Okay, so Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was one of those books that significantly changed my life, and I really liked, as did the rest of the world it seems, The Poisonwood Bible, but I honestly cannot tell you what made me want to read Kingsolver’s essay collection Small Wonder. Maybe I read about it on a blog or in a review, and whoever turned me onto this book, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude. This is the book that helped me start my book. No joke, no questions, this book did it.There’s something about Kingsolver’s voice in this collection that just comes off as honest and true, not overly crafted or carefully worded. This isn’t a collection of wrought language and complex metaphor. These essays are just the writer’s perspective on a lot of issues from her daughter’s decision to raise chickens for their eggs to the U.S. flag to biodiversity. Each piece is - in the way of most things - political for it states a clear perspective and opinion on something, and I really like that. I like knowing where she stands, and knowing why she stands there. I feel like I’ve just finished a really good visit with a dear friend, a trip where we spent the day walking the beach or sitting by the fire and just talking - sometimes deeply, sometimes heatedly, but always honestly, in the way I only can with my closest friends.The last page of the book, which is the last page of the essay “God’s Wife’s Measuring Spoons,” says this. . . . still I suspect that the deepest of all human wishes, down there on the floor of the soul underneath the scattered rugs of lust and thirst and hunger, is the tongue-and-groove desire to be understood. And life is a slow trek along the path toward realizing how that wish will go unfulfilled. Such is the course of all wisdom: Others will see the front and the back, but inside is where we each live, in that home where only one heart will ever beat. There we have to make our peace with all we need of sorrow, and all we can ever know of the divine, by whatever name we call it. What I can find is this, and so it has to be: conquering my own despair by doing what little I can. Stealing thunder, tucking it in my pocket to save for the long drought. Dreaming in the color green, tasting the end of anger. Don’t ask me for the evidence. The possibility of a kinder future, the existence of God - these are just two of many things fall into the category I would label “impossible to prove, and proof is not the point.” Faith has a life of its own.And well, that about says it. This book is one that will sit on my shelf to be caressed and peeked into when I, too, am seeking to conquer by own despair by doing what little I can.
This is actually a re-read for me, and though I liked it a lot then, I appreciate it more now. The first time around, I had difficulty with the first few essays - "Small Wonder," "Saying Grace," were very well written, but didn't speak to me nearly the way the others did. They each have a message, a lesson, an opinion that some have interpreted as preachy, pretentious; to me, they're proof that it's possible to live differently and happily, but that the later is the more important of the two.The part that surprised me the most about this collection, though, was how moved I was by the essays about people and relationships, not just about nature and environmental policy. "Lily's Chickens" makes me smile when I think about it, as does "Going to Japan." "Letter to My Mother" is a powerful selection of mini-essays within the essay; things Kingsolver recalled or felt from her childhood and her relationship with her mother, the beautiful and the complicated."And Our Flag Was Still There" captures Kingsolver's thoughts about the post-September 11th world and her reaction to her fellow citizen's reactions. I know some read a lot of negativity in this section, but I heard at least as much hope as disappointment in this passage. One quote in particular sticks with me: "There are as many ways to love America as there are Americans, and our country needs us all." As the mother of a one-day teenager, "Letter to a Daughter at 13" was one of my favorites. Kingsolver shares stories from both her teenage years as well as experiences with her teenage daughter, particularly where guys are concerned. Her observations are so simple and so true - from liking what your boyfriend likes because of this inexplicable feeling that it's the only way you'll be able to stay together (and what worse fate than to be single!) to recognizing that no matter how much we love our children, eventually we have to accept the fact that with any luck they will become grown ups, on their own. That essay also contained my favorite quote: "When you, my dear, were about two and a half, I carefully and honestly answered all the questions you'd started asking about reproductive organs. For several months thereafter, every time we met someone new... you'd look up earnestly and ask, 'Do you have a penis or a vagina?' If you are ever tempted to think my presence is an embarrassment to you, please recall that I stood by you during the 'penis or vagina' months, July to September 1989." Oh, Barbara - you slay and inspire me.
What do You think about Small Wonder (2003)?
4.5 starsI was inclined to think I would like Kingsolver's fiction much better than her essays. Happily, I was wrong. This is a collection of beautifully written essays covering everything from raising chickens to raising children, from global war to birdwatching. There are so many perfectly expressed ideas and sentiments in these essays that I know I'll be reading it again. I laughed with her as she shared her young daughter's pronouncements, cried with her as she briefly shared her rape experience at age nineteen, and continually marveled at her ongoing hopefulness and idealism about the future of the world in general. I've very much enjoyed most of her novels, and now with these essays I've gained a great new respect for her as a person and a writer. Her husband is an ornithologist, and there are some wonderful pieces the two of them wrote together about their birding experiences south of the border and closer to their own backyard. Nature-loving bird freak that I am, I really got into these essays.I grew up without television and long ago chose to continue living without it, so the essay about why she keeps "the one-eyed monster" out of her home had special resonance for me. She articulated so well all the things I think and feel about the topic and am not able to put clearly into words. I feel like making photocopies for all my friends so we can understand each other about this. Much food for thought and warmth and humor in this collection.
—Jeanette "Astute Crabbist"
No, it doesn't take months to read this as it appears I did....It is a collection of essays, to be picked up and read, one or two, when time permits.Ms Kingsolver is a champion of the environment, culture, of common sense. Each essay deals with a specific subject, told, almost as a story by her. One I particularly liked was the demise of the local bookstore in favor of the giant chains. Another was about the obligations a writer has to the reader, and vice versa. And several touched on raising her daughters and the world she would like to leave for them.She touches on many of the essay subjects in her novels - just here she can be a bit more blatant, emphatic and provide details for the background for her beliefs.We need people like Barbara Kingsolver in this world, and we all need to be a bit more like her if we are to provide a better world for our children and their children.An easy read, sometimes about difficult subjects, but, if you care about this world we live in, something you should read and think about.
—Bud Mallar
This book made me realize that I have been ignorant and extremely naive about my country and its involvement in world politics. Now I finally have an idea of just why other countries (especially those much, much poorer than our own) hate America and would like nothing better than to see us brought to our knees. With the current sluggish economy and thousands of people (my husband included) currently out of work, they may have gotten at least part of their wish. Kingsolver's book makes me want to open my eyes at last to the realities of things our world leaders have done (and are still doing) that they would rather we remained blissfully ignorant of. I'm glad she included a list of books that gave her information about the truth behind our country's dealings with other countries. I for one am going to check them out and see what things I might learn. It's time.
—Amy Hoffman
