O
Owen Latchkey
Guest
Life is hectic for everyone, but it often takes 'hectic' to stupid extremes in my case. This means that I often don't get the chance to read or write as much as I would like to. Granted, if I could spend 24/7 doing those two things I think I still might feel rushed. A month ago I was able to get a book from the library and actually read it. The author, Ann Patchett, is an award winning novelist who was coming to a local college to give insight to the critical elements of the book and of writing. I was not able to attend the lecture, but I read her book, State of Wonder, anyway because it was not a genre I read a lot and it is supposed to be her best work. You know, grow as a writer by reading off-genre authors at the top of their game and all of that.
If you asked me to place State of Wonder in a genre, I'd have a hard time explaining where it belongs. It is sort of adventure, sort of romance, sort of Hemmingway-esque lost generation, science self-awakening. Perhaps it is what we consider the literary genre, a kind of high-minded exploration of various themes and archetypal pathways. The novel is told from the point of view of Marina Singh, an American-born Indian woman who started school to become an OBGYN and switched paths to become a pharmaceutical doctor that developed cholesterol drugs. Her colleague has been sent to the Amazon to check on a mysterious doctor working on a miracle drug and after months of little word from him, Marina finds out he has died. Their boss and her coworker's wife would like answers about the death if possible, so Marina is sent to find out what happened. Through the course of the novel, she thinks she isn't fit for this kind of adventure, but by the end she has surprised herself and found surprising event unfolding deep in the jungle.
My opinion, overall, is that the technical aspects of the writing were good and that the story was lacking in the way of holding my interest.
The transitions, something that is in my opinion an immensely important part of storytelling, were weird. It was as if during the novel she had written scenes that just never appeared and I could feel a break in the natural flow of the story, sometimes jarring me out of suspension of disbelief. They didn't jump back and forth, they just made significant gaps where I was expecting more of any given scene. My sense of the passage of time in the novel suffered for this.
Sometimes I will read a book and think, "I don't care for the writing, but I love the story here. The premise is interesting and I want to know more." Stephen King is a lot like that for me. (Just personal opinion of course.) This was the opposite. I liked the writing, but the plot just kind of meandered along, touched a few promising scenes, and then got lost in the jungle again. It was interesting and I was able to finish the novel, but I sometimes felt like taking a nap and skipping ahead a chapter. The whole thing is kind of hard to explain--there was character development, there was no extraneous tangents, the plot advanced, but it just felt bland and that more interesting things were happening elsewhere. Again, a few scenes were more fascinating, but they were over fast.
The end of the novel left a lot of plot lines unresolved, though it did accomplish resolving the main theme, which revolved around the dead coworker. I am a fan of unresolved endings in general, but this seemed to go beyond a technique. It became a symbol of the whole miasma of the wandering, almost aimless pace of the book. You don't find out what happens to most of the characters and most of them are left hanging off the proverbial cliff after a few bombshells were dropped. I guess it was less an unresolved ending than it felt like there was another quarter of a book that was supposed to come afterwards.
I've written a lot of negative things about the book, but the bottom line is that I finished it, it had interesting elements, the writing was clean, and despite its problems, the plot was able to drag me along enough to want to know what would be happening in its different threads, which is what a story should do. The settings were some of the most interesting parts, particularly how the trees providing the miracle drug were utilized. I would read another of Patchett's books if given the opportunity.
I give the book a completely arbitrary 3 out of 5.
If you asked me to place State of Wonder in a genre, I'd have a hard time explaining where it belongs. It is sort of adventure, sort of romance, sort of Hemmingway-esque lost generation, science self-awakening. Perhaps it is what we consider the literary genre, a kind of high-minded exploration of various themes and archetypal pathways. The novel is told from the point of view of Marina Singh, an American-born Indian woman who started school to become an OBGYN and switched paths to become a pharmaceutical doctor that developed cholesterol drugs. Her colleague has been sent to the Amazon to check on a mysterious doctor working on a miracle drug and after months of little word from him, Marina finds out he has died. Their boss and her coworker's wife would like answers about the death if possible, so Marina is sent to find out what happened. Through the course of the novel, she thinks she isn't fit for this kind of adventure, but by the end she has surprised herself and found surprising event unfolding deep in the jungle.
My opinion, overall, is that the technical aspects of the writing were good and that the story was lacking in the way of holding my interest.
The transitions, something that is in my opinion an immensely important part of storytelling, were weird. It was as if during the novel she had written scenes that just never appeared and I could feel a break in the natural flow of the story, sometimes jarring me out of suspension of disbelief. They didn't jump back and forth, they just made significant gaps where I was expecting more of any given scene. My sense of the passage of time in the novel suffered for this.
Sometimes I will read a book and think, "I don't care for the writing, but I love the story here. The premise is interesting and I want to know more." Stephen King is a lot like that for me. (Just personal opinion of course.) This was the opposite. I liked the writing, but the plot just kind of meandered along, touched a few promising scenes, and then got lost in the jungle again. It was interesting and I was able to finish the novel, but I sometimes felt like taking a nap and skipping ahead a chapter. The whole thing is kind of hard to explain--there was character development, there was no extraneous tangents, the plot advanced, but it just felt bland and that more interesting things were happening elsewhere. Again, a few scenes were more fascinating, but they were over fast.
The end of the novel left a lot of plot lines unresolved, though it did accomplish resolving the main theme, which revolved around the dead coworker. I am a fan of unresolved endings in general, but this seemed to go beyond a technique. It became a symbol of the whole miasma of the wandering, almost aimless pace of the book. You don't find out what happens to most of the characters and most of them are left hanging off the proverbial cliff after a few bombshells were dropped. I guess it was less an unresolved ending than it felt like there was another quarter of a book that was supposed to come afterwards.
I've written a lot of negative things about the book, but the bottom line is that I finished it, it had interesting elements, the writing was clean, and despite its problems, the plot was able to drag me along enough to want to know what would be happening in its different threads, which is what a story should do. The settings were some of the most interesting parts, particularly how the trees providing the miracle drug were utilized. I would read another of Patchett's books if given the opportunity.
I give the book a completely arbitrary 3 out of 5.