barbara kingsolver prodigal summer summary

Kingsolver's characteristic earnestness reaches critical mass in this novel - the point at which didacticism eclipses art. Prodigal Summer in a state of restless irritation. Prodigal Summer reads like a love song to the Appalachian region. This novel is also as deeply felt as any of Kingsolver's work. Kingsolver amply illustrates the far-reaching consequences of species extinction, and the particular complications that imported species cause. Prodigal Summer is informed by a prodigious grasp of botany and entomology. The Bean Trees,in 1988, Kingsolver worked as a science journalist for magazines like Smithsonian, and I don't mean to be dismissive before she published But he's trying to breed a chestnut tree that's resistant to blight, and he's soon drawn into the orbit of his neighbour, Nanny Rawlins, a feisty ol' gal and a certified organic farmer.Īs you may gather, Kingsolver is more interested in the garden than in the lovers who dally under the trees, and these three narratives set up enough thematic material for a whole season of Garnett sees Two-Four-D as the mainstay of civic order. The third strand, Old Chestnuts, is about Garnett Walker, a standard-issue old coot (Kingsolver's effort at comic relief). And in this overcharged summer, it's her cantankerous in-laws she's left to fall in love with - particularly that cute 17-year-old nephew. She can be the new breed of farmer who follows nature's lead. But then he dies, and she's the boss, and can stop spraying with pesticides and stop growing tobacco. 'You have to persuade two steps back every day or it will move in and take you over,' her new husband explains.

Lusa is dismayed at the war farmers are waging against bugs and weeds and overzealous honeysuckle. Moth Love is about Lusa Landowski, an entomologist and a newcomer to Zebulon County. This plot turns on how Eddie will react to Deanna's master's thesis on coyotes. (He's 20 years younger than she is, but Darwin could explain that, too). Under a perverse hormonal spell, Deanna falls in love - er, mates - with Eddie. Then Eddie Bondo, a bounty hunter from Missouri, tracks a coyote into the park. She's a scientist with a special passion for predators. In Predators, Deanna Wolfe lives alone in the Zebulon National Forest, maintaining the trails.

Barbara kingsolver prodigal summer summary