Prodigal Summer (Barbara Kingsolver) Chapters 1-7

The first chapter could almost stand as a short story in itself, despite the somewhat cliff-hanger nature of the final paragraph.  Upon reading some of the reviews of Kingsolver’s books, I noticed several references to the beauty of her writing, comments by readers who would go back and re-read a paragraph or a page just to enjoy the prose again, and remarks upon her ability to create a palpable atmosphere or ambience in her writing.  I was very much looking forward to this aspect, which is a major reason I admire any writer, and yes, there are some very nice turns of phrase, elegant descriptive passages and so on.  The dialog is excellent, describing the characters well, along with some revealing, though non-obtrusive subtext.  The pace is somewhat slow, but that’s natural to the character of this kind of story; we get hints that the tension is going to build rather steeply later on.

The author is showing us how and why it isn’t really all that unusual or strange for two characters such as Deanna and Eddie, in these kinds of circumstances, to fall very quickly into a physical relationship as they do.  Sometimes, things really do happen that fast between reasonably level-headed people.  “It occurred to Deanna that she was in deep.”  Indeed, especially when it dawns on her that the reason Eddie is in the area in the first place is to kill her adored coyotes.  This would have made a rather disconcerting, Hemingway-ish ending to a short story, come to think of it…

At one point I finally tripped over the key passage that slammed home the truth to me that this is a writer of true brilliance.  (Maybe I should go back and start from the beginning!)  The four paragraphs starting halfway down page 60 in my edition (beginning with, ‘A little farther on, where the trail crossed a clearing and, most likely, other animal trails, she found his [the coyote’s] scat.’ and ending with, ‘”You rascal,” she said aloud, laughing.  “You magnificent son of a b****.  You’ve been spying on me.”’) is a fascinating little mini-seminar on scatology; the “forensics of poop,” if you will.  (I like the reference to a male coyote as a “son of a b****.”  Pun intended?)  The technical detail combined with a human interest in natural science brings to mind the Jean Auel “Earth’s Children Series” of books, starting with “Clan of the Cave Bear.”  This is serious reading, but well worth the effort.

This is one of those stories that has more than one alternating thread.  There are three, in fact.  The novelty here is that each thread uses the same chapter title each time it resumes, as if we have three long chapters entitled, “Predators,” “Moth Love” and “Old Chestnuts” that have been segmented and shuffled like a deck cards, (only not at all randomly).  They all share a common setting and, presumably, characters, and we suspect will come together sooner than later and affect one another in interesting ways.

The “Old Chestnuts” thread has been given little exposure as of yet, but has provided the most humor, understated as it is.  The situation of an elderly man, trudging through a slightly swampy weed overgrown hollow and thinking he’s had a stroke because one leg feels sluggish, only to find that he has become latched onto by a large snapping turtle (also referred to as “monster” and “dinosaur”) is a vividly comic contrast to the death and funeral of Lusa’s husband in the “Moth Love” thread.  I love humor in a story as much as most people, but the depth and gravity of the rest of the writing almost makes it seem out of place here.  Not complaining! I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to finally read Barbara Kingsolver!

 

  

Next Week:  Chapters 8-14
Week 3:  Chapters 15-19
Week 4:  Chapters 20-31