Barbra Kingsolver's "Unsheltered"

Sometimes I think Barbra Kingsolver gave birth to beautiful language. Her writing is richer than the best chocolate and more luscious than the sweetest, most juicy peach. Voluptuous. Woke. Pregnant. Sublime. Reverent. Exquisite.

Many people read her Poisonwood Bible  when it was released back in 2008 because word was, this was something new. And it was new. Her lush voice was undeniably evocative and fresh and needed in the landscape of American novels. Whether or not you loved the book, story, the reader had to acknowledge that the writing was fierce and delicate and simply gorgeous. Because of this book, I read every single thing that Barbra put out. 

I borrowed Poisonwood Bible from my mother-in-law sometime in 2010 and read all 600+ pages in a giant gulp. It was something I could not put down. Morning dawning and I couldn't stop reading.

One of my favorite books of all time is Prodigal Summer  by this author. It's something fresh and unique and I simply devoured it...several times. Her books are made up of nuggets of gorgeous prose and sublime moments of meaningful, magical prose. I can't say enough. This author is a once in a lifetime gift to the reader.

If you are a Kingsolver groupie, here is her newest book Unsheltered.  The reviews on the book are many and varied, but one thing is for certain, she has not lost it. Reading this book was like a long stroll through the loveliest landscape, still.

That said, my sincere love and affection for Barbra, this was not my favorite of her books. I found it a hard read. Several times my reading stopped and I had to check how many pages I had left and I had to decide if I wanted to continue reading. I did continue and I'm glad I did. But it was still a bit of a difficult slog at times. I can promise you that this writing will be inadequate to the depth of this book.

The book seesaws back and forth between two different families occupying the same house about a hundred and fifty years apart. The idea appeals, doesn't it? The storylines are compelling. The characters, real and imagined, are interesting focal points. I genuinely loved the real people in history. The problem, I think, is that the author couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted to write about. Her many focus issues in each century were truly relevant and compelling and pregnant with possibilities, the suitability and importance of science in the 19th century and the poverty of the educated middle class in the 21st century. Kingsolver, as usual, inundates us ever so smoothly with social issues and with her strong opinions on them. I love this part of her writing but not everyone will.

Our 21st century family, in 2016, did all of the right things. Education, wise choices in careers, satisfying relationships, doing all of those things we assume will lead to success in life. But while you aren't looking, the economy crashes, surprise pregnancies, unexpected illness, bad luck in choices in the housing market, bad luck with retirement, poor health in a parent, etc. Good people dealing with devastating problems. These random and disastrous events in the life of a family, rendering the good effort null, prove to leave this family in a dire situation with little chance for rebound. This sad end to the American Dream happens more and more in the reality of our country at this point and I found its exploration very satisfying to read about. I truly cared for the family in 2016, left unsheltered.

In the family of the 1870s, this reader was given a real gift in the introduction of the neighbor, Mary Treat, a very real and noteworthy 19th century scientist, who published many papers of original research, and who maintained ongoing (certainly fascinating) communications with some of the brightest scientific minds of the time, including Charles Darwin and American botanist Asa Grey. Go and check her out, Mary Treat! She's an interesting character who seldom sees the light of day in the American story. Mary plays the curious and ultimately allegorical neighbor to our 1870s family, the neighbor who lives her life for science, even in a culture that distrusts science, fears it, and sees science as ridiculous.

Another minor character, a tertiary character at best, John Landis, represents the one percent, the wealthy man who misrepresents facts and takes advantage of the gullible hopes of the masses. John Landis is also a real person in history, and worth a look, for his is a cautionary tale, this man who leaves so many shockingly, welcomingly unsheltered.

In both centuries, the families must deal with the very real problem of inadequate building quality of the house in which they reside. The title of the book Unsheltered  is given resonance in several diverse ways throughout the book, the cracking, inadequate house is one concrete unsheltering that both generations must address, live with, deal with. Building, rebuilding... Can the reality of our current country's pathos not be described as unsheltered? Can our personal progress through life not contain certain periods of feeling unsheltered? Can our vulnerability not be described as unsheltered at times? 

Allow me to cherry pick and share some of my favorite gems of writing in this book.

...it had been her mother who put Willa back together. When someone mattered like that, you didn't lose her at death. You lost her as you kept living.

A mother can only be as happy as her unhappiest child.

Thatcher handed over his reins to Cutler and stood watching these timid, full-grown beings poised on the cusp of their fates. Somehow they broke and mended his heart all at once.

"I admire you, then." Thatcher felt a few degrees elevated by a vocation he shared with Mary Treat. How could it not be noble work, to rouse a disaffected humanity and press the world's physical truths into its palms?

"And still your pupils depend on it, Thatcher. Their little families have come here looking for safety, but they will go on laboring under old authorities until their heaven collapses. Your charge is to lead them out of doors. Teach them to see evidence for themselves, and not to fear it."

"I suppose it is in our nature." she said finally, "When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order."

"If that is our nature, then nature is madness. These are more dangerous times than we ever have known."

"The guys in charge of everything right now are so old. They really are, Mom. Older than you. They figured out the meaning of life in, I guess, the fifties and sixties. When it looked like there would always be plenty of everything. And they're applying that to now. It's just so ridiculous."

"One percent of the brotherhood has their hands on most of the bread. They own the country, their god is the free market, and most people are so unhorrified they won't even question the system. If it makes a profit, that's the definition of good. If it grows, you have to stand back and let it. The free market has exactly the same morality as a cancer cell."

Even with the pages that were difficult to slog through, I highly recommend this book, and I highly recommend every single other thing that Barbra Kingsolver has ever written. This book has some wonderful, highly readable, poignant parts to it. Because of the high bar she has set for herself, I think, I have to give this book of hers eight stars for her clarity of mind in today's social world.

All of her other books get a 10.