Review: Prodigal Summer

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoy Barbara Kingsolver’s fiction. Her writing is of quality. This book takes place during one momentous summer in (fictional) Zebulon County, which is located in the Appalachian region. There are three separate stories in this book. One can almost think of them as three independent stories, although they do have a connection, as Zebulon is a small county and everyone knows everyone.

There is a strong focus on the land, with predators and small bugs. One story-line has a middle-aged woman living in a cabin working for the forest service and trying to protect the predators, if possible. Another story is about two older people with differing views on using pesticides. The last is a young widow, newly married too, less than a year. Lusa has studied bugs extensively, but now on the in-law’s family farm she’s trying to figure out how to fit in this family and how to make the farm work.

I’ve had this book for a couple of decades, and not sure why I always passed up reading it until now. Perhaps I thought is was just of short stories, which the book really isn’t. In any case, glad I finally got to reading it.


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Review: Prodigal Summer

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: Vigil

Vigil by George Saunders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still

Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still by Kent Nelson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The opening of this novel has the husband, Haney, being killed in an accident on the farm while building a fence in the pouring rain. They had already lost a son years ago. Now Mattie is alone, except her daughter comes home from college to help out. The farm needs constant work. Shellie didn’t do farm work while growing up, so she has to learn too.

Mattie is confused by several things she learns shortly after her husband’s death, like why did he want to be buried in Maine instead of next to their son here in North Dakota. She finds a plane ticket he bought, then there was an invoice from their neighbor. They had friends from Maine, but couldn’t find letters from them and Mattie looked everywhere.

Meanwhile, the work continues. They had advertised for a man to help on the farm, and a young woman showed up instead. Dawn, as she wants to now be called, knew how to fix the farm equipment so it worked out.

There was also a young Indian boy hiding out in the barn. Mattie coaxed him out, said he could stay, and she paid him for helping out with all the work too. But in the fall he would need to go to school. The boy was shy and took a very long while to figure out his name. In the meantime Mattie looked into a missing person’s report, trying to find his family.

While the women work the farm things happen, and they also learn about Haney’s life.
There was something about this novel that has stuck with me, my mind keeps going back to that farm, the rural area in North Dakota. The author drew the characters fully, although not all completely likeable. There’s sadness, violence and neighbors that you just know are going to do something horrible someday.

This was another book that had lingered on my bookshelves for a long time. I’m glad I finally picked it up to read, but it wasn’t easy going the whole way.


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