True Confessions: I love Barbara Kingsolver. I love her stories, her characters and her subject matter. I buy her books in hard copy when they are first released. Her novel "The Poisonwood Bible" is among my top ten books of all time. I even loved "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", her collection of essays about the joys of eating close to home and supporting local farms. I love Barbara Kingsolver. With that in mind, I'd like to have loved her newest novel, "Flight Behavior" but I really didn't.When I bought the book I was so excited to read it. Its about a young mother in the mountains of Virginia, who stumbles upon an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Monarch butterflies that usually famously overwinter in the mountains of Mexico, suddenly change their roosting place and move to the Virginian mountains instead. Scientists gather in a race against the weather to find out why they have moved, sure that snow and freezing temperatures will kill off what they believe is the entirety of the North American monarch population before they can breed and start their migration back in the spring. The small town where the woman lives is turned upside down as the media, the scientific community, and a host of monarch spectators descend upon the mountain. Enter a mysterious and exotic scientist, in laws from hell and a sweet but simple best friend, and the story takes off. The woman is transformed by the butterfly happening and soon finds herself at a crossroads in her life. Those of you who know me would immediately think that I'd have this book perched on the top of the pile of books eagerly waiting the opportunity to read it. But in fact it was a chore to finish.
Kingsolver likes to explore social issues in her novels; Native American parentage, missionaries in indigineous culture, environmental and political issues to name a few. She is outspoken about social change and for that I applaud her. She has a science background and her husband is a biologist by trade, so environmental issues like climate change are no great stretch for her. But here's where it went wrong for me.
Flight Behavior is pedantic and preachy. Her characters are cutouts of real people and their story just doesn't ring true for me. I felt like Kingsolver took a speech that she or her husband gave about climate change, with key points and issues, and crafted characters to say her words and illustrate the points. She hit every one. Her characters are stereotypical and their words sound as if they are parroting what the scientific community is telling us about the issue. Not that the message doesn't need to be told, but I would expect a more creative treatment; one with more finesse than what Kingsolver gave us. In the telling of the story, the local mountain folks are painted as dumb hicks from the back country, an (I'm sure) unintended consequence of the stark contrast between locals and the scientific elite. Frankly, her portrayal of these people was depressing and sad. Reading it each night proved to be a downer, not an interesting and enlightening experience.
Now, for the record, I am an environmental education professional in my real life, so I have heard the climate change rhetoric for years. I know the key points and have taught about the issue for the better part of 30 years in one form or another. So maybe reading this book felt a little like a bus man's holiday for me, but I was saddened to think about those that don't believe and needed to hear the issue spelled out, because I think they got a school house lesson thinly veiled as a novel. Even the end was not as satisfying as it could have been. I'm not sure that this approach is one that will entertain people and take them on a ride that will help them understand and change their views, but will give them the feeling of being hit over the head with a two by four until they get it.
Come on Barbara, teach if you want, but don't put away your beautiful storytelling skills while you do it. They are what engender more understanding than a lecture. You're better than that.
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