126th out of 3,141 books
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13,876 voters
Prodigal Summer
Barbara Kingsolver's fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, this novel's intriguing protagonists face disparate predicaments but find ...more
Paperback, 444 pages
Published
October 16th 2001
by Harper Perennial
(first published 2000)
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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...more
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...more
Laurie
rated it
Recommends it for:
people who like biology textbooks and romance novels, especially at the same time.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
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 alway...more
1. Big themes- without spoiling too much, the theme of this book is that evolution is alway...more
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-scary,...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 i...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 o...more
Exuberant, lush, riotous--the summer o...more
I think my favorite line of "poetry" from this book is "He made love to me like a farmer!" She then goes on to talk about milking cows and tilling the land while describing their love making. Maybe I've just known too many farmers in my life and found none of them in the least bit attractive. There is nothing romantic about the smell of manure on a man. And anyway, I think that line sums up the depth of this book pretty well. From the first chapter I knew I was in trouble wh...more
okay, so this is my mad dash back to the bookstore at the airport book. i chose it because i liked the poisonwood bible so much. this is definitely much different, and if i would have read the inside cover reviews (calling the novel "sexually exuberant") i wouldn't have bought it. however, i'm not all the way done with it, but i've been kind of sucked into the storylines now and i can't NOT finish it. so, the jury's still out.
okay, so i just finished and i was bugged by...more
okay, so i just finished and i was bugged by...more
I don't want it to end! :( There's still much life for these characters to lead and I want to be there for it! Although I guess it has to end somewhere...
The BEAUTIFUL NATURAL WORLD she gives - my kingdom to know so much and be so deeply involved in the real world around me. (This week, I met the wooly bear caterpillar and the granite spiny lizard at Mission Trails, both locals. I can't wait to meet more and learn about more. Thank goodness for parks and rangers - at least SO...more
The BEAUTIFUL NATURAL WORLD she gives - my kingdom to know so much and be so deeply involved in the real world around me. (This week, I met the wooly bear caterpillar and the granite spiny lizard at Mission Trails, both locals. I can't wait to meet more and learn about more. Thank goodness for parks and rangers - at least SO...more
Lots of different subplots that eventually intertwine, includes a love story too. She writes very lyrically, you'll want to savor this one. Nature / animal lovers will appreciate this one too. Something for everyone, this one is probably in my all time top 10 or 15 list.
Well, here's the thing, Oriana. I always think that I don't like long novels, but whenever I get through a hundred pages of one and find myself in the world of that novel, I'm sucked in and I love it. (And by "long novel" I think I mean, like, more than 300 pages. I LIKE to have read stuff!) So it took me a while to get into this one, and then realize that it's so much about just animals and the woods and small towns and, kind of, the way the whole world works.
Which I gues...more
Which I gues...more
Very descriptive and calming. Three stories tied into one, and cleaned up neatly at the end. A good summertime read.
I read this book again, so I can write a better review, since this book definitely deserves a second thought.
This is a book to be savored, meaning, it is not a light easy read, and it isn't fluff. It isn't loaded with heavy issues (Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" is definitely a heavier chunk o' reading compared to this) but I feel to truly...more
I read this book again, so I can write a better review, since this book definitely deserves a second thought.
This is a book to be savored, meaning, it is not a light easy read, and it isn't fluff. It isn't loaded with heavy issues (Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" is definitely a heavier chunk o' reading compared to this) but I feel to truly...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 boo...more
Bethany
rated it
Recommends it for:
all readers
Recommended to Bethany by:
It was a gift from my mother
Shelves:
book-club,
adultfiction
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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
This was the second book I read by Kingslover, and I admit, a little leery as Poisonwood Bible was the my only experience and that book sincerely disappointed; however, Prodigal Summer was a sheer delight and I'm glad I tried another novel by Kingslover.
This novel is feast for anyone who celebrates nature writing. Kingslover captures the essence of the blue ridge mountains in Virginia and all the competing interests that are being grappled with in this region today.
Bes...more
This novel is feast for anyone who celebrates nature writing. Kingslover captures the essence of the blue ridge mountains in Virginia and all the competing interests that are being grappled with in this region today.
Bes...more
I think that one of the measures of a good writer is their ability to make the reader truly care about the characters and/or the issue that they are writing about.
In this case, Barbara Kingsolver took a topic that I honestly could not have cared less about, and wrote a book that had me completely gripped from beginning to end. This book left me actually caring about that issue and thinking about it for weeks.
Prodigal Summer is a novel about the interconnectedness (is that a word?) of...more
In this case, Barbara Kingsolver took a topic that I honestly could not have cared less about, and wrote a book that had me completely gripped from beginning to end. This book left me actually caring about that issue and thinking about it for weeks.
Prodigal Summer is a novel about the interconnectedness (is that a word?) of...more
This is really sort of three novels in one: Predators, Moth Love, and Old Chestnuts. The book alternates among the three stories, which take place within a few miles of each other. The stories do turn out to be related in the end, but each reads like a separate story. I liked the Moth Love thread the best out of the three.
The stories themselves rated about 3 to 3.5 stars for me, but I'm bumping it up to four stars overall because of the author's knowledge and beautiful writing abou...more
The stories themselves rated about 3 to 3.5 stars for me, but I'm bumping it up to four stars overall because of the author's knowledge and beautiful writing abou...more
This novel, which jumps back and forth through the lives and stories of a few strong characters, really gets to the core of what life is about and how people tend to deal with it. I find this book really easy to connect with. The characters are very real and very honest, they have faults but they confront them. This book is full of passion, romance, strong friendships, deceit, hard choices and many other disturbing and encompassing aspects of human nature. It is amazingly easy to get attached to...more
Just in case you were wondering if Mother Nature is a sex maniac...she is. Kingsolver gets the science descriptions just right and the narrative weaves in aspects of several families in the Appalachians. Didn't trump the Poinsonwood Bible (her other recent fiction) but was a great compliment for those of us that wanted more (yum).
When I first started this book, I wrote, "Kingsolver seduces the reader into the book with her lyrical and poetic writing.". If I'd only known how prophetic that was! This is a beautiful book to be read slowly and savored.
The story takes place over one summer and tells three stories of love. The language and phrasing is so beautiful that I had to stop periodically and let what I had read sink in. It literally took my breath away in so many places.
This is no...more
The story takes place over one summer and tells three stories of love. The language and phrasing is so beautiful that I had to stop periodically and let what I had read sink in. It literally took my breath away in so many places.
This is no...more
I really enjoyed this book. Of the three story lines, I found two of them predictable, but the characters were so interesting I didn't really care. I wasn't sure until the end how the relationship between Deanna and Eddie would work out, and I appreciated that it wasn't exactly "happily ever after." I also liked that throughout most of the book, you really didn't know how the three main characters were connected, and even in the end the author never really brings them all together. Yet...more
This book stands alone as one that is able to discuss flowers and be erotic at doing it. The story begins and ends in three pieces, three concurrent story lines set in the far western panhandle of Virginia. While the three main characters are in themselves quite independent from each other they are geographically close to each other. This story could make you cry if you want to do so, but over all it really is a peaceful story. I found myself put at ease while reading. I enjoyed the feeling...more
This was the first book by Barbara Kingsolver that I've read and it certainly won't be the last! A beautiful tale of love, sex, nature, family and relationships, both good and bad. This book is highly recommended to anyone who loves a story with rich, detailed language and interweaving story lines and characters. Also, I think this book is an important commentary on the state of today's debate on the environment without being heavy-handed and beating you over the head with a point of view. J...more
This book makes me homesick on an atomic level. Kingsolver, so far as I can tell, is a near-infallibly good storyteller. I'd read any of her books and expect to enjoy myself. This one, however, is special. A lot of it's about my connection to the place I call home, a connection that's deeply, intractably imbedded in the land itself. Other writers capture the South in its people, but in this book Kingsolver has re-created the way I remember my little corner of Appalachia--first, the land; th...more
I’ve read and enjoyed all of Barbara Kingsolver’s novels but “Prodigal Summer” stands out for me. The opening lines promise that you’re going on a journey into the minds of memorable characters: “Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits. But solitude is only a human presumption.” What follows doesn’t disappoint.
Three parallel stories unfold of characters quite unalike on the surface and yet connected in deeper ways that resonate profoundly. It would have b...more
Three parallel stories unfold of characters quite unalike on the surface and yet connected in deeper ways that resonate profoundly. It would have b...more
I bought this book at a library sale and was so excited because I just loved The Poisonwood Bible by her; I could not stop talking about it. This book was kind of disappointing in that it took me until about page 162 to get into it, and even then, it wasn't the life-changer that the other one was. But, it did get me thinking about gardening and beekeeping and fun things I'd like to do someday. There was a lot of sex in it. In fact, the whole book was about reproduction and evolutions of all kind...more
I was a little disappointed in this book, because I loved the Poisonwood Bible, so I had high expectations for this novel set in the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. There were three separate stories. I enjoyed the stories of Garnet and Nannie, two old people on neighboring properties who have an interesting, volatile relationship. There were several things in their story that made me smile or laugh out loud. I also liked Lusa's story, a young widow who was left with the family farm. ...more
Loved it! Set in the southern mountains of Virginia, in and around the fictional Zebulon National Forest, it follows the story of three groups of people who are inter-related, but unaware of their tenuous connectedness. There is Deanna, a woman in her forties, who works for the Forest Service, lives the life of a hermit and is passionate about seeing a family of coyotes survive in her forest. Her solitude is broken by the arrival of a younger man who fails to understand her, but loves her in his...more
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| Feminism | 4 | 35 | Aug 09, 2011 10:29am |
Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in Africa in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her most famous works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo,...more
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“Now I'm starting to think he wasn't supposed to be my whole life, he was just this doorway to me. ”
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“If you never stepped on anybody's toes, you never been for a walk.”
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Jun 16, 2011 06:02am