Title: Flight
Behavior
Author: Barbara
Kingsolver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: November
6, 2012
Genres: Literary
Fiction, Contemporary
Reviewed by: Ellen
Fritz
Ellen’s rating: 3/5
SUMMARY
Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who
gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now,
after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for
permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive
flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house
to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley
filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary
miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious
leaders, and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into
unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and
a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. As the community lines
up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her
church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo
all she has ever believed.
REVIEW
The book summary for Flight Behavior, as well as the first part of the story, truly made
me look forward to an unusual and interesting read. I was a bit disappointed
when the unusual turned out to be the day to day life of Dellarobia Turnbow and
her semi-impoverished family. Fortunately for me, the interesting factor
remained in all the information concerning the life cycle and migration habits
of the Monarch butterfly.
Dellarobia, the main character, is an unhappy mother of
two who yearns for a more fulfilling life. She satisfies this yearning through
illicit affairs, until she has a spiritual experience courtesy of an
extraordinary phenomenon in the valley behind their house. Can this
enlightenment and the upheaval that follows truly cure Dellarobia's discontent?
Although I found this book a bit depressing and
unnecessarily full of lengthy conversations, it is filled with beautiful
descriptive prose and contains some fascinating, well-researched information
about the Monarch butterfly as well as global warming. Fortunately the
dialogue, especially that between Dellarobia and her best friend, Dovey, is
always lively, witty and full of laugh-out-loud humor.
The other positive point about this book is that two
of the characters, Dellarobia and her mother-in-law, Hester, show remarkable
and realistic growth both in attitude and, in Dellarobia's case, also
ambition.
Cub, Dellarobia's husband, is a true salt-of-the-earth
kind of character. Unfortunately, however, he seems to be against progress and
is always, depressingly, ready to accept defeat. His father, a stubborn old
farmer, is even more annoyingly stagnant. At first Hester, Cub's mother,
appears to be the stereotypically harsh, unrelenting mother in law. Her
personality develops throughout the story, though, and toward the end shows
more depth and sensitivity.
The insensitivity of the sensation-seeking media is
balanced by the passion that conservationists, environmental scientists, and
nature loving organizations have for maintaining the earth and its natural
resources.
Flight Behavior is the kind of book
that one should read at leisure. It would definitely be a highly stimulating
read for those who have a genuine interest in nature.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
Barbara Kingsolver
was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1955 and grew up in Carlisle in rural
Kentucky. When Kingsolver was seven years old, her father, a physician, took
the family to the former Republic of Congo in what is now the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Her parents worked in a public health capacity, and the
family lived without electricity or running water.
After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology when she realized that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of [them:] get to play 'Blue Moon' in a hotel lobby." She was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the Vietnam war. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1977, and moved to France for a year before settling in Tucson, Arizona, where she would live for much of the next two decades. In 1980 she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a Master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid 1980s as a science writer for the university, which eventually lead to some freelance feature writing. She began her career in fiction writing after winning a short story contest in a local Phoenix newspaper.
After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology when she realized that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of [them:] get to play 'Blue Moon' in a hotel lobby." She was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the Vietnam war. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1977, and moved to France for a year before settling in Tucson, Arizona, where she would live for much of the next two decades. In 1980 she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a Master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid 1980s as a science writer for the university, which eventually lead to some freelance feature writing. She began her career in fiction writing after winning a short story contest in a local Phoenix newspaper.
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