Calibre library
Rating: ****
Tags: Fiction, General, Action & Adventure, Scientists, Literary, Adventure Fiction, Medical, Research, Amazon River Region, Jungles, Jungles - Amazon River Region, Medicine - Research, Medicine, Lang:en
Summary
Ann Patchett has dazzled readers with her award-winning
books, including
The Magician's Assistant and the
New York Times bestselling
Bel Canto. Now she raises the bar with
State of Wonder, a provocative and ambitious novel set
deep in the Amazon jungle. Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota
pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her
former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but
disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to
be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has
already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina's
assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson
is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's
research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete
his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an
odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her
former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions
about her friend's death, the state of her company's future,
and her own past. Once found, Dr. Swenson, now in her seventies, is as
ruthless and uncompromising as she ever was back in the days of
Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins. With a combination of science
and subterfuge, she dominates her research team and the natives
she is studying with the force of an imperial ruler. But while
she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the
greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of
herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she may
still be unable to live up to her teacher's expectations. In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes,
and a neighboring tribe of cannibals,
State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely
beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads
the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us
what lies on the other side.
Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2011: In
State of Wonder, pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina
Singh sets off into the Amazon jungle to find the remains and
effects of a colleague who recently died under somewhat
mysterious circumstances. But first she must locate Dr. Anneck
Swenson, a renowned gynecologist who has spent years looking at
the reproductive habits of a local tribe where women can
conceive well into their middle ages and beyond. Eccentric and
notoriously tough, Swenson is paid to find the key to this
longstanding childbearing ability by the same company for which
Dr. Singh works. Yet that isn’t their only connection:
both have an overlapping professional past that Dr. Singh has
long tried to forget. In finding her former mentor, Dr. Singh
must face her own disappointments and regrets, along with the
jungle’s unforgiving humidity and insects, making
State of Wonder a multi-layered atmospheric novel that
is hard to put down. Indeed, Patchett solidifies her
well-deserved place as one of today’s master
storytellers. Emotional, vivid, and a work of literature that
will surely resonate with readers in the weeks and months to
come,
State of Wonder truly is a thing of beauty and
mystery, much like the Amazon jungle itself.
--Jessica Schein
Amazon Exclusive: Elizabeth Gilbert Interviews Ann
Patchett
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of the #1
New York Times bestseller,
Eat, Pray, Love, as well as the short story collection
Pilgrims—a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award,
and winner of the 1999 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from
Ploughshares. A Pushcart Prize winner and National Magazine
Award-nominated journalist, she works as writer-at-large for
GQ.
Elizabeth Gilbert: As your close personal
friend, I happen to know that you traveled to the Amazon to
conduct research for this novel, and that you sort of hated the
Amazon--can you share a little about that?
Ann Patchett: I absolutely loved the Amazon
for four days. It was gorgeous and unfamiliar and deeply
fascinating. Unfortunately, I stayed there for ten days. There
are a lot of insects in the Amazon, a lot of mud, surprisingly
few vegetables, too many snakes. You can’t go anywhere by
yourself, which makes sense if you don’t know the
terrain, but I enjoy going places by myself. I can see how
great it would be for a very short visit, and how great it
would be if you lived there and had figured out what was and
wasn’t going to kill you, but the interim length of time
isn’t great.
EG: Didn't I hear that you have a sort of
magical story about a friend who is also a writer, who was also
once going to write a book about the Amazon? Can you share this
miraculous tale? Also, is your writer friend pretty?
AP: This friend of mine, who happens to be
you, is gorgeous, and much taller in real life. Yes, you were
writing a novel about the Amazon, and then you decided not to
write a novel about the Amazon, and then I started writing a
novel about the Amazon, and later when we compared notes (your
book dismissed, mine halfway finished) they had remarkably
similar story lines, to the point of being eerie. I thought
this must be because it was an incredibly banal idea and we had
both come up with a generic Amazon novel, but then you told me
that ideas fly around looking for homes, and when the idea
hadn’t worked out with you it came to me. If this is true
I think your name should be on the cover. It would increase
sales significantly.
EG: Readers of your prior work--particularly
the luminous
Bel Canto--will be delighted to see that opera makes
an appearance in this novel, as well. In fact, one of the most
dramatic scenes in the book takes place at the opera. Is that a
wink and a nod to loyal readers, or just an expression of your
own deep and abiding musical passions?
AP: It’s a wink and a nod to Werner
Herzog and his brilliant Amazon film “Fitzcarraldo”
which opens at the opera house in Manaus where the
aforementioned scene takes place. I had very little experience
with opera when I wrote
Bel Canto, and since then it’s become a huge
part of my life. It was fun to write a scene set at the opera
now that I know what I’m talking about.
EG:
State of Wonder a rollicking adventure story, full of
peril and bravery and death-defying action. I personally know
you to be a homebody who likes to bake muffins for neighbors.
How the heck did you pull off this wildness so convincingly?
Was it as invigorating to write as it is to read?
AP: Ah, the life of the mind. All the
adventure I need I can dream up in my kitchen. I love writing
outside of my own experience, making imaginary worlds. If I
wrote novels based on my own life I would not be making a
living at this. I also love to write a strong plot. I want
things to happen in my books, I want to be thrilled. I always
think about Raymond Chandler. I’m sure I’m getting
the phrasing wrong but the general idea is that when things get
slow, bring in a man with a gun. If you can’t find a gun,
a poison arrow works just as well.
EG: The cover is a work of beauty. Authors are
not always so lucky. Tell us how you managed such a
miracle?
AP: When I first started writing this book, I
came downstairs one night and found my husband listening to
“Horowitz at Carnegie Hall”. The album cover has a
very lush filigreed border. I had two thoughts: first, I have
an amazing husband who thankfully held onto his Horowitz LPs;
second, that the album cover had the exact the feeling I wanted
for my book--half jungle, half Baroque period. When I was
finished writing the novel I sent the album to my editor, who
sent it to the art department. They understood exactly what I
was talking about. Marina Singh gave up a career as a doctor after botching an
emergency delivery as an intern, opting instead for the more
orderly world of research for a pharmaceutical company. When
office colleague Anders Eckman, sent to the Amazon to check on
the work of a field team, is reported dead, Marina is asked by
her company's CEO to complete Anders' task and to locate his
body. What Marina finds in the sweltering, insect-infested
jungles of the Amazon shakes her to her core. For the team is
headed by esteemed scientist Annick Swenson, the woman who
oversaw Marina's residency and who is now intent on keeping the
team's progress on a miracle drug completely under wraps.
Marina's jungle odyssey includes exotic encounters with
cannibals and snakes, a knotty ethical dilemma about the basic
tenets of scientific research, and joyous interactions with the
exuberant people of the Lakashi tribe, who live on the
compound. In fluid and remarkably atmospheric prose, Patchett
captures not only the sights and sounds of the chaotic jungle
environment but also the struggle and sacrifice of dedicated
scientists. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The award-winning, New York
Times best-selling author's latest novel is being supported
with an author tour, a national advertising campaign, blogger
outreach, and a reading-group guide. --Joanne WilkinsonAmazon.com Review
From Booklist