Prodigal Summer

Summary (from the publisher): Barbara Kingsolver's fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, this novel's intriguing protagonists face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place.

Review: Barbara Kingsolver's is composed of three intersecting storylines in chapters entitled "Predators," "Moth Love," and "Old Chestnuts." Predators centers around Deanna, who has separated herself from civilization and lives on national forest in a cabin and tracks wildlife and lives to be immersed in nature. Moth Love is about Lusa who moves to the small town to live on her husband's farm, except her husband is killed after just a year of marriage and Lusa is left with the family farm and all five of her husband's sisters. And finally, Old Chestnuts is about the cantankerous, 80 year old Garnet Walker who is constantly irritated/in awe of his free thinking neighbor. I loved the format of the three story lines that slowly revealed how they overlapped and how all the characters knew each other. The novel almost reminded me of a book of linked short stories in that regard. 

This novel has been described as a "hymn to wildness" and "sexually exuberant." Both of those are true. While all the characters are linked and the stories overlapped (as only small town lives can), nature is the overarching theme. All of the characters dwell on and in nature and commune with nature in their own ways. 

The only downside of the three stories in this novel is that I preferred one to the others - Lusa and the "Moth Love" storyline was my favorite - but also, I felt like the novel could have explored all of the characters and their lives much more. This novel was basically three in one, so 400 pages was hardly enough to cover it all! A beautiful, lyrical novel with intriguing characters. 

Stars: 4