Finished

[Bonnie]

I love Barbara Kingsolver and I applaud her new direction into non fiction. It's a wonderful period to share with us with her personal experiences with Frida Kahol and Diego Rivera. I love this period.
But it did take time to get comfortable with the main character, but when he began his adventures with the world of Diego and Frida and later, Trotsky I was in.
Bravo and my thumbs are way up. I'm glad I was patient.

[Carol]

I'm with you. I couldn't put the book down and hated when it ended. Loved it.

[Roberta]

I couldn't agree more. I stopped reading it for about a year - I couldn't say why. It may well be this thing you mention Bonnie about getting comfortable with the protagonist. But I started over and just couldn't put it down. What a great read. Love Kingsolver!

[Georgina]

On the contrary, I liked the protagonist right from the start but got very bored by the part about Frida Kahlo (maybe because I'm familiar with her biography and her house, and don't like her), preferring the part about Trotsky. I found the description of the riots in Washington fascinating, and the second half of the book about McCarthyism was excellent and very appropriate to today's politics. I did NOT expect the ending, which I highly applaud! Bravo, Ms. Kingsolver, as always!

[Barry]

I was really looking forward to this book but I'm in two minds. Here's my review of it, for what it's worth:

The Lacuna is such a difficult book to review, it being several books in one. Indeed, the narrative flows through three decades, two countries and two narrators. I'm in two minds with this book. It ended really well with McCarthyism beginning to bite and likewise started brilliantly with Shepherd growing up on an island and moving on to work in the households of Rivera & Trotsky.

However, there is a large section (the majority of his stay in the US) in which I totally lost interest and actually had to make myself pick the novel up again. It's a hugely ambitious work which probably bites off more than it can chew.

The core issue I have with this novel is how it is constructed - it is written in a diary format which makes it very disjointed and difficult to get to know characters.

It is, nonetheless, very worth reading. The author makes a number of insightful points about American society – for e.g the “red scare” could easily be Islam - which still maintains relevance today. America, as ever, needs a strong, emotive enemy lurking in the shadows to maintain stability and peace.

[Tash]

I must admit, I found it hard to get close to the characters. Perhaps it was the format. I applaud Ms Kingsolver. She never takes the easy way out with her writing!

[Dena]

I loved this book. I got into it right away and loved the main character. The only thing I didn't like was her portrayal of Frida Kahlo. Although I don't know much about her, her character in this book seemed two dimensional. Toward the end (by making inferences from the letters) it improved a bit. Did anyone else think this?