Monday, May 07, 2012

Masked Mom's Media Monday: State of Wonder

Ann Patchett's newest novel State of Wonder opens with news of the death of Anders Eckman, a researcher for a Minnesota pharmaceutical company who was sent to the Amazon to check on the progress of a company financed field team. His coworker and friend, Marina Singh is soon sent in search of answers regarding Eckman's death as well as the status of the field team, which Eckman had not satisfactorily reported upon. Singh is swept from the safe confines of the lab where she long ago ensconced herself after a devastating error during her obstetrical training drove her to change specialties to the alien world of the Amazon rainforests, where more questions than answers await her.

Singh's journey, like all great literary journeys, is both internal and external. We are with her as she struggles to come to terms with her past, her present, her possible futures. We suffer her disorientation as she tries to adjust to the claustrophobic and sometimes threatening landscape around her. Patchett does an astounding job bringing the natural world of the Amazon alive on the page--rarely does a scene pass without mention of the teeming insect life, the presence of deadly reptiles and amphibians, swift and violent changes in weather, the vegetation so dense and all-consuming that it seems at times to be sentient, maybe malevolent. Just as Singh is utterly immersed in her setting so, too, is the reader.

Patchett's ability to bring such a hectic and diverse place alive on the page without a hint of heavy-handedness is reason enough to pick up the book, but she brings an equally deft touch to her characters and the themes playing out in their lives. This adventure story touches on the topics of corporate greed, personal ambition, cultural interference,  medical and scientific ethics. How do we measure the value of a human life? Where is the line between exploration and exploitation? Who decides? Are there ends which can justify any means? Is there a limit to the moral transgressions we will overlook when in the presence of true brilliance? What happens when it becomes clear that arrogance and altruism are not only not mutually exclusive but may in fact be interdependent?

State of Wonder is a lushly written book that left me with lots to think about.

Masked Mom's One-Word Review: Riveting.

13 comments:

  1. Ah, another book to add to my summer reading list. I really enjoyed Patchett's Patron Saint of Liars - Bel Canto not as much - this sounds like a winner. Thanks for the review!

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    1. I still have never read Bel Canto, which is the book that most often comes up when her name is mentioned. But I've read the Patron Saint one and Run as well as the non-fiction one about her friendship with Lucy Grealy, Truth and Beauty. This is my favorite so far.

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  2. I'm adding this to my TBR list. This means I should get to it within the next 5 to 10 years. ;-)

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    1. That sounds about like my time frame. If I did not add another book to my list, I think I could finish them all in ten years. Not adding books, however, is a ridiculously far-fetched concept.

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  3. I have to stop coming here, I have more books to start now then summer days to read them. ;) Thanks for the recommendation though. I think.

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    1. I feel your pain. I have a gigantic list and then I get sidetracked by the new fiction table at the library and end up bringing home something not even on the list. It's no way to get to the bottom of a list, I'll tell ya.

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  4. I may not have the attention span to read the book, but my one-word review of your review is: Riveting.

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    1. I agree with Mark. I love your book reviews. You should get paid to do them!

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    2. Thanks, guys. Jewels, that's on my short-list of dream jobs. :)

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  5. This one sounds fascinating- I cannot possibly imagine what it would be like to make such a huge change!

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    1. The fact that the lab was in Minnesota makes the change even more drastic. I am always fascinated by the fish out of water stories since I was one so often as a kid that I find the concept utterly terrifying as an adult.

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  6. Dammit! Now I've added another book to my "There's no way you'll get to all of these before you're dead" stack. I'm reshuffling the stack, too, to bring this one near the top.

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    1. Ah, the shuffle. I'm very familiar with that. :)

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