Rating: 
Summary: Ripple effect
Review: Along with the "web of life" analogy prevalent in Prodigal Summer, there is the "ripple effect." Kingsolver has always touched my special nerves, but this time with something new--that "ripple effect" in which she fed my imagination after I was done reading the book. We often say "I wished this story could have gone on" and in this case it did for me. As I went about my business after finishing the book, I realized I was seeing how each of the three stories played out. In her "prodigal" way, Kingsolver lavishly spent all those details on me, the reader, until they just kept spilling out even after it was over.
Rating: 
Summary: Kingsolver Lays an Egg Bigger than Humpty Dumpty
Review: One of the worst books I have had the misfortune to read. This book is stultifying to the senses, preachy, and on the subject of biology wishy-washy. Furthermore, with the exception of the prominent female characters, the characters in this novel, esp. the males, are hollow and one dimensional. Let me briefly elaborate.
This novel, indubitably aimed toward a female audience, expounds upon (note: it does not merely present a case, but preaches) the interconnectedness between animals, humans included, and their environment. Focusing from a particular, and in this case distorted, political mindset (leftism), Kingsolver at every turn reinforces a notion of the delicate balance between human beings and nature. Much of this novel reads as if it is the regurgitated half-rememberances of a dilettante biology student. Aside from the error-prone preachiness, much fault in the novel also lies in its awkward predictability, or rather is it its predictable awkwardness?
Judging from other reviews, this novel is much enjoyed--with favorable reviews coming overwhelmingly from women. However, this book fails utterly as literature and in any other way I deem a book valuable. Read Marquez's brilliant work "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and you will understand by juxtaposition how utterly Kingsolver has failed and Marquez has triumphed in this genre.
Rating: 
Summary: If only it had lasted longer!
Review: Oh to be inside the mind of Barbara Kingsolver. Her creative genius blows me away everytime! This book had a little of everything I love to read about. Deep and intricate human relationships, a great love of nature and her creatures, and how it all mixes together. . .three story lines interwoven into a thought provoking and heart warming tale. There's Nanny Rawley, an aging earth mother with a heart of gold and a sharp mind, who both aggravates and fascinates her neighbor Garrett Walker. . .a elderly straight laced gentleman...Deanna Wolfe, an off beat forest ranger who has left civilization in favor of the natural world, and manages to have a pivotal romance out in the middle of no where, and Lusa, a well educated entomologist who falls in love with a farmer and leaves her city life for Zebulon County. So, how do all these characters blend together? Seamlessly. . .one of the best books I've ever read. Uplifting, profound and highly entertaining!! Kingsolver makes these characters real.
Rating:
Summary: Three stories in one
Review: Barbara Kingsolver spins her magic again in prose which is more like poetry and characters whose souls she plummets. The chapters rotate among three separate stories. Her first character works for the Park Service in an effort to restore an area to its pristine wildness with each species being given the opportunity to flourish without the interference of man. She is particularly interested in the coyote and carefully guards the den of a coyote family who have returned to an area they left long ago. The second story concerns a man who is trying to develop a perfect chestnut tree and his neighbor who abhors any kind of chemical being sprayed for the purpose of killing weeds or insects. The third story is about a well-educated city woman who is an expert on moths and who marries a farmer with a possessive and suspicious family that leaves her feeling like an outsider. Eventually the three stories are woven artfully together and the characters intersect. Kingsolver's wonderful writing is as evident in this book as in her others, but her environmentalist's agenda comes on a bit strongly in this one.
Rating:
Summary: A classically great novelist ....
Review: Barbara Kingsolver is unquestionably one of our greatest living novelists. She crafts her art subtly, packing a force that's hard to shake off after the final page.Prodigal Summer is a very sexual novel, considering the reproduction of all forms of life -- plant, animal and man. It also very clearly plays out the delicate balance of the roles of plants, animals, and man in nature, how interconnected and dependent each life form is on another. Through three plot lines of beautifully created characters, Kingsolver presents the different points of view of nature, ecology, and man's dominion over the earth. There are hunters and their prey -- animals vs. man vs. nature. Envision a triangular pattern between the three and you can see the intricacy of the novel. I loved this book, waiting until the initial hoopla of its release was over to read it and judge it unbiasedly. It's easy to be carried away by the publicity; however, this book deserves to be a best seller, deserves to be read, and re-read for generations to come. Ecology and the controvery surrounding mankind's rape of the land is a subject that should be dear to everyone's heart. Read it and decide for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Well written and enjoyable
Review: I enjoyed this book, but liked Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven better. I liked Poisonwood Bible, too, but this book appealed to me from the start. I enjoyed the characters and as the book unfolds you learn how they are all interrelated. The various relationships, and how they develop are described with clarity and are of interest to the reader. I could find something that I liked about each character and found them to be believeable, interesting and, for the most part, thoughtful. At times the book "dragged"....but would recommend it as it is an easy read and when I finished it, I felt satisfied. You, too, will enjoy it, I am sure.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't want it to end!
Review: I loved this book and the caricatures that Kingsolver created. I was really sad when I reached the end - I wanted more! It was amazing how each character was interlinked, but very distantly. It allowed the story to weave between them, yet you were reading about three very separate lives. Beautifully done - this is my favorite author!
Rating: 
Summary: Unbalanced
Review: I loved both this book and Poisonwood Bible because Kingsolver writes so well but still found both books flawed, not because of the preachy tone (while Prodigal Summer is terribly preachy, the sermon is at least well thought out and the issues fully presented) but because only the women are fully rounded characters. As in Poisonwood Bible, the men here (Eddie Bondo, Ricky, Old Man Walker, etc. etc. etc) are all cartoonish, paper cut-outs. The women (at least those who you actually get to see up close) can care about family, the environment, and life while the men all get to be unfeeling, stupid louts. As a man I find it a little insulting.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Magic?
Review: Animal Dreams is still my favorite book and I keep hoping Barbara Kingsolver will thrill me with stories like that as she did with Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. I didn't talk to anyone that liked Poisonwood Bible so I did not read it so I was anxiously awaiting her next one. Well, while Prodigal Summer is well-written and has a story and I learned many new things and eventually enjoyed the interweaving of the different characters it just lacked the magic of her earlier works. I think Barbara is inspired by her life experiences and healed herself a tremendous amount when she was writing her earlier books. Now that she has healed,is successful and has reaped the well-deserved rewards she has looked elsewhere for inspiration. Reading her poetry will reveal her depth to you and if she further explores her inner world I expect her to continue to be the excellent writer that she is.
Rating:
Summary: So preachy, the choir walks out...
Review: When I began this book, I considered myself as passionate an ecologist as Ms. Kingsolver. But by the time I'd waded through the umteenth of Deanna Wolfe's or Nannie Rawley's off-putting speeches, I was ready to join the Republican party out of spite. Barbara Kingsolver is capable of so much more! She has brought her political agenda to the table in subtle and moving ways in the past, but this time she simply takes an enlightened woman, a dense man, and locks them in a moral dilemma together. The woman beats the man over the head with her verbal tirades until he says "Oh, you're right," and changes. Or else, like Eddie Bondo, he walks off and never returns. I wanted to grab my pack and tell him to wait up.
The three stars are because she is a wonderful writer, even when she falters as uncharacteristically as she does here.
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