Short Reviews of Kingsolver Novels

I realized that when I read books, though I think they have had a profound effect on me at the time, years later, I only faintly remember that I read these novels. So, I am going to attempt to review every book that I get that feeling about, to secure it in my memory banks. To free my brain up, I wrote the reviews in the form of free verse. What attracted me to Prodigal Summer that day that I discovered the public library in my neighborhood, was that it was set in Appalachia, and I had spent time there with my friend Betsy this past summer. I picked up Lacuna because I wanted to read Kingsolver again, and here was one about Mexico, another of my passions. 

Prodigal Summer

This is what book-reading should be like.

You know it has to end,

 But you don't want it to.

You miss it because you finished it.

You miss the characters,

You know the loose ends,

The foreshadowing,

The plot lines 

Are all tied up 

and if it were to go on, 

it'd probably get redundant 

Or sappy

But you still wish it wasn't over.

Your perspective on life

And nature

And ecology

And the web of life

Is deepened

And your desire is piqued 

To know your own back yard ecology better

Or you hope so.

Amidst so much change

And destruction

And separation from the natural world 

We are fraught with

In the modern world

There is still a thread of hope

That nature will win

That we have a role in that.

The Lacuna

I have an affinity for Mexico. 

Have always loved Frida Kahlo

And Diego Rivera

And history.

Pretty amazing that this work of fiction

Could braid together

All these strands

The Mexican revolution 

Russian politics of the time

The decline of Trotsky and

Rise of Stalin

American history of the time,

Involvement in World War II

And then the Cold War

Not to mention

What it was to be a gay man 

At the time

Not to mention 

What it was to be a victim

Of anti-communist persecution 

About loyalty oaths

And then there's the delicious character trait 

That he was a cook. 

And a writer.

A journal-writer. 

A writer of historical fiction,

Which I love.

Too bad he was not a real author.

I want to read his novels.