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Summary: get it? WHACK? Okay, how about now?
Review: As a reader who loved the Poisonwood Bible, I was very disappointed by this book.Altough I agree with the messages in the book, I found it to be preachy and heavyhanded. I agree with other reviewers who found the characters shallow and the writing simple. As for the romantic moments in the story--bizzarre, and not in a good way. My impression of this book was that it was written quicky to fulfill a contract, or written early in the writer's career and shoved in a drawer until it was dusted off to ride on the success of the Poisonwood Bible. It certainly is a contrast to that book, which seemed to have alot of time, research and thought behind it.
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Summary: A complex, magical web
Review: Prodigal Summer is the third Kingsolver novel I've read, and I plan to keep following this talented author. This novel presents a rich, complex set of stories centered around the premise that all life is interconnected and important. Creating intensely interesting and complex characters, the author develops both her characters and her story lines within the tightly-woven matrix that is man's - and especially woman's - relationship to nature. We delve into the minds of these people, get to know them and understand how they think, how their environment affects them and how they affect their surroundings. A wonderful read with the hint of a possible sequel. I can hardly wait!
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Summary: Her Best Work Yet
Review: I am an avid reader of Barbara Kingsolver, I own all of her books. I was not entirely pleased with Kingsolver's last book, The Poisonwood Bible and had high hopes that this new book would take me back to the style of Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. I could hardly wait for Prodigal Summer to arrive so I could delve right in. Once I started the book, I could not put it down. I loved the style of rotating between the lives of each of the characters. This book fulfilled and exceded my hopes. I fell in love with the characters and did not want Prodigal Summer to end. I was also mesmerized by Kingsolver's references to the environment and the way she intertwined human life with those of animals and plants. I feel this book is the best one Barbara Kingsolver has ever written. I highly reccomend Prodigal Summer.
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Summary: Barbara Kingsolver touches my heart again
Review: After devouring the Poisonwood Bible I couldn't wait to get a copy of this book, in fact I skipped out of work early to get to the book store. I was absolutely thrilled with this book and have recommended it a dozen times since. Barbara writes about women that I can relate to - the not so always 'happy' thoughts - real and conflicting, sometimes dark and fearful-yet strong, strong women. Her visuals of nature have given me a new eye to look, really see and enjoy the critters and the land around me - amazing how the busy lives we lead keep us from the beauty in our own backyard. I will continue to look for new books by Kingsolver - Enjoy!
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Summary: I agree with "preachy"
Review: I am a Kingsolver fan from way back but I found this book annoying. She climbed up on her soapbox on the first page and never got down. I felt like the book was nothing more than her personal views on women and the environment poorly disguised as fiction. I must add that the whole Deanna/Eddie Bondo relationship was rediculous. We are supposed to believe that this forty-something woman is so out of touch with civilization that she never looks in a mirror (nor bathes, that I could tell) or listens to the radio. Yet she is wildly attractive to a 28 year old "Adonis". I don't think so. Being an environmentalist too, I appreciate Kingsolver's attempt to be an advocate through her medium. However, I'm looking for something else (like a real story) in my leisure time reading.
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Summary: A trip back to Kentucky
Review: For each person the reading of a book is a personal experience. I picked up Prodigal Summer when my Mom asked me to read it and attend her bookclub for her, as she was ill. I only got through the first third of the book before the club met. I listened to a group of older readers from a New Jersey suburb say how they liked it, but the "bugs" made them itchy. I witheld my comments until the end. For me this book gave an opportunity to suddenly be back in places I had not thougth of for thirty years. Although only a sentence, I found myself standing in the Agricultural Entomology building, experiencing the smells and seeing the hallways etc. Ditto for Euclid Avenue. I spent five years in Lexington with many trips to the East and her descriptive text sets the scene so well, I really was there again! Her characters are very real. In 1975, I visited Eastern Kentucky and dear friends on a farm. The retired farmhand looked my English husband up and down and pronounced "Funny thing, them foreigners look just like us!". It could have come from anyone in this book. The retired vo ag teacher also touched a nerve - I qualified as a vo ag teacher and as "THE woman amoung men" he certainly fit the bill! I really was sorry to reach the end - not something I say about many books. Even the bug hating ladies in New Jersey enjoyed it, so I would recommend it to anyone - expecially those with University of Kentucky links!
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Summary: Preachy
Review: Kingsolver has gotten more and more preachy with each book, and finally crossed the limit for me with this one. She also implied that all women are in touch with the earth and are trying to save the planet, while all men are scum and trying to destroy it. The characters and the plot were predictable. Give this one a miss.
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Summary: Her most erotic book
Review: I know that most of the Kingsolver fans will prefer the more complexly plotted The Poisonwood Bible, but I've got to tell you that Prodigal Summer is my favorite of her books. The writing is lush, lyrical, and music to my ears. Yes, I know her character of Deanna was probably too stereotypic and that the plot was close to that of the lesser "The Loop" but the real character in this book is the rush and passion of nature, the spring that bursts forth after a harsh winter, the summer lull into an acceptance of ourselves, pregnant now with new possibilities. The book was sheer delight to me.
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Summary: Loved Prodigal Summer!
Review: It just goes to show you can't please everyone! Some have accused Barbara Kingsolver of being "formulaic" in her prose in Prodigal Summer, while someone else thinks she's trying to be "Dickensian." I've read some early Kingsolver (The Bean Trees, Pigs In Heaven) and now Prodigal Summer. As much as I enjoyed the first two, they didn't compare to Prodigal Summer. Her writing is so much more vivid and lushly detailed in this book, her characters more realistic, less "quirky" or on the fringe. This is an intricately woven piece with three stories being alternately told. "Predators" is about Deanna, a 40ish forest ranger living on an Appalachian mountain for two years, protecting wildlife from hunters. When she encounters a young bounty hunter, Eddie Bondo, who has come in search of the very coyotes she is protecting, she must reevaluate her beliefs and try to influence his. "Moth Love" is about a city-raised insect researcher who marries into a farm family that doesn't accept her. Tragically widowed, she must decide what direction she wants her life to take. The third story, "Old Chestnuts," is about two elderly feuding neighbors: Garnett, an old man who is trying to grow blight-resistant chestnut trees, and Nannie Rawley, an old woman known for her refusal to use pesticides on anything on her property. The novel's focus is on the natural world, and how and why we fit into it. It is a thought-provoking book, beautifully written. It's one I know I'll reread soon, hoping to make Kingsolver's connections about humans and the biological world all the clearer. Kingsolver has not gone downhill at all; she's woven a tapestry out of three stories using nature, rich,fertile, and delicate, as its thread.
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Summary: too nice to be true
Review: In a way, it is a wonderful book, all about nature an women and how everything falls in place in the end for everyone, even for the coyotes, the women ovulate with the full moon, a woman past forty chooses to wear her hair long, (as if there was anything to choose for most of us). But the story lacks conflict. Reading through the first pages I got prepared for big trouble between the hunter and the 'she-wolf' about the animals. But the tension soon dissolved without leaving trace. As any other potential conflict, it just disappeared. Many many pages of clever dialogues revealing a very keen interest in people, the way they react and feel, the ironic side of things. But the novel as a whole lacks density, interest. Sometimes I think, if only modern writers would not think they have to write novels with Dickensian dimensions all the time. If they can, all right, but sometimes a shorter text can be much more intense and interesting.
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