State of Wonder

Manaus Opera House

Our Bookgroup read Ann Patchett's State of Wonder this month.  Pictured above is the Manaus Opera House where Marina and Dr. Swenson finally meet.  The description of Marina's feet walking in heels chasing down Dr. Swenson was something the women in the group could identify with!  Marina cautiously moved her toes from side to side.   Her feet were swollen while she had been sitting and straps of her sandals were now cutting deep into the skin.  While Ed could not identify with the high heels in Manaus, he did point out that this book had an incredible sense of place.  One could just feel that uneasiness of a primitive setting with meandering rivers replete with crawling insects, unbearable heat and a sense of order and law alien to the visitor.

Overall we had mixed reviews.  We all agreed that  this book had the same flavor and feel of previous novels by Patchett: unusual characters, imaginative scenarios and the sense of place.  Some of her metaphors stopped us in our tracts.  Mindy and I both marked this passage about hope: Hope is a horrible thing, you know.  I don't know who decided to package hope as a virtue because it's not.  It's a plague. Hope is like walking around with a fishhook in your mouth and somebody keeps pulling it and pulling it. Everyone agreed that we find that Patchett's novels have not had the most satisfactory endings (or the ones we would have written).  Both Bel Canto and State of Wonder wrap things up a little too neatly for us.  We prefer messy.  We speculated: What if Dr. Swenson had died in childbirth and Marina had had to take up her practice?  Or what if Marina had to come back and report that indeed Anders had died.  And what if Easter had not been given up to his tribe?  All this great discussion while we ate much too much of Louise's incredible spread of chicken curry, salad, and antipasta.

Over dessert...lemon pudding cake with whipped cream and raspberries, fresh fruit and chocolate chip cookies ( I feel I must mention the food since we were expecting Ed to procure the same IGA lasagne he always gets and names appropriately for the book's theme...Amazonian Lasagne, Mexican Lasagne, etc.), we discussed possible  books for next month.  Our newest member, Fred, came through with some pretty interesting titles.  A couple of edgy novels which were eyed cautiously before the group decided upon a previously read author, Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table.   Chrysanne texted Kate who gave it a good recommendation.  Fred sent a NY Times Review in case you are interested.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/books/review/the-cats-table-by-michael-ondaatje-book-review.html?hpw

We missed Katie and Terry and hope to see you next month!


We will  meet next month at Tim's on November 14th.  See you there!