It's hard not to compare Ann Patchett's latest book to her prize-winning novel Bel Canto but it's not really helpful. State of wonder is another unique book from a good storyteller with a positive approach to her characters. Most of the people in this book want to make the world a better place but they also want to preserve what is good about the current world. The setting, deep in the Amazon jungle, and the more than difficult way of getting there, gives the book an exotic flavour but the struggles of each character with their own feelings, memories and desires provides a more urbane contemporary feel. Aspects of science, medicine, anthropology and tourism inform this novel but it is the way the characters blend and resolve their situations that is so enjoyable.Ann Patchett says State of wonder is like all her other books in that it is about "a pocket of the world just before that pocket disappears". I really enjoyed discovering this particular pocket and thinking about its disappearance.
Hope you find it satisfying and thought-provoking too.
i'm looking forward to reading this, but i'm first working my way through all of ann patchett's books [more or less] in order - i actually first read "truth & beauty" [now there's a non-fiction book for you!!] & was absolutely astounded by the power of it all
ReplyDeleteso, as you do [or as i do], i'm trying to read in chronological order, to get both a sense of the development of her writing, as well as enjoying it
i've finished "the magician's assistant" & "bel canto", & am about 2/3 of the way through "run" - all very different people, in many ways, & very different situations; & yet, some very recognisable ways of dealing with those people & situations
i've been comparing her, especially in this latest book, to lionel shriver - her first book i read was "we have to talk about kevin" [of course], but i've now read several others; i find her a good writer, challenging, not afraid of difficult subjects; what i've been thinking here has been that she & patchett deal with what might be broadly similar subject/situations, & yet write about them so very very differently, & somewhat disappointingly, shriver now appears stylistically awkward compared to patchett ...