Rating: 
Summary: Predictability
Review: As soon as I got past the first few chapters (which I enjoyed) I realized this was no match for Poisonwood Bible. While it sets a steamy mood--with sex and the climate--the predictability sets in and the characters get boring. After a while nobody and no situation seemed real. The characters were all unidimensional. The sweet smart environmentalists (and I am one!) and the otherwise nice but sadly deluded "others". Some of the dialog sounded like it came off a campaign flyer or a Darwin special on PBS. A sadly disappointing book.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb Storytelling
Review: Reading this book is like sinking into steamy, warm bath. You become immersed in the pleasure of it, and your mind becomes thoroughly and almost unconsciously absorbed in the experience. The day I picked it up I wasn't even interested in reading. The next thing I knew, I was on page 80. The novel consists of the stories of three groups of people, told in the third person and in alternating chapters. The first is about a fortyish, female forest-ranger, living in the woods, clearing paths, observing nature, and excited by her discovery that coyotes have come to the area. Her solitude is interrupted by a youngish fellow with whom she develops a relationship. The next is of a young widow, living on her husband's farm with her in-laws, and unsure of how to deal with the fact that she is now the owner of it all. The last is about an older farmer, set in his ways, and his somewhat cantankerous relationship with his neighbor, a new-fangled modern woman, in his eyes, who he perceives as having foolish ideas about farming. Yes, it's all very rural, taking place in the western, hilly part of Virginia, I think, and if you love books about farming, nature and animals--both wild and tame--you will absolutely love this. The forest-ranger tells us of predators and their role in nature, and observes and comments on all of the beasts and birds that inhabit--or formerly inhabited--her little mountainy corner of the world. From the widow--trained in the big city as an entomologist--we learn about the insects and moths on her farm, and also farming itself, which means deciding which crops will sell, or which livestock will sell, or not sell, etc. From the old man and his nemessis we learn about similar things, but these two seem to function more as the Greek chorus of the novel, debating with one another life's philosphies as they relate to dirt farming. As interesting as this is, a novel itself lives or dies with the human stories, and this one succeeds brilliantly. Every single one of these stories is hugely compelling. It is the kind of book in which you find you are disappointed when a chapter ends, only to become totally engrossed two pages into the next. Ms. Kingsolver is particularly gifted with dialogue. Not only is she able to advance plot and character through it, she is also able bring out the hidden nuances and subtleties inherent in all spoken language. A clever, delightful tension is created as we learn things about her characters that they themselves may not wish to reveal, or may not even know about themselves. I particularly liked those between Lusa, the young widow, and her 17-year old brother-in-law. Lusa emerges as responsible, educated, and a little vulnerable; the young man emerges as kindly and strong, but also very young, and very rural. These characterizations are perfect, but not terribly more so than the others, all of which are done extremely well. Of course the nature business serves as a perfect metaphor for these lives, as it can hardly help doing; all of us being part of it. As the book goes on we realize that the characters in it are related to one another more so than is initially apparent, and this emerges as the central theme: we are all of us a part of each other, a part of nature, and all that we do has an effect on it. Whether it be shooting some animal or simply failing to write a thank-you note to the next door neighbor, our actions have meaning. I will admit to being a little put off by the one-sided nature of Ms. Kingsolver's discourse. Okay, shooting predatory animals and using pesticides is bad, but couldn't we at least get a glimpse of what the counter argument might be? And isn't it just a bit manipulative to show us that the organic farmer's apples are the biggest in twelve counties (or something), and that the goat-farming woman who stands to lose the most by a coyote invasion doesn't seem to mind? But these are small criticisms. The book is so wonderful in just about every other respect that I will gladly overlook this. It is a novel that really has everything and is an absolute joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Enough already!
Review: Barbara Kinsolver is a good writer. I loved Poisonwood Bible. This book started out well, but got tedious fairly soon. I found I was annoyed with the characters and getting predator prey relationship and pesticide lessons jammed down my throat. Yes, yes, nature is a beautiful web of life, etc. etc. Don't environmentalists know that they alienate as many as they convert with the lessons they stridently proclaim? This preaching annoyed me to the point that the whole book was just an irritating experience. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling!
Review: While not a true Kingsolver fan, I am rapidly becomming one! After reading Poisonwood Bible and enjoying it, I read this and absolutely loved it. What I didn't know about ecology, coyotes and moths could fill volumes. I really enjoyed the characters and their interwoven stories and learned so much about the delicate balance of nature. I would recommend this book to anyone without hesitation. It was absolutely wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened?
Review: I wrote a lengthy review of this book several weeks ago which has not appeared. Some reviews dated later than mine have appeared. What happened to my review?
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: For those of you who have read this book and feel you should read it again - or WANT to read it again - please try the audio version read by the author. Her gentle Southern accent is wonderful to listen to! If you haven't read it, look for the tapes - it is a great book to "hear".
Rating:
Summary: A Learning Experience
Review: I was disappointed in "Poisonwood Bible" and almost didn't bother w/"Prodigal Summer." It is fortunate that I didn't pass up the opportunity. This was a great book and the author's talent for description makes you feel as if you are right there. I could picture Nanny Rawley's orchard, Deanna's isolated cabin and Lusa's overbearing extended family very clearly. The three stories all taught me something about how interdependent nature is and like a great novel should, left me with a lot to think about. I think what I liked about this book is that the characters were all likeable, even gruff Garnett. I didn't find that to be true of the characters in Poisonwood. This was one of those I couldn't put down.
Rating:
Summary: Barbara's always a great read
Review: Ms. Kingsolver is a wonderful author and I always enjoy her works. One thing I like to do is to contrast different authors and their works. FYI, I just finished reading Homer Hickam's October Sky and The Coalwood Way and found them as thoroughly entertaining as this book and very much in the same genre although Hickam's books are memoirs. If so, they're written like the best novels and are real page-turners, too. Another writer who falls into a similar genre is Jan Karon although her tales are a bit simple and the characters fairly shallow in comparison to Kingsolver and Hickam. I often find myself putting her books down, not to pick them up again.
Rating:
Summary: It Means So Much More
Review: I loved this book. Loved it. Like her other books, this book has what's on the surface, and it is so much deeper than that. It is about love, animal instincts, and family. She's an excellent writer who can make prose as beautiful as poetry. You can see the beauty of the mountains and farmland of Souther Appilacia. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Sex, Sex, Sex
Review: The Prothalamium, or song raised to connubial love, which introduces the book, prepares the reader to be lectured on the attraction of the genders all the way from the insect world, through the animal kingdom, climaxing (pun intended)with the human protagonists. Kingsolver uses her background in biology to point out the similiarities between all species in nature. She weaves three tales together, tying them up together in the end rather too neatly for this reader. The author describes a summer that is indeed lavish to the point of prodigality. Spring is literally "bursting out all over," in this story as fruits and vegetables grow with reckless abandon, coyotes, goats, birds, and even one protagonist succumbs to this fecund summer. She gives at least two of her characters lines such as, "You are attracted to me because I am fertile and my pheramones are calling to you." The author never misses a chance to ascend her particular soapbox(es)and in this tale takes on smoking, government subsidies, pesticide use, racism, and even religion. IShe simplifies religion to a child in the book, by explaining that all religions believe in the same God, but just disagree over "which son did or did not inherit the family goods." One of my favorite lines though was one she used in describing rampant nature's tendency to creat chaos out of order: "Nature is an uncle with a drinking problem... You have to persuade it two steps back every day or it will move in and take you over." As one of her characters says, "In all her life Lusa had never seen such an oversexed muggy summer. The same might be said of the book. Kingsolver's imagination was certainly fertile in this one.
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