I used to read two or three books a week......for years. I've slowed down and now find that I'm lucky to finish the one I should be reading for my monthly book club. I'm not sure why, but I can't read as much or as fast as I used to. Probably aging eyeballs.....and a preference for sitting at my sewing machine.
But I did just finish the new book by Barbara Kingsolver, an author I do enjoy. I read her Poisonwood Bible years ago and liked it so much I read it twice. The newest novel, Unsheltered, was not an easy read.....but it was a thoughtful one. Chapters flip back and forth between two families living in Vineland, NJ. One in 2016 and one, generations prior, just after Charles Darwin published his faith-shattering work on evolution.
It's an effective writing technique, but took me several chapters to begin to sort out the characters and see the similarities in their lives. And now, after finishing, I will have much to ponder as I think about this novel and it's concerns about our earth's future.
Quotes from early Vineland struck a strange foreshadowing: "I suppose it is in our nature.....When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order." That particular quote pertained to the man who founded Vineland as a sort of utopia.....one that benefitted the few over the many.
And then a quote from the today family: "....One percent of the brotherhood has their hands on most of the bread. They own the country, their god is the free market, and most people are so unhorrified they won't even question the system. If it makes a profit, that's the definition of good."
This book will stay with me for awhile....the story of two families, unrelated, but sharing so much in common. Relationships that don't work....economies that don't support the family....futures that are full of uncertainty.
Barbara Kingsolver makes me think.....and I think I'll go work on a quilt....
No comments:
Post a Comment