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The Lacuna A Novel Barbara Kingsolver Books

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The Lacuna A Novel Barbara Kingsolver Books

It may have been easy for Barbara Kingsolver to choose the metaphor of the lacuna; it may have been easy for her to choose to write about Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Trotsky; but it took a literary master to create this sensitive story that ties these concepts and people together with a mixed-blood cook-cum-author laying bare the rotten bones of McCarthyism and the Anti-American hysteria of the post-war USA. Definitely a must-read, page-turner perfect for anyone not eager to see a repeat of that travesty of patriotism in our own time of ego-inflated and misogynistic politicians and policies.


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The Lacuna A Novel Barbara Kingsolver Books Reviews

I enjoyed reading The Lacuna, and kept thinking how timely this book is, despite being published in 2010. It is a beautiful, if sad story, covering a period of time and places I knew little about. Kingsolver writes beautifully. I noticed that some reviewers on disliked the second portion of the novel, while loving the first part. There are 2 distinct parts of this book, one darker than the other. But I think both parts are well-written, and fit together perfectly. And the book comes around in a perfect circle to a moving, beautiful ending. You cannot come to the ending, and have it mean anything without having moved through both the lively first and the darker second parts. And both parts of the book introduce us to entertaining characters, beautifully drawn, as usual with Kingsolver. I really recommend the book and think it is a book for our present moment, especially!

I don't want to issue spoilers, but think I can say without risking much that the main character is a gay man in the 1920's - 1950's, moving between Mexico (1st part of the book) and the U.S. (2nd part of the book). My argument for why it is so relevant right now is how the book shows the pressures and crusades against gays (and really anybody non-conforming) in the U.S. during much of this time period. Since there are currently so many hateful acts against gays, and apparently the climate has changed so our government may be seen by some as supporting such acts, it's worth being aware of history! I recommend this book, not just as history, or "mental vegetables," but because it is a beautiful story and fun to read.
A review of The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

@@@@@ (5 out of 5)

When years ago I read The Poisonwood Bible, I was flummoxed by its power and beauty. It was clear to me that Barbara Kingsolver possessed a fierce talent not just as a storyteller but also as a wordsmith and a reporter. Her vivid prose brought into high relief the tragic reality of life in the 1960s in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo. Much later I read (and reviewed) Kingsolver’s recent novel, Flight Behavior, a meditation on the impact of climate change that underlies a tale of life and love in the author’s native Appalachia. Though less compelling than Poisonwood, Flight Behavior was brilliant in its own way.

All of which is why I was so taken aback when I had difficulty getting into The Lacuna, Kingsolver’s intensely political historical novel of the Mexican Revolution, the Depression in the US, and the anti-Communist frenzy following World War II. On my first try, I set the book aside, finding its open chapters confusing. Then I tried again, no doubt in a more receptive mood, and I fell in love with the work. I found I simply couldn’t resist the insight Kingsolver brings to her work. Here, for example, is a snippet of dialogue from the mouth of a minor character in the novel, commenting on the Red Scare

“You force people to stop asking questions, and before you know it they have auctioned off the question mark, or sold it for scrap. No boldness. No good ideas for fixing what’s broken in the land. Because if you happen to mention it’s broken, you are automatically disqualified.”

By the way, how is that so different from the Know-Nothing attitudes holding sway today in the United States Congress?

The protagonist of The Lacuna is Harrison Shepherd, a writer of best-selling historical romance novels set in the empires of the Aztecs and the Maya. Born shortly after World War I, son of a minor American federal official and a desperate Mexican woman who sees him as a mealticket, Shepherd crosses borders to become a first-hand witness to the Bonus Army march and encampment in Washington under Herbert Hoover, the rise to fame of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, the assassination of Leon Trotsky, and the slow, painful unfolding of the Red Scare that seized hold of the United States in the early years of the Cold War.

The Lacuna is crammed with unforgettable portraits of historic figures. Chief among them are Diego Rivera and his on-again, off-again wife, Frida Kahlo, who fairly leap off the page with the passion that drove them to artistic heights. The dialogue between Kahlo and the protagonist, Harrison Shepherd, is among the most lively and engaging I’ve ever read anywhere (yes, even including Elmore Leonard). Kingsolver’s equally brilliant rendering of the artists’ houseguest, “Leon” (Lev Davidovich) Trotsky, is alone worth the price of this extraordinary book.

Better than anything else I’ve ever read, The Lacuna depicts the desperation of the Depression years, the topsy-turvy uncertainties of the Mexican Revolution, and the insanity of the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the late 1940s and 50s. That’s a lot to cram between the covers of a single novel.
It may have been easy for Barbara Kingsolver to choose the metaphor of the lacuna; it may have been easy for her to choose to write about Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Trotsky; but it took a literary master to create this sensitive story that ties these concepts and people together with a mixed-blood cook-cum-author laying bare the rotten bones of McCarthyism and the Anti-American hysteria of the post-war USA. Definitely a must-read, page-turner perfect for anyone not eager to see a repeat of that travesty of patriotism in our own time of ego-inflated and misogynistic politicians and policies.