Very descriptive and calming. Three stories tied into one, and cleaned up neatly at the end. A good summertime read.I read this book again, so I can write a better review, since this book definitely deserves a second thought.This is a book to be savored, meaning, it is not a light easy read, and it isn't fluff. It isn't loaded with heavy issues (Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" is definitely a heavier chunk o' reading compared to this) but I feel to truly appreciate "Prodigal Summer", one must be in the right mindset.This book takes three stories and alternates chapters with three different points of view. If you can pay attention to detail, you won't have trouble picking up on very subtle things the author leaves along the way, like bread crumbs on the trail that weaves through the three tales. However, Kingsolver is not an in-your-face author. She won't nudge you and say "Didja catch that? Didja?" It's up to you to find the "clues", so to speak.Each story/chapter has it's own title. "Predators" is essentially a love story, an older "mountain woman" and a much younger hunter meet by chance on a mountain trail. Their story isn't so much love as it is obsession. In terms of nature, their story is very detailed. I love how Kingsolver can describe a tree, a rainstorm, a snake, a bug, a cabin in the woods and each time it's different and beautiful. She doesn't feel like she flipped through a thesaurus and learned new words as she went along. Her language is very easy and flows nicely with the setting of the story. Since Deanna Wolfe is a woman who has lived on the mountain for two years observing the flora and fauna, this type of dialect would come easily to her. The second story/chapter is "Moth Love". Lusa Widener married a farmer, Cole, the only brother of five sisters. Lusa is Polish/Arabian and finds herself the owner of a tobacco farm at the foot of the mountains. She is not a farmer herself, but a botanist and a "bug lady" and struggles with relating to anyone in her new family. Her ideas about farming get her ridiculed. The third story/chapter is "Old Chestnuts". Garnett Walker is a man in his eighties, a retired vo-ag teacher who is grafting a new chestnut tree to withstand the blight that took out all the American chestnuts in the region. He is an extremely focused, uptight, aged man who just wants to be left alone on his farm and in his own routine, except for one thorn in his flesh, his neighbor Nannie Rawley, whose apple orchard, beehives, and gardening techniques cause him agitation and stress.I enjoyed this book even more the second time I read it. The dialect flows easily, the setting is very real, and the stories all tie up nicely by the end. I love the subtlety of this book, and still the complexity of instinct, life, death, rebirth, and finding our purpose here, among nature, to co-exist in some kind of harmony.
Calling all nature lovers! I really loved this book and think that if anyone loves summer and living things and plants and animals and learning about nature, they will love it too! It wasn't exactly a page-turner in that I had to pick it up every second I wasn't reading, but it was extremely interesting. It took place in the summer and ends in autumn so it was kind of neat to start it towards the end of summer and end it as fall was beginning. If you've never read Barbara Kingsolver, her books are filled with biology lessons and are so neat to read. This book centers around three main characters leading separate lives in one Southern mountain valley. Their lives revolve around the nature that surrounds them (in some way or another) and in some way, the three are all connected to eachother. I highly recommend this book if you want a novel, a little unknown biology knowledge, and a few things to think about regarding right & wrong with the way we treat our Earth. Characters: Lusa, the young 20-something widow is left to take care of her late husband's farm and still manage dealing with all of her nosy sisters-in-law and country folks who think they know what's best for her. She ends up befriending her young niece and nephew (and eventually adopting them when her sister in law becomes ill) and teaching them all sorts of interesting facts about insects and plants and nature. Deanna, a 40- something who lives alone in a small hut on the mountain working for the forest service. She's fine living in the absence of humans and is huge friend of coyotes--in a world where every farmer is ready to hunt them all. When Eddie Bondo shows up on her mountain, they connect and have a summer long love affair. It came as no surprise to me that she was pregnant when the book ended because of their blatant physical attraction to each other. Garnett, an old 80 something man who seems to be owly and upset with the world. He's hell bent on spraying his pesticides and cannot stand his neighbor, Nannie Rowley, who let's the Beetles fly free. Through the course of the book, we see Garnett start to open up a bit--at first he's really difficult to understand with his old-man thinking. By the end, he and Nannie have formed a friendship which we thought never possible. The three are connected: Garnett's disowned son is the father of Lusa's young niece and nephew (their grandpa). Lusa and Deanna share several deep rooted beliefs about pesticides and nature although they don't know each other. Ironically, the green chair that once belonged in Lusa's in-laws stateroom now adorns the porch of Deanna's little cabin in the woods. Deanna grew up without a mother but her father's long time girlfriend was nannie Rawley, the neighbor of Garnett.
What do You think about Prodigal Summer (2001)?
Well, here's the thing, Oriana. I always think that I don't like long novels, but whenever I get through a hundred pages of one and find myself in the world of that novel, I'm sucked in and I love it. (And by "long novel" I think I mean, like, more than 300 pages. I LIKE to have read stuff!) So it took me a while to get into this one, and then realize that it's so much about just animals and the woods and small towns and, kind of, the way the whole world works. Which I guess is the domain of soccer mom books, maybe, but I never said I was any better (or different) from any soccer mom. I like these people and animals and places and interactions! I like when a total progressive-minded author plays devil's advocate and writes a sympathetic, grouchy old coot. I just got sucked in! And I didn't even expect to, 'cause I remember the Poisonwood Bible being kind of annoying. So yeah. This book was totally rad and everybody should read it and anybody who DOESN'T read it can totally suck it.
—Imogen
This was the second book I read by Kingslover, and I admit, a little leery as Poisonwood Bible was the my only experience and that book sincerely disappointed; however, Prodigal Summer was a sheer delight and I'm glad I tried another novel by Kingslover.This novel is feast for anyone who celebrates nature writing. Kingslover captures the essence of the blue ridge mountains in Virginia and all the competing interests that are being grappled with in this region today. Besides the joy this book gives the reader with its lovely prose, I found the pace steady and the characters captivating. The novel is divided into a series of small story lines: the maverick park ranger and the mercurial hunter she is entagled with; the feuding neighbors in the valley--battling over pesticides, and so much more it seems; the city slicker trying to run a farm and build relations with a cadre of skeptical inlaws.It's really a lovely read. It's one of those books that you're upset when you've reached the end. You just want to linger in this little community with this characters a little longer.
—Anne
This was a "wow" book. I finished it today and have been trying to figure out the right words to use to describe how I feel about it. I guess I'll start by saying that I was really surprised by it. This is not a suspenseful, edge of your seat, fast paced story. It was more like sitting back and watching ordinary people live out their everyday lives. That may sound like a boring premise, but it was anything but boring!There are three different stories playing out in the book Each story stands on its own independently and with very different main characters and themes. And yet, they are all linked together with these little common threads. Nature was a major element in each of the stories and was described so vividly that I felt like I was there and could see and hear all the beautiful sights and sounds. The story was rich with information on different animals and plants and I feel like I actually learned something along the way.The characters in the stories were described in such a way that I felt like I knew them, inside and out. I became attached to them and now I feel sad to have to let them go. I enjoyed watching them navigate their way through life and see how they changed and evolved. It's very hard to leave them all behind when there is still so much story to be told. So many questions that I want to have answered.Kingsolver's writing is amazing. It's very descriptive and lyrical and easy to be hypnotized by. I know I will be reading this one again someday.
—Heather
