State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
This was my favorite book of 2018. I found myself riveted from start to finish. The book is set partially in Minnesota, my current stomping grounds, and I found the author's perspective on my adopted home state touching. The rest of the book was set in the Amazon and echoes of Marlow's journey up the Congo abound. Its a love story (of sorts-Marina and Mr. Fox's "love story" is not one I'd want to be a part of but it feels just messy enough to be realistic)...but not just romantic love, but love of colleagues and of children and of a people and of places...its a coming of age story...with some science fiction and some politics thrown in for good measure.
Our heroine describes herself as "profoundly suited for Minnesota" which, being a transplant to Minnesota, I found profoundly funny. "Instead of growing up inquisitive and restless, she had developed a profound desire to stay, as if her center of gravity was so low it connected her directly to this particular patch of earth." So yes, all you Minnesota folks, Patchett must have talked to one or two of you (us?) and determined that there is something about Minnesota. On the occasion when she was required to wear heels: "Marina was a very tall doctor who worked in a lab in Minnesota and those three things: the height, the work, and the state, precluded the wearing of heels, giving her little experience to draw from now that she needed it." Patchett made me grin.
Patchett also made me laugh out loud, as on the occasion when, a week after her luggage was stolen and her possessions distributed amongst the natives, Marina observes that: "Pieces of her clothing walked by her from time to time and there was nothing to do but watch them pass."
A little reflection that "Dr. Swenson may never be cited in conversations about how normal people respond to their environment." gave me a Trump Aye Yai Yai moment (nod to here to the West Wing Weekly, Josh and Hrishi, thank you).
On love, and mankind's inability to control to whom its arms reach: "even though she could say that based on the information that had been presented X was wrong-Y had behaved badly, and Z was right, such matters were worthy of judgement-she found herself siding with X because there was so much in his single-minded devotion to a mentor that sounded a familiar note...In this life we love who we love. There were some stories in which facts were very nearly irrelevant."
And a line that made me cringe with embarrassment as I have felt this very thing time and time again when something that had been obvious all along finally whops me over the head: "She felt that there was something deeply flawed in her imagination that she hadn't even considered the fact that the pills could just be thrown away."
I source my books from many places...borrowings, cheap bookstores, the Nook library, if hard up the kiosk at the airport, Barnes and Noble, sometimes the library (though the fines I run up at the library make this my least favorite method of obtaining reading material, plus I can't make notes in library books)..and sadly, this one was from the library. So now its on my list to buy the real book so that I can read it again. However, I do want to put some distance between my initial read and a reread because I am afraid that perhaps this book landed because I was in the right place at the right time to fall for it. So I may hit it again later in 2019 or in 2020 when I am out of inspiration for new books and want something that I feel sure I will love...
Rating: #2 Fabulous!!
Our heroine describes herself as "profoundly suited for Minnesota" which, being a transplant to Minnesota, I found profoundly funny. "Instead of growing up inquisitive and restless, she had developed a profound desire to stay, as if her center of gravity was so low it connected her directly to this particular patch of earth." So yes, all you Minnesota folks, Patchett must have talked to one or two of you (us?) and determined that there is something about Minnesota. On the occasion when she was required to wear heels: "Marina was a very tall doctor who worked in a lab in Minnesota and those three things: the height, the work, and the state, precluded the wearing of heels, giving her little experience to draw from now that she needed it." Patchett made me grin.
Patchett also made me laugh out loud, as on the occasion when, a week after her luggage was stolen and her possessions distributed amongst the natives, Marina observes that: "Pieces of her clothing walked by her from time to time and there was nothing to do but watch them pass."
A little reflection that "Dr. Swenson may never be cited in conversations about how normal people respond to their environment." gave me a Trump Aye Yai Yai moment (nod to here to the West Wing Weekly, Josh and Hrishi, thank you).
On love, and mankind's inability to control to whom its arms reach: "even though she could say that based on the information that had been presented X was wrong-Y had behaved badly, and Z was right, such matters were worthy of judgement-she found herself siding with X because there was so much in his single-minded devotion to a mentor that sounded a familiar note...In this life we love who we love. There were some stories in which facts were very nearly irrelevant."
And a line that made me cringe with embarrassment as I have felt this very thing time and time again when something that had been obvious all along finally whops me over the head: "She felt that there was something deeply flawed in her imagination that she hadn't even considered the fact that the pills could just be thrown away."
I source my books from many places...borrowings, cheap bookstores, the Nook library, if hard up the kiosk at the airport, Barnes and Noble, sometimes the library (though the fines I run up at the library make this my least favorite method of obtaining reading material, plus I can't make notes in library books)..and sadly, this one was from the library. So now its on my list to buy the real book so that I can read it again. However, I do want to put some distance between my initial read and a reread because I am afraid that perhaps this book landed because I was in the right place at the right time to fall for it. So I may hit it again later in 2019 or in 2020 when I am out of inspiration for new books and want something that I feel sure I will love...
Rating: #2 Fabulous!!
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