Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible, has produced yet another unforgettable novel: The Lacuna. Readers have been waiting nine years, and they will find that this novel was well worth the wait.
Publication Details
The Lacuna will be hitting the shelves on November 3rd, 2009. In addition to print copies, it will be available in a 17 hour/14 CD audio set. Kingsolver has scheduled a 12-city tour to promote the novel; cities include Asheville, NC; Louisville, KY; Washington D.C.; and Seattle, WA. A reading group guide will also be made available for The Lacuna on the Harper Collins website. Information regarding The Lacuna is also available on Barbara Kingsolver’s website: www.kingsolver.com.
The Lacuna Review
The protagonist, Harrison William Shepherd, becomes a man nothing short of amazing. The reader deeply experiences Shepherd’s life, and is pulled into his world. The story takes an interesting look back into the United States and Mexico of the 1930’s and 1940’s. The reader will become immersed in the world of that time, and all of its trials and tribulations. Kingsolver’s prose makes the reader an active participant of her story. One cannot help but to ride alongside Mr. Shepherd on the roller coaster of his life.
Kingsolver provides H.W. Shepherd with a unique and colorful cast of assisting characters, most notably Sra. Frida and Lev Davidovich Trotsky. These characters help to open up Shepherd’s world to the reader, and reveal him in the multiple roles of his life. Later in the novel, one is introduce to Violet Brown and she gives even more insight into H.W. Shepherd. Even the antagonists of the novel are very realistic, especially Joseph Stalin, his secret police, and the FBI. The fear of the times and the prejudices of countries and individuals are disturbingly real. The reader will be amazed by how intrigued he or she will become with what seems to be an ordinary man’s life. Kingsolver has a gift for making readers feel stark emotion throughout the story, and Shepherd becomes anything but an ordinary man.
The book itself is written as an epistolary, which is a collaborative jumble of journal entires, articles, and letters. This contributes greatly to the reality of the world and its characters. In the case of The Lacuna, this style contributes to the story rather than detracting from it. Like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this novel just wouldn’t be the same if written in a different style.
Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel in nine years, The Lacuna, shows her readers that she has an epic gift for prose, and realistic storytelling. This book is a definite must-read.
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