Prodigal Summer: A Novel

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Summary: Ecology Textbook
Review: I had high hopes for this book, having loved Pigs in Heaven and the Poisonwood Bible, and was sadly disappointed. It's too obvious and too predictable. When I read the explanation of the importance of a predator in an ecosystem for the second time I thought I'd jumped into a textbook - and then it came up again! The human parallels to the animal world were just a little strained - the widowed, childless sister-in-law adopts the children of the cancer-ridden mother, and in the animal world just one female coyote will produce offspring while the others support her to maximise the chance of the cubs survival. If I want the ecology lecture I'll pick up a Farley Mowatt book.

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Summary: Circles, Cycles and Rhythms
Review: This is a wonderful book--and although it is indeed a tale of the earth and it's interconnected life forces, it's also a great fantasy read for women in their late 40's. We deserve this book!
And as a bonus, we can absorb the leaf mold and smell the pine needles and celebrate the great cycles of Mother Earth. Kingsolver has delivered a web of stories, wonderful characters and an ecological treasure.

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Summary: Her BEST yet! Wonderfully woven fabric...
Review: This book will go on my must read list. I have already given it out to numerous friends, and alerted others to its delights. Kingsolver, who is a favorite author anyway, has written a well-researched and loving tale about the lives of three people in an Appalachian community. She weaves the stories together in overlaying chapters: the "Predator" chapters follow Deanna, a park ranger in the mountains who is tracking coyotes; the "Moth Love" chapters follow Lusa, a half Jewish/half Palestinian entomologist who has married a farm boy; and the "Old Chestnuts" chapters follow Garnett, an eighty-year-old scientist/farmer who is still trying to bring back the American Chestnut tree, and is in constant conflict with his next door neighbor, Nanny Rawley (an aging feminist organic farmer).

The author manages to bring together varying points of view about the community, the ecological fabric (that touches all of them and eventually brings families, lovers and neighbors together) and about sheer personal growth and development. Her research is so complete that I found I learned a great deal more about how fragile our natural world is and how much we as human beings have to do with that fragility and its continued survival. Her characters are believable, and they struggle with their hearts in a variety of ways - all eventually reaching for what is right for them. I suppose that was what I so loved about the book. So many people make life decisions to suit others or per what others might like or think. Kingsolver's characters tackle the life questions and finally decide what is best for them, which is almost always the hardest route to take. This was a sexy, funny, tender, and all around tremendously rich and satisfying novel.

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Summary: Kingsolver's best since Animal Dreams
Review: Am I the only Kingsolver fan who found Poisonwood Bible to be a disappointing, heavyhanded departure from the humor and gentle social commentary we'd all discovered with delighted surprise in The Bean Trees? I still think that her first novel is her best, but I was glad to find her returning to her roots in Prodigal Summer, a simply plotted, well-written novel with the procreative forces of nature at its core. Rather than preach unilaterally about environmental issues, Kingsolver explores many sides of the issues with her cast of characters which are all more complex than at first they appear. Particularly enjoyable are the two elderly neighbors who represent opposite ends of the environmental spectrum and hurl verbal abuse at each other throughout the book, but at the end discover some common ground, even while neither comes close to converting the other. Likewise, the farmer's widow and passionate environmentalist gets her come-uppance with a rapacious patch of honeysuckle, while the coyote-killing hunter treads through the novel with surprising dignity and self-knowledge. Kingsolver weaves serious exploration and description of environmental issues into her prose with a great deal of grace, even if the result is not completely seamless. Whereas by the time I finished Poisonwood Bible, I was rooting for the bad guys (i.e., Rachel) simply to get some relief from the rest of the insufferable prigs I was obliged to tolerate, Prodigal Summer had me finding good and bad within each individual character, and the need to take sides was eliminated. And this, mind you, from a fast-food-eating, fossil-fuel-burning, bug-killing reviewer.

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Summary: My new favorite novel!
Review: This book was so amazing it had me hooked from the first word! Kingsolver is a master, as she has perfected the art of imagery. For those of you who thrive on an action packed storyline this book is not for you. But for people like me who enjoy the art of good writing, where the author can make you smell the scents of the forest after a rainfall and where a world of human emotion is laid out at your fingertips, this book will be cherished. I recommend it with all my heart.

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Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: Boring, pedantic, This woman can not write worth a damn.

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Summary: disappointing
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "Poisonwood Bible," however I found this book disappointingly formulaic. Similar to another reviewer, I predicted all the outcomes of the book because they were so blatantly obvious. Characters, events, and dialog were far too precious. It's always nice to learn something new but the presentation of ecological lessons and our place on the earth in this novel was so preachy that I wanted to throw the book in the dustbin. All in all, it's a decent read but anyone expecting a book as good as any of her earlier ones will be disappointed.

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Summary: A Solid Effort
Review: Kingsolver's latest, although perhaps not as successful as some of her prior efforts, effectively uses its storylines to explore some of the issues that confront humanity as we grapple with the architecture of an appropriate relationship to the "natural world." Its biggest drawback, even for a sympathizer like myself, is its tendency toward one-sided preachiness which can be something of an annoyance. Far better in this regard, is a novel like Rand Johnson's Arcadia Falls, where the "green" message is delivered in a more nuanced and organic manner as a natural outgrowth of a moving story. Overall, though, a worthwhile read.

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Summary: Kingsolver is the best writer on the planet
Review: I approached "Prodigal Summer" wondering if any book could be as good as Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible." This is as rich and satisfying and so different I marvel at the depth of the author's talent and skill. The characters are so well-drawn you would recognize them if you saw them on street (and half expect to, they're so real). As with "Poisonwood" Kingsolover tells the story through the eyes of several characters, and has perfected this technique, providing each with a distinct and unique voice. Set in the area in and around Zebulon National Forest over one long summer, we follow three intertwined stories: Deanna Wolfe, a wildlife biologist, and her unlikely affair with her intellectual opposite - Eddie Bondo; Lusa Maluf Landowski, who fears she will never be accepted by her husband's farming family, whose post-doctoral education is as foreign to them as her Arabic name; and Garnett Walker, whose long-running feud with Nannie Rawley provides some of the most comical moments in the book. Kingsolver's depth of study in biology and natural science brings the setting to life with incredible detail.

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Summary: A Subtle, Thought-Provoking Tale of Human Behavior
Review: Barbara Kingsolver has once again written a lush, three-dimensional story that is thought-provoking yet subtle. While "Prodigal Summer" isn't as outwardly mind-blowing as "The Poisonwood Bible," it is a quieter novel that succeeds in haunting its readers with well-developed, down-to-earth characters and settings that are comfortingly familiar to American readers (even city dwellers can easily conjure Kingsolver's homespun farm scenes and damp woodland locales). The author uses themes that are easily relatable - the anxiety of trying to "fit in," loneliness, plotting one's life - while interspersing the story with interesting technical aspects (I now know about the mating habits of coyotes and moths - who knew I would ever find such subjects as interesting as Kingsolver has made them!). As in her previous books, her research is impeccable, her writing evocative, crystal clear and flawless. True to her style, she creates characters and situations that are seemingly unrelated, but all loose strings tie up (more or less) neatly in the end. "Prodigal Summer" is Kingsolver's most easy-to-predict novel, however, it is a beautiful study of human and animal behavior and should not be missed!