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The constant hum of the forest permeates every page of Barbara Kingsolver's novel, THE
PRODIGAL SUMMER. With insects incessantly buzzing, twigs snapping, animals scurrying,
leaves whispering, birds squalling, moths mating, it's as if hundreds of different
languages are being spoken all at once. The forest is not a quiet place, and THE PRODIGAL
SUMMER is not a quite novel.
Before delving into the many merits of this book, I must first set down my one complaint.
Several times during my initial reading I felt an odd sensation of being preached to,
admonished and yet at the same time educated. Kingsolver almost goes over the top
with what I'm calling her "agenda," her thoughts on the fragility and
vulnerability of nature at man's mercy, that come through the voices of her main
characters. But despite this, her characters' passion and zeal ring true more often than
not, especially because the novel takes place in southern Appalachia, Kingsolver's old
stomping ground, both in fiction and in life.
Each chapter of the book deals with one of the three main characters and are subsequently
titled, Predators, Moth Love, and Old Chestnuts. Forty-something Deanna, the predator
lover, has left her small town life in the Zebulon Valley and now lives alone as a forest
caretaker. Lusa, the moth lover, is a new bride who suddenly finds herself saddled with a
farm and a family of strangers. Garnett, the chestnut lover, is an embittered old man who
pines away for companionship and the extinct American Chestnut tree. Through the voices of
Deanna and Lusa, Kingsolver's message reverberates through the towering trees and farming
fields --- do not mess with nature or any of its creatures, big or small, and do not ever
spray pesticides. Garnett, on the other hand, stands for destruction with his spray
happy hands.
One of the characters who has a flair for speeches is Nanny, Garnett's elderly neighbor
and nemesis. A foil to Garnett, Nanny's character is replete with Mother Nature images.
She is a quaint and quirky looking old lady, complete with braided buns, old-fashioned
dresses, the occasional pair of short pants, and a very independent lifestyle. Nanny
prides herself on being solely organic, while Garnett only feels comfortable dousing his
plants with chemicals --- both feel the other's farming habits endanger their own. When
his wife dies eight years before the novel's start, there is nothing to distract Garnett
and he funnels his anger into sanctimonious rage upon Nanny, who fires back by sabotaging
his efforts at spraying. They are a comical couple, but at times feel less substantial
than the other characters, especially Nanny, who we don't get to know nearly as well
Luckily, the many gorgeous, lush and sensual moments overpower any agenda in this novel.
It's a long, languid summer brimming and at times overflowing with erotic fecundity.
Nature is working double time to spread its bounty --- honeysuckle bushes overcome barn
walls, scrotal shaped "lady's slipper" orchids blossom erotically in the forest,
apples hang heavy from Nanny's boughs. The most beautiful images though are found in
Lusa's love --- moth love. A career entomologist before she left the city to marry her
farmer husband, Lusa continues to read about and study her favorite insects. She is
especially fascinated at how moths use the language of scent to find one another, similar
to pheromones in humans, and some even mate until death. These specific moths don't have
mouths so they cannot speak nor eat. Their sole mission is to procreate, and they do so
with abandon.
Coyotes are the other beautiful creatures at the center of the novel, appearing suddenly
and disappearing just as fast, feeding rumors that frighten farmers and rally hunters from
all over the country. Deanna dreams of finding the coyotes to prove that they exist and to
celebrate the life they have managed to salvage despite man's attempt to drive them into
extinction. In the first few pages of the novel Deanna meets one of those men, a wanderer
from the West who has his gun handy, and whose mission she fears is to hunt the very thing
she reveres. But even their tremendously different animal morals cannot squelch their
immediate physical attraction, a lust for life that triggers her own internal war between
body and mind.
The three storylines --- Deanna's search for the elusive coyote, Lusa's for a home, and
Garnett's for his beloved chestnuts --- stream together side by side, sometimes skimming
each other's boundaries. A chair in Deanna's chestnut cabin used to be in Lusa's home.
Nanny once loved Deanna's father, and Garnett has a secret of his own that connects him to
Lusa. Pheromones fly, coyotes howl, moths mate, humans bleed their emotions all over the
tracts of land and forest during Kingsolver's prodigal summer.
--- Reviewed by Dana Schwartz
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