August 2019: Barbara Kingsolver

The dog days of summer (or winter, depending on where you live) will be upon us before you know. Get ready by stocking up on some Barbara Kingsolver books now :)

What are you planning on reading in August??

In the past I've read The Poisonwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (both as audiobooks, think). Somewhere in my house I have a print copy of Prodigal Summer, so my plan is to read that.

FYI, for those playing along, The Poisonwood Bible is on the list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die.

High Tide in Tuscon really stayed with me. So did Animal Dreams -- indelible memories of one extended scene. I remember being mad at the people in The Poisonwood Bible for their hubris.

>4 reconditereader: Read The Poisonwood Bible so long ago now that I can't really recall any particulars, but I did enjoy it overall. Thought it was a powerful read.

I am a fan of Kingsolver. But I haven't got anything by her handy.

>6 BookConcierge: You've got a couple of months still to grab something. I get the majority of my reads for this group from my local library, unless I happen to have something at home already by that author as in this case.

Went to the library today and picked up Flight Behavior. Looking forward to digging into it once I finish my current read.

I think I've only read The Bean Trees before. I know I tried to read The Poisonwood Bible twice as a teenager and abandoned it twice... we'll see if I want to try again after reading this newer novel.

I'm having trouble getting through Flight Behavior. I really loved the first few paragraphs and I am interested in the setting and plot, but gosh, every time I think about picking it up I just feel so uninspired. I've been reading a chapter at a time and putting it back down. This is why I have twice abandoned The Poisonwood Bible in the past, too. I can't put my finger on it but I wonder if Kingsolver is not for me. How are others faring?

>9 sparemethecensor: I have too many other books due back at the library before I can get to the Kingsolver title set aside for this month (which I own).

It may simply be she's not for you .... not everyone has to love or even like the same author :)

>10 sweetiegherkin: That's what I'm thinking too. I ended up returning the book to the library half-read.

>11 sparemethecensor: Oh, too bad. You gave it a fair chance though.

A little late to the discussion, but I read The Poisonwood Bible a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. I want to read more of her work, though.

Flight Behavior – Barbara Kingsolver
Audiobook read by the author
4****

Dellarobia Turnbow is ten years into a marriage that has never satisfied her. Unsure how to deal with her restlessness she flirts with a younger man, a telephone lineman, and suggests a tryst in a hunter’s blind deep in the woods behind her home. But as she climbs to this ill-thought-out meeting, she encounters a strange sight that literally stops her in her tracks. The only way she can describe it is “a lake of fire.”

Kingsolver has crafted a story of one woman’s awakening, and simultaneously a warning about climate change. I found the story compelling from both perspectives. I know many people criticize Kingsolver for being preachy, but I did not find her message overbearing.

Dellarobia is a fascinating character. She’s intelligent but lacks education, having gotten pregnant and married right out of high school. Her community is small and somewhat restrictive. People are mostly struggling to survive in deep Appalachia. They do not have time to ponder philosophy or global impact. And they are quick to judge anyone who tries to break out of the mold. Focus is on family and church. Dellarobia and her husband live on his parents’ land, in a house just a stone’s throw from his mother and father. Yet they have limited say in their own future. It’s no wonder she’s feeling suffocated and unfulfilled.

But when her in-laws discover the amazing sight on the mountain things begin to change. Dellarobia becomes the focus of media attention and her image goes viral. She begins helping the scientist who comes to study the phenomenon, and this opens her eyes to new possibilities.

While the book begins with a self-described rash act, I found Dellarobia to be much more cautious than that initial impression. I liked the way she thought about, questioned, researched, and considered her life, her family, her relationships and her future. I liked that she begins to make some hard decisions that are first about her own survival, and ultimately about her family as well.

Certainly, there are references to religion (just google “lake of fire” and the bible). And Kingsolver is questioning how people can believe something in the face of contradictory evidence – in this case about climate change. I know many people criticize Kingsolver for being preachy, but I did not find her message overbearing in this book. It certainly gave me plenty to think about.

I did find the ending somewhat abrupt and would love to have some discussion about it with one of my F2F book clubs. Unfortunately for me, this book has not yet made it to the reading list for any of them … yet.

Kingsolver narrates the audiobook herself, and she does a fine job. She makes no effort to give the characters significantly different voices, though she does attempt a vaguely “Caribbean” accent for Ovid

>14 BookConcierge: I recently read Flight Behavior and agree with all of this review, except I give Kingsolver a little more credit for doing different voices as the audiobook reader.

I did go looking into people's theories about the ending and found some were a little more far-fetched than others. Some people were saying that the flood was just a bad dream Dellarobia was having, but I am far more literal minded. I didn't see anything specific about the ending from Kingsolver, although I did find this interview where she addresses the idea of the book being "preachy" (among other topics): https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2012/11/09/flight-behavior-kingsolver