State of Wonder

Novel by Ann Patchett

I know, I know...I said I was going to read some young adult historical fiction next, to prepare for a class I'm teaching. But I had this Amazon gift card burning a hole in my...account. So I had to check out Ann Patchett's newest, and I am oh-so glad I did. I couldn't put this one down.  By now you know I am kind of a softie. I've read books I haven't liked but none that I couldn't find at least something nice to say about. But this one, oh, I'm not just being nice. I'm ready to go check out all her other books because I loved this one, and the last one I read (Bel Canto) so much.

So State of Wonder is about a pharmaceutical researcher who goes to the Amazon to find a colleague who didn't return from a visit to their lead field researcher there, who hasn't reported on her findings in 10 years. Dr. Marina Singh goes to Manaus, Brazil and then the heart of the Amazon jungle and encounters a chivalrous chauffeur, a pair of Australian bohemians, a deaf native child, a stoic and icy research doctor, a fascinating tribe, and several other colleagues of interest. Oh, and a modern medical miracle or two. The cast of characters is as intricately woven as the plot and the vines of the jungle. This novel so greatly resembled a dense ecosystem that it reminded me that's what I thought about Bel Canto : this book is not only about an opera singer, but it's like an opera in its richness and high and low notes. Both books just resonate their subject matter. They use just the right amount of words and just the right words; they are both spare and poetic. It's masterful. My only complaint is that the ending is too sudden, too unexpected, too unsettling. But maybe that's just because I read it so quickly.

Patchett's books also make me think about some controversial issues in them. This one questions some of the practices of pharmaceutical research and funding. There is an ethical dilemma in which I would expect to land one on side and find myself leaning toward the other. Some authors of novels like this sort of slam you over the head with the issue (Jodi Picoult?) but I think Patchett is a little more subtle and lets you come to your own ideas. I've also read comparisons of this book to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (which, come to think of it, just may be a book I have nothing nice to say about) but I think it's a lot more like Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible. Both are about indigenous peoples and trips into a scary and unknown environment. But Patchett and Kingsolver bring hope and understanding into some extreme situations.

Now, I should say I'm going to read those YA novels. But first I have to grade some papers, and then I think I'll want something a little more...adult. Maybe I'll reread Poisonwood Bible. A friend is debating getting rid of his books because he says he doesn't reread them, and I feel like keeping my favorites may need justifying.