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Loading... The Lacuna (edition 2010)by Barbara Kingsolver
Work detailsThe Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Some parts were very interesting. The main character is friends with Frida Kahlo and Deigo Rivera among others. I honestly enjoyed the last quarter of the book but didn't care for most of the rest of it. My main issue is I don't know how much of what she put in is real and what is fiction. For me, many of the celebrities(term used loosely) are still recent in history for me to truly put everything in a fictional context. I spent too much time thinking about if something really happened and then looking it up to see what info was correct. It became more like an assignment than a relaxed read. (  ) SeaHolly | May 5, 2013 |  I so loved this book. It was a ride through the 20th Century with eyes open. The description of the Bonus Army riots were spot on (why Patton drew drew sabers on the veterans is beyond me), the whole Lev Davidovich (Trotsky) gave pause, and the sections on McCarthyism--I'm still fuming. Written in prose that sings (although a little distracting in the approach--letters/diary entries/editorial comments), I would recommend this book for everyone. (  ) Elpaca | May 1, 2013 | I began reading "The Lacuna" because it was recommended to me, and some of the best books I've read have come from word-of-mouth recommendations. I should probably be embarrassed that I had no idea who Barbara Kingsolver was -- I'd never read anything by her before. There is trust that an author builds with his or her readers. The more works by author that we have read and enjoyed — the more times we've had our trust rewarded — the more likely we are to give an authoer the benefit of the doubt. In this case the problem was that, being completely unfamiliar with Kingsolver, I had no basis for trust. This made it hard for me to get into the book. It's not that the book wasn't well written or that the characters weren't memorable or engaging -- it's just that I started out thinking that I was reading a charming story about the relationship between a man-hungary, narcissistic mother and her indulgent son living in Mexico. But then the scene changed and we were at a miltary school in the US. And then the scene shifted again and we were back in Mexico with the son now working as a plaster mixer and then cook and then secretary. All of a sudden, there's Frida Kahlo and Diego Riveras and lots of talk about the Communist movment, and then, boom, there's Leon Trotsky, and we're working our way up to his assassination. From there we go back to the US where our protagonist, now in his 20s, settles in a Southern town and acts as though he's at the end of his life. He becomes a famous writer with phenomenal ease. He's gay, but he seems to have the libido of a dead duck.... It wasn't until the end of the book that it all began to come together for me. When it did, it became a book that I would label as "important," as well as satisfying. Hopefully, the next time I pick up something by Kingsolver, I'll be smart enough to give her the benefit of the doubt. (  ) CandaceVan | Apr 16, 2013 | I am in sympathy with both the good reviews and the critical ones. There are some slow-downs, but overall this book is a page-turner. Kingsolver's moralizing becomes more obtrusive in the second half, although the fictional newspaper writing must have been fun. I wondered how much the author was caught up in self-analysis and self-reflection while writing about a writer. Just as her character writes popular books (adventure-thriller genre?) so she, too, appears to reach us at a gut level. Prodigal Summer, I feel, failed to rise from the cheap romance, and was therefore laughably pretentious, but The Lacuna succeeds in "innocent caught up in history" category. The characters were terrific. (  ) RabbitHoller | Apr 14, 2013 | Maybe one of Kingsolver's best? I like the historical perspective this book takes -- it covers the time of the Great Depression and World War II and following, yet those are not themes or even significant players. Instead it is the politics of America, Mexico, and Communism that take the stage. Yet you don't have to love politics to enjoy the book. I was confused by the biographer at the beginning, (possibly because I read the audio version) but it all ties together in the end. It does stall around the 2/3 mark, as it sets the stage for the final conflicts, but picks up again and regains momentum to the very end. Epilogues can be too long, but this one is well written and you want to read it. Epic. ( ) LDVoorberg | Apr 7, 2013 |
 Kingsolver, at the top of her craft, builds pyramids of language and scenic highways through mountains of facts, while plotting a mostly tight course through the fictional premises that convey her writing’s social conscience. In this book, pacifism, social justice, and free expression are the standards she shoulders. “The Lacuna” can be enjoyed sheerly for the music of its passages on nature, archaeology, food and friendship; or for its portraits of real and invented people; or for its harmonious choir of voices. But the fuller value of Kingsolver’s novel lies in its call to conscience and connection. Barbara Kingsolver's new novel, "The Lacuna," is the most mature and ambitious one she's written during her celebrated 20-year career, but it's also her most demanding. Spanning three decades, the story comes to us as a collection of diary entries and memoir, punctuated by archivist's notes, newspaper articles, letters, book reviews and congressional transcripts involving some of the 20th century's most radical figures. The sweetness that leavened "The Bean Trees" and "Animal Dreams" has been burned away, and the lurid melodrama that enlivened "The Poisonwood Bible" has been replaced by the cool realism of a narrator who feels permanently alienated from the world.  A serious problem with The Lacuna is telegraphed in its striking title. "Lacuna" refers to a gap or something that's absent. The motif of the crucial missing piece runs throughout the novel, but the thing unintentionally missing here is an engaging main character. Our hero, Harrison Shepherd, is an accidental onlooker to history buffeted by other people's plans and passions. Narrated in the form of letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings, the novel takes a while to get going, but once it does, it achieves a rare dramatic power that reaches its emotional peak when Harrison wittily and eloquently defends himself before the House Un-American Activities Committee (on the panel is a young Dick Nixon). Employed by the American imagination, is how one character describes Harrison, a term that could apply equally to Kingsolver as she masterfully resurrects a dark period in American history with the assured hand of a true literary artist.
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