The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver, 2009, HarperCollins Publishers, New York
I was disappointed in the format of this book as it reads as a collection of journal pages, letters, and other assorted excerpts from the life of an individual. Because of this format, the novel lacks the flow of Kingsolver’s previous novels as well as her incredible prose style. Despite these shortcomings, the book has merit … but not the high praise that her other books attract.
The book is the story of Harrison Shepard and his life as told through his journals, letters, and the writings of his close friend and stenographer, Mrs. Violet Brown. The story starts in Mexico where he is living with his mother, a native-born Mexican. The story migrates back to the Washington, D.C., area where he is in boarding school. He then travels back to Mexico where he becomes Leon Trotsky’s cook and secretary and friends of the painters, Diego and Frieda Rivera. He then returns to the U.S. where he writes some very successful novels about the struggles of the Aztecs against the Spanish conquistitor, Cortez.
Shepard is then accused of being a Communist and is summoned to appear in his own defense before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The novel presents the Red Scare of the early 1950’s in vivid, if somewhat heavy-handed detail. On reading this part of the book, it caused me to ponder the current hysteria targeting socialism. While nobody has been indicted or executed for his or her socialist viewpoints and the hysteria is evidenced primarily by the party that is out of power, the level of acrimony seems to be rising. Could we, perhaps, be on our way back to the mentality of the 50’s?
While this book is not as enjoyable to read as her previous novels were, it is, nevertheless, worthwhile if you can stick with it.
Hello Larry,
This is primarily to make contact, inasmuch as our interests and life stages seem to overlap considerably.
I appreciate this review of Kingsolver’s book. I have read a few of her previous works and enjoyed them greatly, but that’s almost all I can remember. Perhaps I’ll pass on this one.
My reading preferences have gravitated toward non-fiction, more and more. What keeps me rooted in fiction is my membership in a monthly book discussion circle, and a fiction writers group.
In order to have another stimulus for fiction I’ll subscribe to your blog when I can figure out how to do it.
Best wishes,
Ron Pavellas
Stockholm
http://pavellas.com
Thanks for your comment, Ron. I will try to provide you with some thoughts that you can use for your reading.
You are now registered for my blog. If you would like to receive updates in a somewhat automated fashion, please click on on of the RSS links at the bottom of the page. Depending on the browser you are using, you can get automated feeds from my blog to your browser. In Internet Explorer, for example, these feeds are found by clicking on the favorites button. When the favorites come up, you will see a Feed tab between favorites and history. This is where you can see content automatically downloaded to your browser.
I know Firefox has an RSS feed capability but I haven’t used it. Google Chrome does not have it, but in it’s latest version there is an RSS plugin that you can add. You probably already know all of this, but I thought I would provide it anyway.
Your web site is very interesting. I added your link it to my blogroll so that, hopefully, others who visit my site will find yours (although not many folks have actually ever visited my site).
I look forword to more dialogue in the future.