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Summary: Biological Imperative
Review: Prodigal Summer: The Biological Imperative
I read years ago of a biological theory that hypothesizes that human beings are actually reproductive mechanisms clothed in skin and bones and deluded that we have free choice. Nature wants babies and we comply. That theory fit nicely into my soul searching after my marriage had failed soon after reproducing two offspring. I could blame my jump into marriage on the exigencies of nature. I recognized those same exigencies in Deanna's torrid and improbable affair with the very young and very miscast mate Eddie Bondo, of the predator chapters.
Predators
At first I couldn't figure out why Barbara Kingsolver of all people kept pumping out sexually ecstatic descriptions of near soft-porn proportions. Maybe, ... Kingsolver WAS indeed emulating the late great Grace Metolius whose Peyton Place began portentously "Indian summer is like a woman. . . "
But no! This is prodigal summer, immensely fertile, forever riven in dialectic opposites and to be seen in Hegelian terms of the opposites being two halves of a single truth. The opposites in the Wilderness chapters, set in the high southern Appalachians with enthralling descriptions of its beauty and remoteness, are the wildlife conservationist Deanna and the hunter Eddie Bondo who passionately mate, and separate after following the biological imperative to procreate.
Moth Love
The second pair of opposites described in the chapters Moth Love are of the city-farm/ivory tower-dirty fingernails dialectic. Lusa and Cole. "These days they seem to do nothing but fight. "
"Arguments", she has come to realize, "could fill a marriage like water, running through everything, always, with no taste or colour but lots of noise." He wants to kill the honeysuckle with roundup. She wants it to run wild.
Kingsolver's analogies between animal and human sexuality are particularly effective and emotionally potent. Lusa is sulking inside, hurt and angry after yet another row with her husband, when her nostrils are tickled by the familiar scent of honeysuckle, drifting in through an open window. She knows instantly that Cole has broken off a spray of flowers to bring to her as an offering. Without looking she can chart his movement towards the house by the heady fragrance of honeysuckle. "This", she reflects, "is how moths speak to each other. They tell their love across the fields by scent. There is no mouth, the wrong words are impossible, either a mate is there or he's not, and if so the pair will find each other in the dark."
But Cole is killed while moonlighting as a truck driver, illustrating how hard it is for Americans to make a living off the family farm anymore. And Lusa learns that unbridled honeysuckle can bury a small building in a few months time. And Lusa brings new ideas for making money from running the farm (besides tobacco) that seem to keep that sacred relationship of man-woman-community-nature in balance.
Old Chestnuts
The dialectic played out in Old Chesnuts is by far the most entertaining of the whole novel. The relationship between philosophically opposed next door farm neighbors Garnett Walker and Nannie Rawley is charming and in the end, weaves the other two stories into its very positive outlook for the microcosm represented in this fiction. They, as octogenarians, are no longer part of the prodigal, fertile summer of the novel. But they represent the human component that can change and adapt to the brave new world evolving around them. Walker and Rawley, as two old chestnut trees that are now endangered, can have the best of their qualities grafted onto a future generation for perhaps a more resilient, ecologically stronger future. Both oldsters are influencing grandchildren as the fiction closes.That leaves one of the silent protagonist of Prodigal Summer until last. She was the first being that we see Deanna seeking when the story begins and she is the last word in the end. The Coyote. As she reinhabits the microcosm of Egg Fork, descending from the higher realms, like Deanna, she seems solitary. But, Kingsolver ends the book, "Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice a world made new for the chosen." That sums up the philosophy of the story along with these two following excerpts from the chapter on Predators:
"Then he was gone for good. Just like that, today of all days, for reasons she would never be able to know. Whether she had loved or hated this snake was of absolutely no consequence to his departure. She considered this fact as she watched him go, and she felt something shift inside her body - relief, it felt like, enormous and settled, like a pile of stones on a steep slope suddenly shifting and tumbling slightly into the angle of repose." "The pounding of What do I want went still in her breast. It didn't matter what she chose. The world was what it was, a place with its own rules of hunger and satisfaction. Creatures lived and mated and died, they came and went, as surely as summer did. They would go their own ways, of their own accord." (p. 365)
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Summary: Women in Full
Review: I loved this book! Three strong wonderful women characters! As an outdoor person with an ecology background and a mini farm in my backyard, every sentence rang true, every word needed to be expressed! I am so impressed by the thoroughness of the research, by the tight interweaving of the story and the environment, and the artistry of the creation of each character to help in the understanding of the role we play in Nature and our responsibility to ourselves and our environment. Almost every page had a sentence or two that brought tears to my eyes!
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Summary: The Summer you don't want to end
Review: Another blockbuster Kingsolver! Sequel please, and quickly, we want to know how how all this works out, we want to watch the coyote pups grow up and the trees flourish. These women are marvelous, thanks for making them the protagonists, but please could we have one who doesn't have to end up in a romantic relationship? Namaste, Nancy Davison
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Summary: her prose has never been better
Review: I confess, I'm not a nature lover. Eco-anything bores me to tears. However, the descriptions in this novel are so lyrical, lovely and true, I savored every page.
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Summary: Excellent Kingsolver........
Review: ............although not her best. You won't find statements against religious zealotry or against racism in "Prodigal Summer" as in Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible", but you will find her hallmark passion for writing about environmental issues. This novel also explores the relationships between lovers, families, friends and neighbors in a way that is real, sophisticated and enlightening. Her descriptions of natural settings is also superior and enjoyable, making her background as a biologist evident. If you've liked Kingsolver's fiction in the past, you'll enjoy "Prodigal Summer", but it may not quite send you the way "The Poisonwood Bible" did.
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Summary: Preaching to the choir
Review: I am a huge fan of Kingsolver, but I felt this book was, well, boring. The writing itself was not up to par with her other works, it seemed hastily thought out and just as hastily written. For the strong or even moderate environmentalist, this book is a kindergarten class look at morality - good for those who haven't thought this stuff through a hundred times already.
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Summary: Prodigal Struggle
Review: I took Prodigal Summer along with me on a recent ski trip - something to read in the airport and on the plane. I have read a few of Kingsolver's books and really struggled to stay engrossed with the last third of Poisonwood Bible. I was willing to forgive the author, only to find the first quarter of Prodigal Summer another yawn. The extensive scientific descriptions of the plants, animals and insects were, as other reviewers have expressed, overdone for the average reader. But I plugged along. My efforts were soon rewarded and I was hooked. I even kept the book in a locker at the ski lodge so I could continue reading after lunch - it delayed my return to the ski lift! The telling of three stories concurrently - people and places so close together yet so far apart in the fertile fields, forests and farms of Zebulon County- is an amazing Kingsolver talent. Little by little, we become aware of how these stories intertwine, and we are anxious to see a full culmination of character, connection and interplay. However, Kingsolver brings us to the brink and we are left to imagine, create and dream that fulfillment on our own. I was left thinking that an epilogue was missing from my copy of the book and reacted with frustration. After letting the book digest a little, I was somewhat accepting of her design, but still wanted more. It is probably the groundwork for a sequel.
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Summary: Disappointing dialogue
Review: After having read Poisonwood Bible, it was with great anticipation that I awaited Prodigal Summer. What a let-down! Although the nature descriptions were wonderful (I live in the area she writes about), I felt that the dialogue, especially between Bondo and Wolfe was clumsy and lifeless at times. It read more like a cheap romance novel. Being an amateur naturalist and environmentalist, I agree whole-heartedly with her message, but find the delivery clumsy and overly-didactic. I'm hoping that she overcomes these difficulties in her next book, because I won't stop reading her because of my lack of enthusiasm for this one.
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Summary: A whole new world....
Review: Prodigal Summer is a novel of three stories running concurrently and each inhabiting ideals and statements about wildlife and the food chain, pesticides and the environment, and insects and reproduction. While it doesn't seem like much of a premise for a novel, Prodigal Summer does have endearing characters that spark with life and humor all while being threaded with Barbara Kingsolver's own political platforms. The three stories in Prodigal Summer gives us unique and carefully drawn characters. In Predators, we have Deanna, a wildlife ranger who has made the forest her home for the past two years and who spends her days monitoring and protecting its creatures. Then along comes rancher Eddie Bondo who turns her life upside down. In Moth Love, there is young widow, Lusa, who is now alone and surrounded by her late husband, Cole's, unsupportive and unwelcoming family. Lusa battles moral questions about the farm she lives on, dealing with her in-laws, and, most importantly, the difference between biological family and the family you inherit. Finally, in Old Chestnuts, we meet old Garnett Walker, who seems plagued by his stubborn and eccentric neighbor, Nannie Rawley. Nannie's anti-pesticide and evolution beliefs are about to drive Garnett to the crazy house. But amidst of all the craziness and their hard-headed environmental and religious debates, Garnett manages to surprise himself. The underlying theme of Kingsolver's political issues makes Prodigal Summer a glorious canopy for the beautifully crafted stories it holds. I wasn't sure what to make of the book when I first opened it, but after getting familiar with each individual story, the wonder began to take hold and I was truly mesmerized. Kingsolver has a poetic way with words, and I certainly came away from this book with a more clarified understanding about the world we live in and our place within it.
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Summary: I have found my "Bible."
Review: My title speeks for itself. Morality, virtue, integrity, reality...a guide for right and wrong, and the subtleties that wrench us inbetween...that is what "Prodigal Summer" is about. Nature, sex and God. Kingsolver is a saint to me.
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