Goodreads | Prodigal Summer

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Tom rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

08/26/08

Read in August, 2008

Prodigal Summer tells the stories of several different people clustered around a deep valley in Southern Appalachia. Deana is wildlife biologist who works for the forest service. She enjoys her hermitic existence living in a cabin on a mountain, keeping track of the wildlife in the National Forest. This all changes when a young hunter comes into her life, for whom she feels a strong physical desire. Lusa is an academic who marries a farmer from the valley, and moves with him onto his farm. She i...more Prodigal Summer tells the stories of several different people clustered around a deep valley in Southern Appalachia. Deana is wildlife biologist who works for the forest service. She enjoys her hermitic existence living in a cabin on a mountain, keeping track of the wildlife in the National Forest. This all changes when a young hunter comes into her life, for whom she feels a strong physical desire. Lusa is an academic who marries a farmer from the valley, and moves with him onto his farm. She is widowed and left alone amidst his clannish family, mounting farm debts, and a desire to work in tune with the land in contrast to the local farming wisdom. I can't remember the name of the third protaganist, but he is a very religious retired agricultural vocational teacher in his eighties. He is plagued by his scandalous (She wears shorts and doesn't believe in pesticides), younger (in her seventies) neighbor who owns an apple orchard.

There were some things I really liked about Prodigal Summer. In particular I really enjoyed Kingsolver's love of the Southern Appalachian ecosystem that comes through loud and clear in the book. She was a biologist before she became a novelist, and her deep understanding of ecology, and her wonder at nature's systems is so well described. It's a good set of interwoven stories, and I enjoyed reading the book.

There were definitely some things about the book that I didn't like. Clearly Kingsolver was not writing for my half (male) of the population. I've read and enjoyed many books with female protaganists, but I felt somewhat excluded from Prodigal Summer. Instead of appealing to the universality of human emotions, there was almost a sense that Kingsolver was only writing this book for women, and didn't expect or even want men to read it. I say this not as a criticism, it's her book and she can reach out to any audience she wants, but as a factor that took away from my enjoyment of the book. What I would label as a criticism was the over obvious version of feminism that pervaded the book. Reading Prodigal Summer felt a little like talking to a 14 year old girl who has started thinking about feminism for the first time. I wanted to tell Kingsolver, "I get it! Women are in touch with nature and work with it. Men try to control nature and don't understand it." I don't resent the point. I think there is some truth in it, as long as we're talking in generalities. But it annoyed me that this well trodden ground was presented as a revelation. I also felt like there was a real sterotyping of the male chracters, and some of the female ones. The men in the story were either eye candy, backwards bible thumpers stuck in the 1950s, or dumb red-necks. God knows there have been enough stories where the female charcters have been stereotyped, and maybe there is a statement to be made by turning the tables, but characters with no complexity detract from a book, whatever the reason....less

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Karah rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

09/21/08

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: Trisha

Calling all nature lovers! I really loved this book and think that if anyone loves summer and living things and plants and animals and learning about nature, they will love it too! It wasn't exactly a page-turner in that I had to pick it up every second I wasn't reading, but it was extremely interesting. It took place in the summer and ends in autumn so it was kind of neat to start it towards the end of summer and end it as fall was beginning. If you've never read Barbara Kingsolver, her boo...more Calling all nature lovers! I really loved this book and think that if anyone loves summer and living things and plants and animals and learning about nature, they will love it too! It wasn't exactly a page-turner in that I had to pick it up every second I wasn't reading, but it was extremely interesting. It took place in the summer and ends in autumn so it was kind of neat to start it towards the end of summer and end it as fall was beginning. If you've never read Barbara Kingsolver, her books are filled with biology lessons and are so neat to read.

This book centers around three main characters leading separate lives in one Southern mountain valley. Their lives revolve around the nature that surrounds them (in some way or another) and in some way, the three are all connected to eachother. I highly recommend this book if you want a novel, a little unknown biology knowledge, and a few things to think about regarding right & wrong with the way we treat our Earth.

Characters:
Lusa, the young 20-something widow is left to take care of her late husband's farm and still manage dealing with all of her nosy sisters-in-law and country folks who think they know what's best for her. She ends up befriending her young niece and nephew (and eventually adopting them when her sister in law becomes ill) and teaching them all sorts of interesting facts about insects and plants and nature.

Deanna, a 40- something who lives alone in a small hut on the mountain working for the forest service. She's fine living in the absence of humans and is huge friend of coyotes--in a world where every farmer is ready to hunt them all. When Eddie Bondo shows up on her mountain, they connect and have a summer long love affair. It came as no surprise to me that she was pregnant when the book ended because of their blatant physical attraction to each other.

Garnett, an old 80 something man who seems to be owly and upset with the world. He's hell bent on spraying his pesticides and cannot stand his neighbor, Nannie Rowley, who let's the Beetles fly free. Through the course of the book, we see Garnett start to open up a bit--at first he's really difficult to understand with his old-man thinking. By the end, he and Nannie have formed a friendship which we thought never possible.

The three are connected: Garnett's disowned son is the father of Lusa's young niece and nephew (their grandpa). Lusa and Deanna share several deep rooted beliefs about pesticides and nature although they don't know each other. Ironically, the green chair that once belonged in Lusa's in-laws stateroom now adorns the porch of Deanna's little cabin in the woods. Deanna grew up without a mother but her father's long time girlfriend was nannie Rawley, the neighbor of Garnett. ...less

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Lillian rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

07/20/08

bookshelves: food-culture, nature-writing

Read in July, 2008

Due to the geographic proximity of Kingsolver's experiences to my own, I can't help but feel an inordinate fondness for her writing about Virginia. Certainly, others enjoy her style as well, Poisonwood Bible made the oh-so-famous Oprah's Book Club List, but this remains slightly more obscure. Sandwiched between the publication of "Poisonwood Bible" and "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", "Prodigal Summer" seems to teeter on the edge of her fictional style and her docume...more Due to the geographic proximity of Kingsolver's experiences to my own, I can't help but feel an inordinate fondness for her writing about Virginia. Certainly, others enjoy her style as well, Poisonwood Bible made the oh-so-famous Oprah's Book Club List, but this remains slightly more obscure. Sandwiched between the publication of "Poisonwood Bible" and "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", "Prodigal Summer" seems to teeter on the edge of her fictional style and her documentation of the health and economic impact of the battle between local agriculture and industrial organization.

Thus far, I've read back through her literary career in an odd order, starting with "A,V,M", then "Poisonwood Bible" and ending (for now) on this book. This puts me in the unique position of reading a year long autobiography (with flashbacks) of the author before reading her other works. I really felt the impact of her life on this book, I could pick out her personal peeves and quests, I knew what had been written out of lifelong experiences and what was newer to her awareness. Thus, my enjoyment of the story was both hampered and improved by my acute awareness of the author as a participant in the story, an unusual and sometimes difficult position.

Personal experiences aside, this was a VERY interesting read. Like Poisonwood, it followed several different characters; a young wife coming into her own, a "sanctimonious old coot" with no contact with his son or grandchildren, a lynx of a woman who lives wild and isolated in the mountains of southwest Virginia. These characters are connected in the way of all small Virginia counties (and those elsewhere) through convoluted and socially complex family ties. As the complexities of these relationships are naturally developed through the very different naivete of the main characters the true depth of the story is revealed and reader sympathy is deeply and genuinely engaged.

This book is also very much about life, death, food and sex, about the beauty of a wild life and of agricultural pursuits, about the attraction of moths and the battle between shepherds and coyotes, men and women...and the peace that comes with acceptance of differences. This is not a book for Jeanie Cox, who will be put off by the bizarre allusions to pheromones (linking the sex of man and moth) and the very Greene County style of rural life, but may be found enjoyable by many others. If nothing else, the language is delicately descriptive and allegorical; a distinct pleasure to read.

I recommend this to Lovers for Virginia, people who crave a more rural life, who love wild spaces, who wonder how to connect with others, who have concern for the survival of rare and wild things, and who enjoy the other works of Kingsolver.

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Pamela rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

12/23/07

There is no one in contemporary literature quite like Barbara Kingsolver. Her dialogue sparkles with sassy wit and earthy poetry; her descriptions are rooted in daily life but are also on familiar terms with the eternal. With Prodigal Summer, she returns from the Congo to a "wrinkle on the map that lies between farms and wildness." And there, in an isolated pocket of southern Appalachia, she recounts not one but three intricate stories.

Exuberant, lush, riotous--the summer of the no...more There is no one in contemporary literature quite like Barbara Kingsolver. Her dialogue sparkles with sassy wit and earthy poetry; her descriptions are rooted in daily life but are also on familiar terms with the eternal. With Prodigal Summer, she returns from the Congo to a "wrinkle on the map that lies between farms and wildness." And there, in an isolated pocket of southern Appalachia, she recounts not one but three intricate stories.

Exuberant, lush, riotous--the summer of the novel is "the season of extravagant procreation" in which bullfrogs carelessly lay their jellied masses of eggs in the grass, "apparently confident that their tadpoles would be able to swim through the lawn like little sperms," and in which a woman may learn to "tell time with her skin." It is also the summer in which a family of coyotes moves into the mountains above Zebulon Valley: <blockquote> The ghost of a creature long extinct was coming in on silent footprints, returning to the place it had once held in the complex anatomy of this forest like a beating heart returned to its body. This is what she believed she would see, if she watched, at this magical juncture: a restoration. </blockquote> The "she" is Deanna Wolfe, a wildlife biologist observing the coyotes from her isolated aerie--isolated, that is, until the arrival of a young hunter who makes her even more aware of the truth that humans are only an infinitesimal portion in the ecological balance. This truth forms the axis around which the other two narratives revolve: the story of a city girl, entomologist, and new widow and her efforts to find a place for herself; and the story of Garnett Walker and Nannie Rawley, who seem bent on thrashing out the countless intimate lessons of biology as only an irascible traditional farmer and a devotee of organic agriculture can. As Nannie lectures Garnett, "Everything alive is connected to every other by fine, invisible threads. Things you don't see can help you plenty, and things you try to control will often rear back and bite you, and that's the moral of the story."

Structurally, that gossamer web is the story: images, phrases, and events link the narratives, and these echoes are rarely obvious, always serendipitous. Kingsolver is one of those authors for whom the terrifying elegance of nature is both aesthetic wonder and source of a fierce and abiding moral vision. She may have inherited Thoreau's mantle, but she piles up riches of her own making, blending her extravagant narrative gift with benevolent concise humor. She treads the line between the sentimental and the glorious like nobody else in American literature. --Kelly Flynn ...less

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Ray rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

12/11/07

Read in November, 2007

I first read Barbara Kingsolver maybe 10 years ago and really liked her. Since then, I've discovered authors like Edna Forbes and Alice Hoffman who also both have an interest in the lives of rural women, rich narratives and, sometimes magical realism. That said, Kingsolver is still very much at the top of this field. However, this book left me somewhat disappointed by the end for two reasons:

1. Big themes- without spoiling too much, the theme of this book is that evolution is always going ...more I first read Barbara Kingsolver maybe 10 years ago and really liked her. Since then, I've discovered authors like Edna Forbes and Alice Hoffman who also both have an interest in the lives of rural women, rich narratives and, sometimes magical realism. That said, Kingsolver is still very much at the top of this field. However, this book left me somewhat disappointed by the end for two reasons:

1. Big themes- without spoiling too much, the theme of this book is that evolution is always going on and that human beings are not the end product of evolution, just a part of it. Perhaps more importantly Kingsolver tries to remind us that evolution is a slow, long, adaptive process. Evolution rarely happens quickly, yet Kingsolver’s characters themselves go though rapid, possibly even radical changes, by the end of this book. Good stuff for drama, but inconsistent with some of the broader themes.

2. Narrative Structure- nonlinear storytelling is not accomplished solely through an unconventional conclusion (read: Hollywood happy ending/closure). Kingsolver ends her book in a kind of abstract manner, shifting perspective to some coyotes whose existence in the plot prior to the end point seemed added on. Many minor plot were left unresolved as the coyotes walked off into the Sun, This would have been fine if the rest of the plot has not been so plodding and attentive to every detail in each character's life, but it was.

The conventional tale paired with an aspiring, but unresolved ending, just felt incomplete.

Along the same lines, the interweaving of characters and narrative voices is great, but about 3/4 of the way through the book every main character had been connected to every other main character in a way that simply felt over the top and a bit trite. Like, we get it, it's a small community and these characters needed to have some kind of theme tying them together, but it got a bit silly by the final connection.

Despite these flaws, Prodigal Summer was a good read and brought up a lot of interesting ideas and themes. The dialogue was well written and engaging.
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Kathryn rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

07/16/08

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Kathryn by: Tyler & Melanie

Overall, a delightful, thoughtful and refreshing novel. I loved the pure joy, the contagious adoration, for nature — from top predators to insects to extinct trees to blossoming weeds — that shines through the pages. (My only real gripe with the book is that, on occasion, this love morphs into rather a preachy cautionary tale, or scolding—it could still have been powerfully ecological and progressive without the few soap-box passages.) Another message is the sometimes-lovely, sometimes-...more

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Sommer Ann rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

01/19/08

bookshelves: dramatic-impacting

Read in December, 2007

recommended to Sommer Ann by: Barnes & Noble patron
recommends it for: "Go Green" people, Nature loving, Connected to the Earth

For those who find themselves emotionally attached to nature, they can find their rallying cries for preservation in the able-crafted fiction of Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer. Her exquisite style combined with her knowledge of the natural world form a universal hope for people to honor and preserve their daily connections with nature. It is those who find their calling from the soul who will take heart in Kingsolver’s earthly masterpiece. It appeals to those with a love for image...more

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meredith rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

10/21/07

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008

Ok. What gives, Kingsolver?
I have adored her work for years, and had this particular book sitting on my shelf for a long time unread. I picked it up to read recently, and went "oh yeah, that's why". i'd tried previous times to read it and couldn't "get into it". I'm usually a stickler for the "getting in to it" factor. if something doesnt hold my attention, or is downright fucking painful, within the first chapter, i have to ditch it.

but no. i gave Barb K the ...more

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Heather rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

03/30/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2008

recommended to Heather by: I've read and loved her other novels
recommends it for: tree-huggers

I wish we could give "half-stars," b/c I probably would have bumped this up a bit - but I can't give it a wholehearted "liked it." I really had trouble getting into the book - and other reviews reveal that many others had the same problem. Finally, at about halfway through, I found myself actively drawn toward picking it up.

I found the book to be a thinly veiled scientific/social/political commentary, disguised as a novel. I happen to like Kingsolver's politics, so I didn...more

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Joy rated it:

(review of isbn 0060199652)

10/15/07

Read in October, 2007

It took me many tries to get past the first fifty pages. I'm not sure why. Finally, when I was determined to get through this text and also pressured by the fact that I don't have a lot of books here in Egypt and books in English can be prohibitively expensive, I found I really enjoyed the three narratives that come together at the end. Because all three narratives include someone discussing about how the environment is one interconnected ecological web and therefore both human bounty hunting...more

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Brenda rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

04/07/08

Read in April, 2008

I enjoyed Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible so much that for some reason I delayed reading this one (does that make sense?). I just liked the idea of another unread novel by her being out there, waiting for me to read -- something I was saving like a piece of rich dark chocolate.

Her descriptions of the natural world are lovely. The relationships are complex and sexy and intriguing. My favorite story line is the romance between Deanna and Eddie. It reminds me of the romance in "The River Wh...more

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Drick rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

05/13/08

bookshelves: fiction

This novel takes place in an Applachian area (probably near the Kentucky/Tennesee border) known as Zebulon County and follows the stories of three seemingly unconnected persons - Deeanna, a divorced 47 year old forester living on the mountain alone who meets a random hiker, has an affair, and becomes pregnant; Loosa, a university grad student turned farmer's wife, who is widowed in the first year of marriage and has to rebuild her life in a community and extended family that alternately admires ...more

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Katie rated it:

(review of isbn 0739413872)

04/29/08

Read in April, 2008

Maybe it's just that I read this immediately on the heels of Kingsolver's much better The Poisonwood Bible, but I found Prodigal Summer to be really disappointing. I was three chapters in before I realized that I had actually read it before. Recently. And while each of the interwoven narratives were reasonably well told and generally more engaging than not, once I put down the book, the impression I was left with was not of the characters, nor of their stories, nor of the...more

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Alyssa rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

09/03/08

Read in September, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Bethany rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

06/21/08

bookshelves: adultfiction, book-club

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Bethany by: It was a gift from my mother
recommends it for: all readers

This is my favorite of Barbara Kingsolver's fiction.

Three stories weave together into a beautiful story of nature, love, and family. The biology Kingsolver integrates in the narrative is educational and fascinating.

The three threads begin with "Predators" which follows Deanna, who is a Forest Preserve ranger and lives alone in a small cabin high upon Zebulon Mountain. She unexpectedly begins a romance with a roaming coyote poacher, although Deanna is working tirelessly to pr...more

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Candice rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

08/23/08

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: Ellen, Jamie, Barbara Kingsolver fans

I read this for a second time to get ready for the book group, and I loved is just as much as I did the first time. Not only is Barbara Kingsolver a good story teller, but her writing is beautiful. She ties things together in ways you can't imagine. The book is a story of four main characters, three of them women. Deanna Wolfe is a wildlife biologist who lives by herself in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Virginia. She loves nature with a passion and is happy in a job that keeps her ...more

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Elizabeth rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

05/04/08

bookshelves: adult-fiction, audiobook

Read in May, 2008

(2002) Barbara Kingsolver is one of those authors who I try to follow fairly religiously, and whose novels I always pick up as soon as they're released. So when Prodigal Summer came out, I bought a copy immediately. I was far less impressed with it than some of her other earlier novels, but I did still enjoy it. I tried re-reading it again recently, and found that I just couldn't get into it this time around. It's a good story, but I didn't find the characters quite as engaging as in ...more

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Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0060959037)

06/02/08

Read in April, 2008

Set in Eastern Kentucky (my old stomping grounds), Prodigal Summer follows the lives of three main characters as they confront heady problems like man vs. nature and progress vs. tradition, and stumble through love, death, family and self-meaning. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and appreciated the long treatises on coyotes, luna moths, and various plants native to the area, although I could have done with shorter descriptions. It was interesting to think about how similar these people's lives wer...more

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