Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
When Barbara Kingsolver comes out with a new novel I always take a peek. I know some people lover her stuff...I have loved some of her stuff, but some I found just passable and some simply unbearable. This one was fine...the story is split between the present time where a middle aged woman is living through a difficult year on the heels of having briefly experienced a time when she had everything she ever wanted and the post-Civil War period where a young man is coming to terms with his life as a groom and provider in an equally unstable time of life. Both families live on the same property more than a hundred years apart and the title refers to the significant issues with their homes-both are "unsheltered": "Nesting was ludicrous, given the doomed state of the nest"
Kingsolver undeniably has a way with words and I enjoyed present day Willa's story very much. Part of her story was grieving her mother ("when someone mattered like that, you didn't lose her at death. You lost her as you kept living.") part was grieving her lose of hard won security ("how could two hardworking people do everything right in life and arrive in their fifties essentially destitute?") and part grieving her already tinged view of her children's relationship with each other ("In a heart where little else could be stirred to life, sibling scorn could survive").
In a world where she sometimes thinks "A mother can only be as happy as her unhappiest child" Willa is facing certain despair-good thing she only had two kids! Pinning your happiness on someone else, even your offspring, seems like a setup for failure.
Willa's journey over roughly a year of living in her new home is contrasted with Thatcher's time in his new home and frankly, I could have done without that time switch-I found his story off putting and baring his little sister-in-law Polly, I had no interest in them at all. I would have found the book much more compelling if Kingsolver had stuck to the present, perhaps having Willa flush out the past more fully in her own words but moving between the times and having the paralells shoved in my face over and over-not good.
I pulled some quotes which I liked very much below and there were more than I had anticipated given that I didn't even like half of the book. If I could split my vote, I'd give the Willa storyline a solid 4-Liked It and the Thatcher story like a generous 6-Bearable Just Barely, with 7- Eh a strong contender. Overall, given the mixed bag, I'll give it a #5 Good Enough.
"He had managed to rise a little and Rose to fall, arriving accidentally on a plane that accommodated their marriage. But the weight of their separate histories held the plane in uneasy balance."
"Willa wondered how many tuition dollars they'd invested in this conversation, and whether she could get a refund; she wished they would all shut up and eat."
"It is in his absence I prosper."
"Those are unwants. You're wishing problems away. I'm asking you to come up with things you actually want." I loved that when presented with a request for her wishes, it took Willa three tries to actually arrive at material, frivolous wishes...even in our wildest dreams its sometimes hard to forget your the mama in charge of everyone's happiness.
"They are happier to think of themselves as soon to be rich, than irreversibly poor." This was a Trump ie-yie-ie moment if I ever heard one. Never in my life have I seen so many people support someone/something that is so blatantly against their own self interest and yet, this statement says it all. Of course poor people support the elimination of the estate tax-someday they may be rich and want to pass their expansive estates on to their children! Down with the estate tax!
"Willa woke up in this fragrant jumble of dog-daughter-husband-baby she lay in the dark feeling tears crawl down her cheekbones. She hadn't been this close to Tig since a fifth-grade softball concussion put them on a week of night watch." I get this-watching your babies grow up and away is sad. Having them back home, even sleeping near by-I'd cherish that too and my guys are mostly still close!
"Maybe Iano had access to that kind of joy, but she'd surrendered it as her half of the marital bargain." Yeah, marriage can be hard. And hardening.
"Willa had to row backwards through several tributaries of thought to get to his meaning." When the mind wanders and has to be pulled back-beautiful sentiment so perfectly worded.
"The prospect of living apart from Dusty had opened a physical grief that shocked her, but it was ebbing behind Willa's itch for time and solitude." Yes, they do grow up and go away...and there are some very good things that go along with this separation.
Kingsolver undeniably has a way with words and I enjoyed present day Willa's story very much. Part of her story was grieving her mother ("when someone mattered like that, you didn't lose her at death. You lost her as you kept living.") part was grieving her lose of hard won security ("how could two hardworking people do everything right in life and arrive in their fifties essentially destitute?") and part grieving her already tinged view of her children's relationship with each other ("In a heart where little else could be stirred to life, sibling scorn could survive").
In a world where she sometimes thinks "A mother can only be as happy as her unhappiest child" Willa is facing certain despair-good thing she only had two kids! Pinning your happiness on someone else, even your offspring, seems like a setup for failure.
Willa's journey over roughly a year of living in her new home is contrasted with Thatcher's time in his new home and frankly, I could have done without that time switch-I found his story off putting and baring his little sister-in-law Polly, I had no interest in them at all. I would have found the book much more compelling if Kingsolver had stuck to the present, perhaps having Willa flush out the past more fully in her own words but moving between the times and having the paralells shoved in my face over and over-not good.
I pulled some quotes which I liked very much below and there were more than I had anticipated given that I didn't even like half of the book. If I could split my vote, I'd give the Willa storyline a solid 4-Liked It and the Thatcher story like a generous 6-Bearable Just Barely, with 7- Eh a strong contender. Overall, given the mixed bag, I'll give it a #5 Good Enough.
"He had managed to rise a little and Rose to fall, arriving accidentally on a plane that accommodated their marriage. But the weight of their separate histories held the plane in uneasy balance."
"Willa wondered how many tuition dollars they'd invested in this conversation, and whether she could get a refund; she wished they would all shut up and eat."
"It is in his absence I prosper."
"Those are unwants. You're wishing problems away. I'm asking you to come up with things you actually want." I loved that when presented with a request for her wishes, it took Willa three tries to actually arrive at material, frivolous wishes...even in our wildest dreams its sometimes hard to forget your the mama in charge of everyone's happiness.
"They are happier to think of themselves as soon to be rich, than irreversibly poor." This was a Trump ie-yie-ie moment if I ever heard one. Never in my life have I seen so many people support someone/something that is so blatantly against their own self interest and yet, this statement says it all. Of course poor people support the elimination of the estate tax-someday they may be rich and want to pass their expansive estates on to their children! Down with the estate tax!
"Willa woke up in this fragrant jumble of dog-daughter-husband-baby she lay in the dark feeling tears crawl down her cheekbones. She hadn't been this close to Tig since a fifth-grade softball concussion put them on a week of night watch." I get this-watching your babies grow up and away is sad. Having them back home, even sleeping near by-I'd cherish that too and my guys are mostly still close!
"Maybe Iano had access to that kind of joy, but she'd surrendered it as her half of the marital bargain." Yeah, marriage can be hard. And hardening.
"Willa had to row backwards through several tributaries of thought to get to his meaning." When the mind wanders and has to be pulled back-beautiful sentiment so perfectly worded.
"The prospect of living apart from Dusty had opened a physical grief that shocked her, but it was ebbing behind Willa's itch for time and solitude." Yes, they do grow up and go away...and there are some very good things that go along with this separation.
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