by Ann Patchett, Narrated by Hope Davis, 2011, Audible.com

This book is about a pharmacologist (who happens to be in a relationship with the CEO of the pharmaceutical company where she works).  She is asked by her boss to go to the Amazon to find out why the research the company is funding is taking so long.  A co-worker who was sent earlier has apparently died and she also wants to find out how he died and where his body was buried.  She reluctantly decides to go.

What transpires in the Amazon is pretty far-fetched.  The native tribe has found a bark of a tree that allows them to avoid malarial infection and become pregnant even into old age.

I attended a lecture on this book by Elaine Newton at the Naples Philharmonic.  Ms. Newton gives a lecture series each year at “The Phil” and, since my wife was not feeling well, I consented to attend.  She gushed over the book and its author for about 45 minutes but did not enter into any dialogue with the audience.  She also mentioned that the book was a potential Pulitzer Prize award winner, but the Pulitzer committee decided to not make an award selection this year.

I failed to get very excited about this book.  I found that it dragged out in several parts.  The plot was very thin and predictable, and the end wasn’t very fulfilling.  The stereotyped characters seemed somewhat shallow and didn’t seem to grab my interest.  Ms. Newton apparently felt otherwise.  The rest of the audience seemed to share her appreciation of the book, but I felt that level of praise was not quite warranted.  Each to his own, I guess.