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Flight Behaviour
Feb. 28th, 2024 12:23 pmI picked up Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver at the library and ended up being very glad I did, even though it took me a while to get through it.
It's about a young mother in Tennessee, who discovers a massive colony of monarch butterflies has come to spend the winter in the trees above her father-in-law's property.
This attracts tourists, activists and scientists, and sparks a debate about climate control.
Kingsolver's mastery is in taking small, personal stories, portrayed through beautifully written prose and intensely relatable mundane detail, and using them to make the reader think about global issues.
I loved Dellarobia as a protagonist and was very much drawn in by her complex inner world and her struggle to find her place in her 'accidental' family. The portraits of all the different familial relationships were masterfully done, and I particularly enjoyed Dellarobia's interactions with her five-year-old son, Preston.
There were a couple of lengthy chapters where Dellarobia went shopping, first with her husband for Christmas presents and later with her friend, Dovey, at a second-hand warehouse store. They went on and on, but the way her spending dilemmas were portrayed were really absorbing and quite heartrending.
The ending felt a bit nebulous after 600 pages of the story, but I think I can see what it was trying to say.
Overall, a very well written and absorbing book about real people and real situations.
It's about a young mother in Tennessee, who discovers a massive colony of monarch butterflies has come to spend the winter in the trees above her father-in-law's property.
This attracts tourists, activists and scientists, and sparks a debate about climate control.
Kingsolver's mastery is in taking small, personal stories, portrayed through beautifully written prose and intensely relatable mundane detail, and using them to make the reader think about global issues.
I loved Dellarobia as a protagonist and was very much drawn in by her complex inner world and her struggle to find her place in her 'accidental' family. The portraits of all the different familial relationships were masterfully done, and I particularly enjoyed Dellarobia's interactions with her five-year-old son, Preston.
There were a couple of lengthy chapters where Dellarobia went shopping, first with her husband for Christmas presents and later with her friend, Dovey, at a second-hand warehouse store. They went on and on, but the way her spending dilemmas were portrayed were really absorbing and quite heartrending.
The ending felt a bit nebulous after 600 pages of the story, but I think I can see what it was trying to say.
Overall, a very well written and absorbing book about real people and real situations.
