Ted's review
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
I have to use this book in the class I'm teaching in the fall. I didn't want to teach this book, but I wasn't given a choice. I dreaded it; I've always though that Barbara Kingsolver wrote glorified chick lit, though I admit, I have never read The Poisonwood Bible, which is supposedly a masterpiece of some sort. However, Animal Dreams is not only not a masterpiece, it's not even particularly good chick lit. Okay, that's not fair, because as a prose stylist Kingsolver is leagues better than, say, Candace Bushnell. Her attention to detail and to the way that words work together -- and sound together -- is highly developed. She's talented, obviously. But as a novel, Animal Dreams fails. Plot points happen for no reason: Events are random, not driven by character. Themes are telegraphed by bombs: The symbolism is so obvious that it would be ripped...more
