Prodigal Summer: A Novel
by Barbara Kingsolver

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Book Reviews of Prodigal Summer: A Novel

Book Review: "Every choice is a world made new for the chosen."
Summary: 4 Stars

The beauty of Prodigal Summer, and of Kingsolver's writing in general, is the way in which she creates rich, complex, characters that the reader cannot help caring about. Here we meet Deanna, a Forest Service ranger living a solitary existence in a primitive cabin in the mountains. Her life experiences have taught her to be distrustful of men, and she feels at home in the wilderness with all of natures creatures as her companions, whom it is her responsibility to monitor and protect. She is especially fond of the coyotes, a predator that she feels a responsibility to protect from the ignorant poachers who mistakenly believe they are ridding the area of a threat to farming life. She is joined early in the novel by Eddie, a wandering coyote hunter twenty years her junior, and the ensuing love affair is more at the same time a passionate romance and a battle of wills.

Just a few miles away, we come to know Lusa, a city girl who has married into the conservative, traditional Widener farming family. She quickly finds herself widowed and living on the family's land, now her own. As she struggles with her grief and with the ghosts that visit her home, she also fights to win the respect of a family that has always viewed her as an outsider.

Last we have Garnett, a crusty old curmudgeon, set in his ways after 80 years and hardened by the loss of his wife and his failures as a father. He is quietly obsessed with saving the quickly disappearing chestnut trees on his property, in such a way that one feels he is perhaps trying to leave one last legacy of his time on the earth, coming soon to an end. His neighbor and foil, a free-spirited naturalist named Nannie, is a constant thorn in the side of this "God-fearing, sanctimonious old fart," as she might call him. And yet underlying their neighborly conflicts is a respect and admiration that transcends the pettiness of their quarrels.

These thumbnail sketches do not come close to describing the complexity and beauty of each of these characters. Each is incredibly human in his or her own way, with hopes and dreams, fears and insecurities, failings and weaknesses.

And then there is Nature, that ever-present element that Kingsolver elevates to the level of a main character. Here her degree in biology and her extensive research are evident. She beautifully weaves her descriptions of the Appalachian environment into her narrative, and seamlessly injects a moral message without seeming overbearing. One cannot walk away from this novel without recognizing how truly interdependent our world is - how each creature, large or small, plays its own important role. This theme of connectivity, elegant and thoughtful in its own right, serves also as a complement to the eventual connectivity that unfolds between the novel's seemingly isolated main characters. As Kingsolver so eloquently puts it, "Every choice is a world made new for the chosen." Each step, both figurative and literal, that we take in life will affect countless other creatures around us. And that message, in the end, is what makes this not just a beautiful novel but also a profound and important work.

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• Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction
• United States