2020 Book Review #16:Prodigal Summer

What a literary gem.

If you're familiar at all with Kingsolver's award-winning novel The Poisonwood Bible, then here is another one of hers that Ive been totally immersed in for the last couple of weeks.  This is my 3rd novel by this author.  She has written several.

STORY SUMMARY

Deanna Wolfe, single, is woman in her late 40s and is a wildlife biologist, who works for the federal Forest Service in southern Appalachia in Zebulon County.  She's been alone in a small, remote cabin up on Zebulon Mountain for two years.  One day she is caught off-guard by a younger man in his late 20s.  He appears to be a hunter and his name is Eddie Bondo. He comes from a large sheep ranch in Wyoming.  He is here in the southern Appalachian mountains to hunt for coyotes.  Deanna has made it her life's work to study coyotes, among other elements of nature/animals. In fact, her thesis was about coyotes.  Eddie Bondo is about to get his outlook on life changed....and Deanna's life will never be the same once she begins a friendship with Eddie.

Meanwhile, a few miles down the mountain lies a ranch.  Most of the crop grown there over the last hundred years has been tobacco.  Lusa Landowski is a city girl who loves books.  She studies the life of moths and other bugs.  She is married to Cole Widener who inherited the family farm and has many older sisters who all have families of their own. They are very tight-knit and all live in the same town. No one really takes to Lusa as she is "too different" for them:  city-smart, part  Polish-Jew and part Arab, and doesn't even take her husband's last name!  She is a very kind girl in her late 20s yet is shunned by Cole's sisters and many of the husband's. One day tragedy strikes, and Lusa is left a widow.  Along with her new found grief, she must decide if Zebulon County is going to be her home.....or if she should give up the farm.  She has a strange attachment to this land however......and begins to see things in a different light when Cole's older sister Jewel confesses that her cancer is at the point of never getting better......Lusa would like to adopt Chrystal and Lowell, Jewel's young children.  What will Lusa decide to do with the land??  

And even further down the road, lives Garnett Walker, Sr an elderly gentleman farmer who takes care of his chestnut trees which are practically extinct.  He prides himself on the latest methods of gardening even if it means using dangerous pesticides and harming other things in nature. He's in a constant feud with his elderly female neighbor Nannie Rawley who has the best apple orchards in town yet uses no pesticides nor does she believe in them. They argue about God, pesticides, and the various ways the world has changed as they've aged, yet they have a secret admiration of one another and each other's farms.

During one hot and humid summer, and while everything is procreating in nature and the lush green countryside, each character finds that they are somehow related to one another or connected to one another. They all discover things among the flora and fauna that show that the circle of life continues no matter what and that humans and other forms of nature indeed are connected.

MY THOUGHTS

There are 3 main stories in this book and all of them intricately connect.  The book has several characters but 4 main ones:  Deanna, Lusa, Nannie, and Garnett. 

Each character has a different  chapter.  Two of the characters (Nannie and Garnett share a chapter).  The chapters are divided into different titles:  Predators (for Deanna and Eddie), Moth Love (for Lusa), Old Chestnuts (for Nannie and Garnett).

This book is truly a gem.  The end papers are printed with all different varieties of moths and bugs and are exquisite.  (I wish I owned the book but I borrowed it from a colleague at work).  Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors for weaving conversation along with deep narrative descriptions.

The novel is one to linger over.  It's definitely a draw to anyone who loves nature/creation/mountains.

The main themes in this novel seem to be:  ecological principles/taking care of nature; love, loss, life and human connections as well as connections to the natural world;  a book about spirituality and passion.

The book also touches on addictions, family dysfunction, cancer, single parenthood, widowhood, and the loss of a child with special needs.

The last chapter will blow your mind.  It's deep....it's important....it's brilliant.

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.