One dilapidated house, two timelines:
Current day: Willa is trying desperately to keep it together. She and her husband have both lost their positions and they’ve just moved to a small town in NJ where her husband is working below his potential, her grown children are forever battling, and she is fretting over their new house which has just been diagnosed a disaster. Her only hope seems to come from the possibility that she can establish a historical significance to the old house, such that she might earn a grant to help rebuild.
1870’s: Thatcher Greenwood considers himself fortunate to be newly married to the beautiful Rose, and they’ve just been restored to the family home, built by her father. Thatcher is the new high school science teacher and he feels he owes it to the young minds of his students to teach them the most current evidence on evolution, the controversial theory that is challenging the religious secular leaders of their small NJ town. His only ally seems to be their next door neighbor, Mary Treat, a woman seen as odd by her local peers, but who is a brilliant naturalist in her own right. And of course, the family challenge is to keep the peace even as their house is literally falling apart around them.
As always, Barbara Kingsolver has managed to construct a clever and challenging narrative. The two timelines keep the story moving along in parallel, and where one leaves off, the other seems to tie in, even when the stories and the characters differ widely. Looking deeper, however, one cannot help but see the symbol of the home, the foundation; and just as one fears a crumbling of the home, man is fearful of any change, but particularly one that challenges his foundational beliefs. For just as the townspeople of the 1870’s story try to hold on to the biblical creation explanation of how fauna and flora came to being in the face of the evidence for Darwin’s evolution theory, many living today deny that the world is at risk of horrifying consequences from climate change in spite of the overwhelming evidence that the earth is warming and impacting our present let alone our future. Both are based in the same root of fear; both deny solid evidence, science, truth.
And as always, Kingsolver creates beautiful characters to relay her message. Willa, the wife and mother who narrates the current story, is particularly endearing. She is coping with the disaster of her home even while trying to help support her two children, each dealing with past and current trauma. As she struggles to maintain patience with everyone around her, we find ourselves inhaling even as she does, crying and laughing and loving along with her.
On the other hand, in my opinion, there is a bit too much scientific detail in the 1870’s story. I understand that Mary Treat must be given the respect she deserves. In so doing, there is much in the way of clarifying her experiments and observations, her contributions to the data upon which Darwin and other scientists base their writings. And of note, she is a real person and did, in fact, contribute years of scientific data to the ones who assumed the credit (men, of course). However, even I, someone with a scientific background, found some of the detail to be a bit too much.
Overall, however, this was an intricately constructed, beautifully executed novel that was both rich and enriching. Truly outstanding, and, as such, a MUST READ.
