that I love most about this book is its graceful avoidance of overbearing preachiness and cheesy clichee love scenes - there is none of this in this novel, anywhere. I love the simplicity and subtlety of its message - yet at same time its wonderful feminine, earthy strength, seemingly woven into the hills and woods that serve as setting for this beautifully written story about the dance of the trees, the wind, tears, rain and new life. Incredible.
Book Review: Perfect prose weaves tapestry connecting lives of Appalacia
Summary: 5 Stars
My description of this novel will not do it justice. Kingsolver has been steadily perfecting her prose from "The Bean Trees" through "The Poisonwood Bible". Here, through beautiful dialogue and magical imagery, she tells three different tales of lives--human and non-human--interconnected in the Zebulon Forest.Kingsolver's novel begins with a description of Deanna, a reclusive biologist working as a forest inspector. She is a comfortable, 47-year-old misanthrope, preferring coyote to man, and the companionship of non-human animals, especially predators, above all else. Enter Eddie Bondo: a 28-year-old sheep rancher from Wyoming bent on hunting coyotes. Deanna and Eddie share a passionate, but adversarial romance over the course of the summer.
During the same summer, at the end of the Zebulon Forest, Lusa Maluf Landowski loses her new husband in a truck accident. She is left with the family farm she never wanted to begin with, and the task of somehow finding her place in his close-knit family of sisters, who distrust outsiders generally and the Muslim/Jewish scientist Lusa particularly.
Down the road, Garnett Walker is engaged in his life's work: developing a new species of chestnut tree that can withstand blight and produce wood sturdy enough to witness the progress of many generations. A lifelong farmer himself, he describes his lifelong exasperation with Nannie Rawley, an organic apple farmer who had a baby out of wedlock many years ago, who is embraced by the townfolk despite her unconventionality--or perhaps because of it.
Through family ties, chances of acquaintance and common histories, these three stories are intricately interwoven despite their characters' limited interaction with each other during the course of the novel. Kingsolver's theme is the connection people have to each other through happenstance and fortune. Her larger theme is the connection people and all animals have to the earth. People are only one form of life, sharing the earth with so many. A single predator in a world of plants and animals, cities and countries, forests and farms.
Read this novel not only for its message, but for the beautiful language. Kingsolver's description of a luna moth is so glorious it makes you want to cry. She will make you want to open your eyes and give every honeysuckle, snake, bird, and coyote its due.
Book Review: A Sensual Story With Muscle
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a hunger for words, and for nature writing, that only Kingsolver knows how to feed. In non-fiction, that hunger often moves me to pluck an Annie Dillard volume from the shelves... in fiction, it frequently moves me to open a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. She always satisfies. With her background as a biologist, Kingsolver always teaches me something I did not know about the natural world around us - and in us. As her characters in "Prodigal Summer" know so well, we are one with this planet we live on. Abuse it, and we abuse ourselves. Nurture it, and we nurture ourselves. Her message of respect for the intricate and wonderful plan of nature is strong, but not overpowering. It is neither didactic nor preachy. That's important. The kind of rebel spirit required today to resist both physical and spiritual pollution would resist preaching. But her passion for the beauty of earth and her fascination with how involved a chain of life we are woven into blends easily and cleanly with her skill as a fiction writer. We read a good story and we learn a bit about natural biology - and the learning is painless. The knit of the two is tight and effective.
As a woman reader, I also commend this woman author's presentation of such strong female characters. Hurrah! These are sensual women, the older ones fully as much as the younger ones, and they buckle to no one. Yet strength does not mean an inability to love. Women have known this... well, forever. To allow emotion to blossom with this kind of lushness is something women have always understood as the epitome of strength. These strong women understand sacrifice. They understand, and give in with gusto and abandon to, the most sensual pleasures. This, too, is our biology, and Kingsolver writes these scenes with mastery and appetite. Her women have spunk and fire. They have tenderness in their touch as well as hard muscle. They may not be able to save the earth... but they will certainly try.
Book Review: Try the Audio Version!
Summary: 5 Stars
I expected to like this book. I'm at B. K. fan. What I didn't expect was the added pleasure of listening to the author read the book. Normally, author-read tapes are disastrous (nasal, monotone, etc.) but Barbara Kingsolver has a melodious voice and a range of dialects, most of which are very good. The book did get slightly eco-preachy at times but the stories were worth listening to a little of this. I especially liked the story of Lusa and the relationships she developed with her in-laws.
1 2