Library of Clean Reads: Ann Patchett

Monday, July 25, 2011

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (TLC Book Tours)

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Rated: P, S)
HarperCollins
ISBN: 978-0062049803
Published June 7, 2011
Hardcover, 368 pages

I was truly enthralled by this book! Bel Canto was good, but for me, this one was even better. I was transported to the Amazon jungle in a fascinating story about science, ethics, and facing one's past mistakes. I had no clue how it was going to end and a part of me did not want it to end.

Dr Marina Singh, a research scientist with a pharmaceutical company, is sent to the Amazonian jungle to find Dr. Annick Swenson in hopes of learning about the death of her research partner Anders Eckman, and how the new fertility drug research was proceeding among the Lakashi tribe. As Marina embarks on this adventure, we learn about her past fears and how it has affected her own relationships. Her trip to Brazil and the jungle with its dangers and wonders was so amazing to read that I could not get enough.

Truly, Patchett is a master storyteller with her captivating prose, vivid imagination, and intriguing plot revolving on a fertility drug research and the mysterious death of a co-worker. She creates characters that become unique because of the circumstances they are inadvertently thrown in. I liked Marina, Milton and Easter, the deaf boy she becomes attached to. To say more about the story would give away the plot, but suffice it to say it is different from anything I have read.

I was unaware how easily my emotions were invested in the characters and the outcome of the story until I came to the ending. It was abrupt and left me with so many questions about the characters and their fate! Because of this, I felt that perhaps the author should not have invested so much time on some secondary characters so as to fully exploit the main ones. The ethical side of the drug research could have been further explored as well. I was frustrated that there was no epilogue just to tie in what happens to them, especially with Marina. Does she take up Dr. Swenson's advice? Does she disclose to Mr. Fox, her employer and lover, what really is going on in the jungle? Does she go back to her regular job after all that has taken place? And what about Dr. Swenson and Easter?

Despite all this, I still loved this book. It took me to another place. It made me question what I would have done in similar situations. Reading it during the hot July days was perfect because I felt the intensity of the insect-infested humid jungle atmosphere even more. If you're looking for a different read this summer, don't hesitate to pick this one up. It's an intelligent and thrilling book.

Note: This book had two f-words during an intense scene and some sexual references, not explicit.

For more reviews, follow the book tour here.

I will count this book toward the following challenges: Reading the World Challenge

About the author:
Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles in 1963 and raised in Nashville. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 1990, she won a residential fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. It was named a New York Times Notable Book for 1992. In 1993, she received a Bunting Fellowship from the Mary Ingrahm Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College. Patchett’s second novel, Taft, was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best work of fiction in 1994. Her third novel, The Magician’s Assistant,was short-listed for England’s Orange Prize and earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Her next novel, Bel Canto, won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named the Book Sense Book of the Year. It sold more than a million copies in the United States and has been translated into thirty languages. In 2004, Patchett published Truth & Beauty, a memoir of her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy. It was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, andEntertainment Weekly. Truth & Beauty was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Chicago Tribune‘s Heartland Prize, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.

Visit Ann Patchett at her website.

Disclosure: Thanks to TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Rated: S)
Harper Perennial, 2nd edition
ISBN: 978-0-06-083872-0
Published July 2005 (first published 2001)
Trade Paperback, 352 pages

Surreal. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of this book. Initially, when I began reading it, I was simultaneously annoyed and fascinated. Is that possible? After much thought I realized why this was so. But first let me tell you the premise of this book, which attracted me like a bee to a flower.

A lavish birthday party is being given in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman whose only reason for attending is Roxane Coss, opera’s most revered soprano. She mesmerizes the crowd of about 200 guests at the home of the vice-president of a South American country that remains unnamed throughout the novel. But then a band of terrorists invades the home and takes the entire party hostage. As negotiations fire back and forth between the terrorists and the government through the Red Cross, weeks turn into months and unexpected bonds form between the hostages and the terrorists within the walls of the home.

Written in the third person omniscient narrative, I was frustrated when the actions and reactions of the hostages or terrorists were described collectively as all having the exact same emotional and physical reactions to a particular situation, which of course is impossible. However, as I kept reading I realized this added a subtle comic element to the story. The New Yorker called this a tragicomic novel and I concur. The author skillfully used the riveting elements of opera music and the beauty of multiple languages to engage the reader’s own emotions. If you are an opera aficionado, you will appreciate this novel. Actually, the way it is written resembles an opera piece itself, ending tragically as expected.

Perhaps because of this I could look past the times I felt the hostages could have overthrown the terrorists who albeit having weapons, were outnumbered and sometimes not too brilliant. I rated this book S because there is adultery and unmarried sex, which may make some uncomfortable. The main characters are memorable and will stay with you long after the last page is turned. The epilogue, though, caught me totally off guard, and I still do not like this ending. It would have been preferable to leave it out.

If you like stories that advocate the love of the arts, the power of humanity, and the inadequacies of politics, then pour yourself a glass of wine, put on a Puccini CD and be prepared to be taken on a strange ride with twists and turns to a semi-expected ending.

Disclosure: I bought this book at a used book store. I was not told how to rate or review this product.