She is my absolute favorite living author and I own every single one of her books. Hi! The complexity of the plot, the themes, and the characters is way to difficult to describe in detail without giving things away, so I'll just summarize by saying: the Amazon, a miracle fertility drug, anacondas, cannibals, and the mystery surrounding a man's death. And according to DC Comics own blog, the CW is developing a Wonder Girl live-action series that would star a younger Yara Flor, before she took the mantle of Wonder Woman. First, if you haven't read the book and intend to, don't read this review. This book has made me despair for the American publishing industry in a way I hadn't, yet. Mistah Kurtz, he dead, well, Mr. Eckman anyway. I'm not sure why the ending is seen as unhappy. State of Wonder is her first novel in 4 years and it’s worth the wait. For example. Alas, I did not reach a state of wonder reading this. Even when the novel seems to call for the enlarged field of reference brought on by unfamiliar sights, Patchett is strangely evasive, as when Marina tries to reflect on the jungle but thinks only of her own past: "She kept still, looking out through the top of the hammock . Ann Patchett's new novel is her most mature work to date. Just as Bel Canto's siege unstitches the old parameters – time, language, class – that govern the characters' lives, so the jungle in State of Wonder is a space in which the calendar, medical ethics and capitalist economics are suspended and then sliced open for further consideration. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called drama "that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment” and Patchett knew what he was talking about, she is able to make you do that completely. 2011 - State of Wonder; The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life 2013 - This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage 2016 - Commonwealth 2019 - The Dutch House (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. It’s a wonder I never got to this sooner! The basic plot of "State of Wonder": In the first sentence we learn that Dr. Anders Eckman is dead. Patchett is unbelievably talented and this book left me with a feeling of Wow. State of Wonder is a 2011 novel by American author Ann Patchett.It is the story of pharmacologist Marina Singh, who journeys to Brazil to bring back information about seemingly miraculous drug research being conducted there by her former teacher, Dr. Annick Swenson. Identify a few --- for example, Eden Prairie (Marina’s Minnesota home), Easter (the young deaf native boy), Milton (the Brazilian guide) --- and talk about how Ann Patchett uses them to deepen the story. [s], Sept 18 - State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. To see what your friends thought of this book, I would hope she would return to the jungle, leave her job in Minnesota. Apparently I have a thing for matriarchal Heart of Darkness scenarios. Definitely not my liking found this a hard slog and read other books from library in between found this slightly gruesome and a story not getting anywhere and the ending … Does that seem harsh? I thought that Ann Patchett had made her great contribution to literature with "Bel Canto," which seemed to me to be the perfect novel, and stays high on the list of my very favorites. Goes on my favorites list and is in fact one of my all-time favorites! Review from AntonySimpson.com: State of Wonder is a masterpiece novel, written by true wordsmith Ann Patchett. The characters were interesting--flawed and often unsympathetic--but like real people, there were moments of redemption. As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. OPB's new radio show that brings you the latest on arts and culture in the Northwest. Bringing Easter to Min. I was curious whether I would think it was as horrible the second time around. I read this at my mother's request and recommendation. Marina has made several important transitions. And I guess for me it falls into those categories of books I sometimes describe as "writers workshop-y" where the author's hand of god is felt for. And the fact that she never manages to complete a phase of her journey without losing her luggage seems to be a clue to her emotional state. In the jungle she was valued as an individual. Stirring and luminous, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest’s jeweled canopy. State of Wonder raises questions of morality and principle, civilization, culture, love, and science. Patchett is unbelievably talented and this book left me with a feeling of Wow. Why despair? State of Wonder is rich in symbolism. “State of Wonder” is an immensely touching novel, although as with much of Patchett’s work, its emotional impact is somewhat muted by her indefatigable niceness. The book was okay. At Minnesota-based Vogel pharmaceuticals, weeks-old news of bio-researcher Anders Eckman’s Amazonian demise leads the company to send another scientist to find out what happened, and to complete Eckman’s charge. It's a plague. One Sentence Review: Anne Patchett’s beautiful writing alone is enough reason to read this book. Future State: Wonder Woman #1 review – Yara Flor takes up the mantle Generations Shattered #1 review – a messy, weird, fun patchwork of DC history The Expanse season 5, episode 6 recap – Marcos makes [spoiler] an offer Surviving Death season 1 review – what happens when we die? It is the book that I sold by hand as a bookseller and the book that I still pass along to friends. Read the full publisher's description here for more details. At one pole, there's the globe as playground, the hunt through the shrinking wildernesses for whatever magic may somehow lie hidden beyond the totalising reach of GPS. I spoil just about everything, including the ending, below. Does that seem harsh? Reading State of Wonder is a sensory experience, and even after it’s over you’ll keep hearing the sounds of insects, and your own head will still be hot. And there may be a cure for infertility. Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy. Yet it's also home to tribes of natives who live with and from the jungle. 14. The inhibited central character and the relative descriptive restraint free Patchett to concentrate on larger metaphysical questions. The Lakashi accepted her skills and presence among them. The novel's geographic range is broad, but its visual spectrum is only intermittently enriched by its hemispheric crossings. At Minnesota-based Vogel pharmaceuticals, weeks-old news of bio-researcher Anders Eckman’s Amazonian demise leads the company to send another scientist to find out what happened, and to complete Eckman’s charge. [I loved the writing ... but the ending ruined it for me. Swenson is an ethnobiologist turned gynaecologist turned immunologist who is committed to keeping the Lakashi's secrets. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett. After all the rave reviews, my expectations were high. But the researcher is incommunicado. She was part of a community. n the disenchanted millennial world, the American search for wonder centres on the very large and the unimaginably small. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it.”, Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Shortlist (2012), Wellcome Book Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2011), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction and for Favorite Book (2011). The freedom fighters call themselves the WFP the War for … One could also hope for subtler symbolism and metaphors, less stilted dialogue, more skillful writing. If it is, it's because I expect -- perhaps unfairly -- more of Patchett. When her first marriage ends, Marina wants to cry, but decides there isn't time. Woman who journeys into a remote rain forest complete with aborigines and ends up discovering some health cure but there is a mystery/plot twist.... read between 2005-2009. Her mother is the novelist, “Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”, “Hope is a horrible thing, you know. Marina's personal motivation for travelling to Brazil is to find out what happened to her colleague, Anders Eckman, who evidently died making the same trip before her; but her professional duty is to report back on research being carried out by Annick Swenson, who happens to be Singh's former professor. 5.0 out of 5 stars Book Review: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (from AntonySimpson.con) Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2016. She is my absolute favorite living author and I own every single one of her books. There are fantastic birds and scary insects and snakes. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. The scene between the two could be an allegorical piece, staging an imaginary encounter between a pacifist and George W Bush before attacking Irak. June 1, 2011 by Nancy. In the disenchanted millennial world, the American search for wonder centres on the very large and the unimaginably small. Ann Patchett is known for her well developed characters and plots that unravel at a pace that keeps you reading late into the night. [the elderly matriarch is participating in her own experiment and is 7 months pregnant (the father's identity is left unclear), and in a rather strange episode the main character sleeps with a man she has just rescued, told in a way that implies any two friends would do surely the same after all they'd been through. . I am referring to the end scene. 2.0 out of 5 stars state of wonder. Scientist in the amazons seeks cancer cure. In the jungle she. Here is my review combined with my previous review...and for the record, nothing has changed. This novel was just what I've been looking for this summer: a dazzling story, a meaty pile of ethical questions, characters that endure long after the book is over, and prose that gets more beautiful the more you notice it. Fierce and driven, she refuses to communicate with her employer about the years she has spent putatively investigating why the Lakashi women are able to bear children into their 70s. (Side note: remember that time she came to Chattanooga and I couldn't afford to go to the signing - still bitter about that). I've been anxiously waiting on the release State of Wonder for a while now, so when TLC gave me the opportunity to review, you know I was all over it. Malarial mosquitoes, 15-foot anacondas, and a fertility research team gone AWOL—the author of Bel Canto talks about State of Wonder, her new... As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. I would say I was in State(s) of: Interest, Appreciation, Mild Irritation, Interest Modified by Moments of Irritation, Shock, and then Milder Shock that dwindled into a State of General Annoyance, which would possibly make it the longest book title in history. State of Wonder echoes the asymmetries of that book in the emotional complexity that frames Marina's journey. My name is Dan Martin. The day it came in the mail I called Luke at work because I was so excited. We’d love your help. If it is, it's because I expect -- perhaps unfairly -- more of Patchett than this book has offered. But I wanted to draw out the anticipation as long as I could - and it was SO worth it. But this is no Bel Canto. Ann Patchett's sixth novel, State of Wonder, merges the two kingdoms in the story of a pharmacologist, Marina Singh, who travels into the Amazonian jungle to spend time with the mysterious Lakashi tribe. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. My all-encompassing love for Ann Patchett is not a secret. He had been sent to determine the status of research, on a long-overdue revolutionary fertility drug, being conducted by the reclusive, and somewhat scary Doctor Annick Swenson. What would you have done if you were in the shoes of Marina? ), this was an engaging and entertaining read. Refresh and try again. I thought that Ann Patchett had made her great contribution to literature with "Bel Canto," which seemed to me to be the perfect novel, and stays high on the list of my very favorites. Reviewed in Australia on 19 June 2014. Why despair? Patchett's novels typically derive their narrative energy from unlikely romantic entanglements that slowly unravel under the pressures of life. Yet it's also home to tribes of natives who live with and from the jungle. At the other extreme, there's the seething world below eye level, the microscopic life of cells and bacteria. The characters were weak and hard to identify with, the plot seemed like something of a time past (yet wasn't), and the outcome of it all was ridiculous. I believed in the existence of each character. The book is a jewel box of structure, character, and language that left me overwhelmed with admiration. The book would head in one direction for a while, then veer wildly in another. Dr. Marina Singh is sent from her home in Minnesota to the jungles of Brazil by her employer, a pharmaceutical company. I should keep a stack of them since I have handed mine off so many times that I never know if I have a copy or not. I should keep a stack of them since I have handed mine off so many times that I never know if I have a copy or not. This was a beautifully crafted novel with a unique plot that never became preachy or politicized issues so I was never taken out of the story. At one pole, there's the globe as playground, the hunt through the shrinking wildernesses for whatever magic may somehow lie hidden beyond the totalising reach of GPS. That's questionable. It lacks the developed emotional core of Patchett's earlier books, but it is her most mature work to date, a novel that tries to be more alive to the nerve ends of philosophical life than to the simpler machinery of character motivation. It occurs to me, though, that wanting more of a book is as good a sign as any that it won me over completel. . In the jungle she worked as the practicing physician she would never have the opportunity to do in Minnesota. What would have made it "happy"? Readers’ questions about State of Wonder. . As you can probably tell, I'm delaying the start of this review. This book is an example of "slow and steady wins the race." State of Wonder Ann Patchett. 8 were here. I would hope she would return to the jungle, leave her job in Minnesota. In the wake of another close coworker's apparent death in the jungle, Marina Singh is dispatched into, as … Review from AntonySimpson.com: State of Wonder is a masterpiece novel, written by true wordsmith Ann Patchett. The infuriatingly hapless heroine does not look ahead to scout out minor(everyone knows to pack some necessities in carry-on luggage, including cell phone)or major consequences of her actions and is locked in past failures and losses (one grows tired of her lost father nightmares and all her screaming). The day it came in the mail I called Luke at work because I was so excited. Like Rose, Marina is in a relationship with a … My all-encompassing love for Ann Patchett is not a secret. That is the beginning of the story and the basis on which the protagonist, Dr. Marina Singh, travels to Brazil to track what happened to a co-worker who also went there seeking answers for their employer, a pharmaceutical company. Minnesota seems like a lovely fresh canvas at the end of the book. Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California. It is the book that I sold by hand as a bookseller and the book that I still pass along to friends. Because it is only the constant pressure to produce, to publish, that would make a company like HarperCollins and a writer with the ability of Ann Patchett push forward this work, which is at best uneven and at worst something that I would expect to emerge from a blinded-by-friendship writer's group. She rarely recommends books and even more rarely asks me to let her know when I've finished so we can discuss it. Novel, written by true wordsmith Ann Patchett 's novels state of wonder reviews derive their narrative energy from unlikely romantic that. 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