Animal nature, human nature, bugs and insects, forest life, their dependence and interdependence, habits good and bad and how the balance is affected when death, destruction or any kind of change is introduced; how species adapt, how human beings cope – or don’t – all of this we find in the juxtaposition of creatures assembled from the thoughtful poetic pen of Barbara Kingsolver in Prodigal Summer as she weaves three stories variously referred to in three alternating chapter titles, Predators, Moth Love and Old Chestnuts.
It may be due to the sound of the cicadas screeching outside while I read, or the richness of Kingsolver’s prose, but this book exudes the heat of summer and its associated sensations. It places you deep in the forest on the mountainside, heightening all the senses and bringing attention to every sound and movement, witness to the presence of all manner of wildlife pulsing just beyond what the eye can see.
Predators – Essentially the story revolves around three female characters, Deanna, the wildlife biologist living in a forest cabin working as her kind of conservationist, destabilised by the presence of a young hunter in her territory and her preoccupation with guarding a young coyote family that have returned to the forest wilderness.
She shares her environment with a snake, another predator and a metaphor for man, the snake is natural to the habitat and will expose Deanna for what she really is – not just a qualified biologist tending nature, keeping man and his hunting instinct out – but a woman with a suppressed but natural maternal instinct, depicted by her attachment to a family of chickadees. When the fledglings fall prematurely out of the nest, she puts them back, justifying her intervention in nature’s way, trying to alter the otherwise harsh survival odds nature has given the little birds, more in their favour. She succeeds in keeping them all alive, only to discover on her return from a walk, four telling bulges in the coil of the sleeping black serpent.
When the snake finally leaves she feels something shift inside her body – relief, it felt like, enormous and settled, like a pile of stones on a steep slope suddenly shifting and tumbling slightly into the angle of repose.
Moth Love by Nusio21
Moth Love – Lusa is a bug scientist, now local farmer’s wife, though still perceived as an outsider with her mixed cultural background and continued use of her foreign sounding maiden name. She is trying to adapt to her new role and changed circumstances while staying true to her beliefs and recognising her not so traditional, but well-founded knowledge and approach to farming.
In the summer after … Lusa discovered lawn-mower therapy. The engine’s vibrations roaring through her body and its thunderous noise in her ears seemed to bully all human language from her head, chasing away the complexities of regret and recrimination. It was a blessing to ride over the grass for an hour or two as a speechless thing, floating through a universe of vibratory sensation. By accident, she had found her way to the mind-set of an insect.
Chestnuts
Old Chestnuts – The third character(s) are the elderly and persistent Nannie Rawley and her equally aged, cantankerous, fixed in his ideas neighbour, the widower Garnett. They trade insults and unappreciated advice across their boundaries, but can’t seem to keep away from each other despite their polar opposite views.
Halal Goat
Not that it detracted from the reading of the book, but I did ponder the similarity in conviction of the three female characters, it is not clear whether or not they know each other for much of the book, but with such similar attitudes in their various fields, in a real community I would have expected them to have discovered each other and had some kind of interaction or at least knowledge of each other from the beginning. Sometimes this is a deliberate tactic by the writer to keep the connections between people vague until the end, to shape some kind of revelation. It just seemed like a bit of a coincidence that three such characters living in a traditional farming community had such little awareness of each other.
As much a study of nature, as a story of that which passes between these characters during this one summer, Prodigal Summer is indulgence of the satisfying, learned kind; it is compelling reading and a lesson in the wonder, beauty and balance of nature and humanity.
Word by Word 
I love Kingsolver’s way with words – so lyrical and rich
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I agree, she is one author, I will read everything she writes for this reason.
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This was the first Kingsolver I read and became immediately addicted. I think the way in which she uses language to communicate the lush oppressiveness of the atmosphere is stunning.
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I can see why you’d be hooked if this was the first you read, I think mine was a slow gradual love of her work, starting with ‘The Bean Trees’ and ‘Poisonwood Bible’ and then ‘Lacuna’ which I reviewed on here. I have a book of essays on the shelf too, I may have to dig that out soon.
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I haven’t read this – although I’m tempted now – but I thought Kingsolver’s ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ was a remarkable book.
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Yes ‘Poisonwood Bible’ is a masterpiece. I do hope you seek this one out, most enjoyable and worth it for the prose alone.
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i forgot how much i loved this book until reading your (as always) insightful and lovely take on it.
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I know we could talk about this one for hours 🙂
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She built a career on respect for the environment and conveyance of her pov to readers, and hers is a unique and wonderful voice. As always, a good review.
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Thanks Nelle, your comment reminds me a little of another writer I’ve yet to venture into, but whose come into my orbit recently, Terry Tempest Williams, have you read any of her work? Her latest book of stories When Women Were Birds – Fifty-four Variations on Voice sounds like a wonderful read.
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I remember reading this several years ago – I loved it so much.
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It’s always a pleasure to find such a wonderful book, that has been sitting unread and somehow missed right on the bookshelf. I am sure I have many more like this, waiting their turn, for a fellow reader to jog my interest.
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This was my first Kingsolver too and I loved it, reading and re-reading her images, phrases, sentences, bathing in the beauty of her sea of words, copying down whole paragraphs at a time. I think it might be time to find tha book again.
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Sounds a good idea Edith, reading it as a writer might be quite a revelation and would certainly take a second reading. I hope you find it and indulge again.
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I’m going to look out for this book now, great review.
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Love it when I get a response like that, thank you Charlotte!
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I really enjoyed your review, which I read while walking the dog! Being a man I can’t multi-task so walking and reading is beyond me (!) – the dog couldn’t work out why I kept stopping every few steps – but good reviews do that to me!! You captured the spirit and essence of the book as I remember it. It’s a few years since I read it – but I loved it. Glad you did too.
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I don’t think I could do that either,perhaps you were trying to copy those professional commuting readers in train stations who walk and read at the same time and everyone else has to get out of the way – happy I didn’t delay the dog too long!
Yes, a great read and many wonderful moments to share, I think I just had to let her words speak for themselves, rather than use too many adjectives to try and describe language that is already perfect.
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Thank you, Claire, I will definitely have to read this. I love your writing.
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Thank you for your very kind words Valorie, I hope you find and enjoy this book too.
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Hi Claire, I will try to get hold of a copy of this. I read The Poisonwood Bible last year and found it really interesting.
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Great, its a good one to follow on from ‘The Posionwood Bible’, not so harrowing, a pleasurable read and immersion into thought-provoking and lyrical prose.
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Thanks for the review Claire. I read it many years ago and you have spurred me on to read it again. She is such a good writer.
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Thanks Nella, sometimes it is good to go back to old favourites or search the shelves for those we missed, I’m so pleased to have read this now. She is indeed a wonderful writer, I love the depth in her subjects as well, unique experiences and thought provoking circumstances using wonderful language.
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A great review, Claire, of an interesting and study in nature. Thanks for sharing
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I read this years ago, but still consider it my favorite Kingsolver novel. Thanks for the wonderful review!
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Prodigal Summer was great, but I LOoooVED Poisonwood Bible! X
Superb Review.
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Wonderful review, Claire! I read ‘Prodigal Summer’ last year and loved it. I liked this sentence from your review very much – ‘is indulgence of the satisfying, learned kind’. I totally agree! Thanks for this wonderful review!
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Thanks for checking out my review, I was really looking forward to reading this having had it on the shelf for so long and learning that it was a lyrical gem.
I have another summer book lying in waiting for this year Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, another writer in tune with nature.
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Hope you enjoy reading Tove Jansson’s ‘The Summer Book’. I have that on my shelf too, waiting to be read. I read her Moomin comic series sometime back and loved it.
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I shall have to read the Moomin’s sometime as well. I guess we will both be reading Jansson this summer.
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