Rating: 
Summary: Way better than Poisonwood Bible
Review: From the first to the last word, Kingsolver keeps you enthralled. You learn more about moths, birds, nature than you think you would from just a novel. And she entertwines the main characters beautifully ~~ making sure that you know just how important the characters are to each other, just as how the animals and insects need each other in order to survive. This novel is much more interesting than Poisonwood Bible (though I liked that one too!)and you can relate to the characters a little more realistically.If you like birds, animals, insects or are environmentally-conscious, I highly recommend this book. It gives a fresh outlook on the ecological system in the midst of the Appalachian mountains. While reading this book, I long for the winter snows to be over so I can camp out in the midst of the woods in southeastern Ohio and listen for the birds' return. Once again, Kingsolver produces a lyrical read ~~ and keeps you on tenderhooks till she wraps up the ending. It's a great book to read by the fireplace while it's snowing outside. And it's a great book to share with your friends.
Rating: 
Summary: I want a refund!
Review: As someone who has enjoyed all of Barbara Kingsolver's previous works, I was terribly disappointed with this novel. It was pulp romance meets Greenpeace, and if forest-service shirts were lace-ups, I would call it a bodice-ripper. The plot was predictable, the sex was smarmy, the relationships were sentimental, and the environmentalism was pedantic. The worst of all worlds. Kingsolver has always tended to fall into sentamentalism, but other aspects of her books have always made her novels worthwhile. This was just embarrassing.Next time she publishes a book, I'll get it from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Be careful of the hidden messages in this work.
Review: Barbara Kingsolver writes an OK book with some serious man bashing sub-plots. You will notice that all the men in the book are overbearing, worthless or dead. In fact the man who impregnates the lead character is nothing but a fling for the woman who is superior in all ways and can easily raise a kid with no men at all. This author really attacks white males with a vengence. It is all part of the popular subculture to say everything a white male does is wrong.
Rating:
Summary: My only disappointment... that the book came to an end.
Review: I'm sorry to see so many negative reviews of this book that I absolutely loved so much that I would get up at 2 in the morning to read it. The characters were complex and flawed and human, and I loved them all. The stories were interweaved on many levels in beautiful ways. And I learned an immense amount about nature and cycles and the eco-system while actually enjoying getting the education. I also loved Kingsolvers's earlier "Bean Trees," "Pigs in Heaven," and "Poisonwood Bible," but this one is my favorite because I related to it on such a personal level. I would recommend this book to everyone, but I think women over the age of 30 would get the most out of it.
Rating:
Summary: great reading
Review: Treat yourself to a marvelous time escaping into a great story!
Rating:
Summary: A huge disappointment!
Review: The Poisonwood Bible was my first exposure to Barbara Kingsolver, and immediately after reading it I decided she was now my favorite author. I then read everything else she had written before Poisonwood and was not disappointed. So it was with great anticipation that I purchased this novel and settled down to read it. What a chore that was. ZZzzzzzzz. While her past novels all had important messages on the environment, racism, materialism, etc. woven into them, Kingsolver's earlier stories were engaging, with strong believable characters. No one could fault the author for her passionate views. However, while reading Prodigal Summer, I felt like I was being force fed a lesson on the ecosystem--thinly disguised as a novel. Throw in a few sex scenes and maybe the readers won't realize they're being preached to about organic farming, save the bugs, save the coyotes, save the snakes, blah, blah, blah. I wanted a novel, not a science book.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book by a talented writer
Review: I enjoyed reading Prodigal Summer as I knew I would. I've read all of Kingsolver's books and think she is wonderful. I didn't think some of this book rung as true as her other novels. I liked Garnett and could really relate to him, maybe because my father was a farmer, but Deanna just didn't seem real. And how did she get pregnant with all the condoms Eddie brought with him? I hope that readers learned more of the interrelatedness of life by reading the novel. I still like The Bean Trees or Animal Dreams much better.
Rating:
Summary: Savor this book
Review: My only exposure to Kingsolver was Poisonwood Bible -- which I generally liked, but felt sometimes could have been called "Little Women Go the Africa." This book is one of the most sensuous I can ever remember reading. The prose is as succulent as a ripe plum. I am NOT a nature lover ... more like Woody Allen, who said "nature is what I have to walk through to get to my car" ... yet the vivid observations on flora, fauna and that other earthy f-word captivated me.
Rating:
Summary: Prodigal Summer---Reality at its fictitious best!
Review: Prodigal Summer, the new novel by Barbara Kingsolver, is a brilliant depiction of the troubles facing the modern farm system and the ecological world as a whole. Kingsolver introduces a diverse array of characters ranging from the coyote tracking National Park Ranger, to the multi-cultured entomologist in order to paint a picture of a small farming town. As in The Poisonwood Bible, she uses historical and ecological facts to bring together a story that is enlightening as well as entertaining. It is a must read for anyone who is concerned about the future of the small farm and our ecological system.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best of this year
Review: This new book by Barbara Kingsolver has a definite place in my list of the top 5 novels of this year. It consists of three interlocked tales set in the Appalachians. However, there are consistent themes running throughout all the stories, as tricky and cunning as the coyotes that roam invisibly into each of these character's lives. The community of Zebulon County is very closely knit, with each protagonist distantly related to the others. It is also, in a sense, a community that is dying. Farming has thrived for generations in the locale, but now sons are having a much harder time than ever their fathers had on the same land. Migration to outlying prosperous towns and cities seems ever more attractive to the local population. As one species seems to pause and move on, however, another is quick to move in. Deanna Wolfe lives in the forest, a biologist by training. She is quick to spot that a small troupe of coyotes has moved into the area. This reflects an unusual trend: despite the coyote being the most hunted animal in the United States, its population has increased. However, Deanna falls prey to the handsome Eddie Bondo, a real hunter. Her attraction to him is at odds with her desire to protect the coyote. Eddie comes from the sheep ranches of Wyoming, and he regards the coyote as his enemy. Almost despite herself, Deanna feels the necessity to act on her own animal needs. Lusa Maluf Landowski is also a biologist. She has been brought to Zebulon by her marriage to one of the local farmers. Her life is not exactly idyllic, but it's soon to be shattered. She's left with the choice of having to stay on her land or go. Although both her parents were brought up on farms, Lusa knows very little about the practicalities of running her own. However, Lusa has a Jewish and Arab bloodline, and at one telling moment, she reveals how both her families had been run off their farms in the past: once because they were Jewish, and once because they were not. She has to struggle to make a living, guided greatly by a young nephew who's flushed with adolescent hormones. Garnett Walker conducts a daily battle to restore the American Chestnut, commonly thought of as dead due to the blight. He wants to restore the landscape to the one that his father and grandfather knew and built. However, God has given him a cross to bear by granting him Nannie Crawley as a neighbour. Nannie is the local champion of organic farming, and her bid to avoid any drop of herbicide or insecticide touching her apples drives Garnett mad. These neighbours are also fiercely divided in their respective attitudes towards God, but there's always the most implacable of snapping turtles there that seems destined to clamp these two old folk together. In her depiction of forest life, Barbara Kingsolver reminds you of Edward Rutherfurd's glorious novel of this year, 'The Forest', especially in the portrait of a community where everyone seems distantly related to each other. The last section is also reminiscent of Rutherfurd's passages concerning the New Forest's other inhabitants. There's also a great love of apples and bees, something that Joanne Harris dwells on at depth in her novel 'Blackberry Wine'. However, I suspect that Kingsolver would not share Harries' dislike of wasps. For her, the predator is king. A spider is not something to be stepped upon lightly; sharks and wolves should not be hunted to extinction, since this reckless slaughter mucks up the whole ecosystem. Kingsolver throws into the debate contemporary thinking on keystone predators, parasitic hymenoptera, and reveals old truths, like the pituitary gland that used to make women fertile as they slept under the full moon in the ancient depths of time. I found Kingsolver's introduction to be compelling reading. It's also great that you can access Kingsolver's source materials. I was thrilled to find Mike Finkel's article about the coyote. To my mind, this makes 'Prodigal Summer' ones of those ideal novels where you learn a great deal, but are also gripped by the various narrative twists and turns. Some of the fiction that has involved me recently has featured the natural world, whether it be the bugs of Neal Asher's science fiction, or the contemporary human stories that is Kingsolver's fodder. Kingsolver is a natural storyteller in more ways than one. Kingsolver follows the general advice of writing what she knows. She lives in the Appalachians, and is a biologist by training. She also has a very liberal outlook, which I find especially affirming. However, this novel could be quite controversial. The genetic versus organic farming debate hasn't really hit the States as yet, but this popular novel could quite well spark it off. It's also a theme that is hugely topical in my native Britain at the moment. What makes Kingsolver so compelling, however, is her research and knowledge. Although I'm pretty much converted to eating organic, Kingsolver has much that is new to say to me too. She's certainly made me look at spiders in a whole new perspective and respect. Barbara Kingsolver could cure your phobias too. Certainly, if the world were run her way, I suspect we'd all have fewer allergies. We'd certainly build more bridges between each other. At the very least, this is an incredible life-affirming novel that deserves to become the keystone predator of any current book chart.
|
