She knew the story of Orpheus, but
it wasn’t until the singing began that she realized it was the story of
her life. She was Orfeo, and there was no question that Anders was
Euridice, dead from a snake bite. Marina had been sent to hell to bring
him back. – from State of Wonder, page 124 -
Dr. Marina Singh has turned away from her chosen field of obstetrics
after a terrible tragedy, and immersed herself in the safe world of
research science with a Minnesota-based pharmaceutical company. She
carries on a clandestine affair with her boss, Mr. Fox, a man much older
than she whose first priority is the financial health of the company.
So when the news that Marina’s co-worker, Anders, has apparently
perished in the wilds of the Amazon while on a fact-finding mission, the
last thing Marina expects is to find herself on a plane to the jungle.
Marina is tasked with tracking down the elusive Dr. Annick Swenson, a
former professor of Marina’s, who is being funded to manufacture a
fertility drug. Dr. Swenson has spent years in the Amazon jungle, living
with the Lakashi tribe, a group of natives who are exceptionally
fertile well past menopause. But, Dr. Swenson answers to no one but
herself. Well into her seventies and with a ruthless lack of emotion,
Dr. Swenson is incomprehensible and fearless. And Marina is terrified of
the woman.
It strikes Marina as
odd that all these years later she still remembers Dr. Swenson in the
lecture hall. In her mind’s eye she never sees her in surgery or on the
floor making rounds, but at a safe, physical distance. – from State of Wonder, page 11 -
State of Wonder begins slowly, but gains momentum as Marina
enters the feral world of Dr. Swenson. Plunged into the jungle with its
venomous snakes, biting insects, unrelenting heat, and a culture foreign
to her, Marina is forced to face her past and re-think her future. She
has nightmares of losing her father, and begins to question her
relationship with Mr. Fox. She struggles to reconcile the mistakes of
her past, and wonders about her own capacity to be a mother.
Ann Patchett’s writing draws the reader fully into the world of the
Amazon where morality and ethics have been abandoned by a team of
scientists who are determined to make scientific breakthroughs at all
costs. Thematically the book takes a look at the divide between
cultures, the interference of others in the lives of native populations,
and the harm that is often done in the quest for knowledge. Easter, a
native boy who Dr. Swenson appears to have adopted, becomes symbolic of
innocence lost in the face of “civilizing” native cultures. Easter, the
most sympathetic of the characters, is also the most tragic.
Patchett’s novel also asks the question:
How old is too old to become a parent?
Although on its surface, there is a strong theme centering around
motherhood, I was most moved by the examination of the importance of
fathers in the lives of their children. Fathers in
State of Wonder
have either abandoned their families (through death or choice) or are
simply non-existent. Dr. Swenson’s opinion is that fathers are
inconsequential, not to be considered. In this sense, the novel takes a
modern look at the role of fathers in the lives of their children.
Patchett writes with authority and a beauty which belies the darkness in
State of Wonder.
There are lovely passages and breathtaking descriptions. When Marina
attends an opera in the city of Manaus, a depressing place full of
squalor and heat and sudden downpours, the reader finds herself slipping
beneath the skin of the character through the magnificent prose of the
author:
Suddenly every insect
in Manaus was forgotten. The chicken heads that cluttered the tables in
the market place and the starving dogs that waited in the hopes that one
might fall were forgotten. The children with fans that waved the flies
away from the baskets of fish were forgotten even as she knew she was
not supposed to forget the children. She longed to forget them. She
managed to forget the smells, the traffic, the sticky pools of blood.
The doors sealed them in with the music and sealed the world out and
suddenly it was clear that building an opera house was a basic act of
human survival. It kept them all from rotting in the unendurable heat.
It saved their souls in ways those murdering Christian missionaries
could never have envisioned. – from State of Wonder, page 123 -
Despite my overall favorable view of the novel, it is not without its
weaknesses. The end of the book felt contrived to me and Marina’s
decisions as the novel wound down felt out of character. I wish that
Patchett had not wrapped things up so neatly, nor chosen to burden her
main character with a cliched choice that demeaned her. Had it not been
for this disappointing finish, I would have rated
State of Wonder much higher.
That said, this is a novel that I can recommend if only for its
tension, setting, and Patchett’s alluring prose. Readers who enjoy
literary fiction and want to be transported to the Amazon, will want to
read
State of Wonder. This is an excellent book for a book club read because of its multiple themes and moral questions.
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