Tica N. (purveyoroffinebooks) reviewed on 3/11/2010 + 11 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

This was my first foray into Kingsolver's writing. Friends raved about the Poisonwood Bible, so we selected this for our fairly new book club. Only 3 of 7 members persevered through it. The leading chapters, in which Harrison Shephard is a young boy, seem endless. His youth in the household of Kahlo and Rivera, and later Trotsky, was interesting, but one starts to grasp that his role is that of (dull) observer to troubled times. Conversations in cars, by streams, on trips, contain lovely insights into the nature of art, but they just go on and on and on. She writes good dialogue and provides fascinating historical glimpses into the mindset of the McCarthy era, but a novel should be more than a walk down the lanes of yesteryear. Yawn. If this was edited down by 1/3, maybe I would recommend it.

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