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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.