Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Connected


I put Prodigal Summer on my to-be-reread list after reading somewhere (maybe on her website?) that this was Barbara Kingsolver's favorite of her books. I had read it shortly after it was first published, but I didn't remember it as being one of my favorites. So I wanted to go back and see what made her so proud of it. As a piece of literature, the book is rather lovely -- beautifully intertwining stories, plenty of symbolic elements, and a nice selection of observations on nature and human nature. I enjoyed the plot, though I still wouldn't call it my favorite of hers. I laughed out at several points, thanks to my favorite character, Garnett Walker (though I liked Lusa's storyline better), and other moments were heart-wrenchingly sad. So not yet a favorite, but I did gain a new appreciation of the novel's structure and complexity.