State of Wonder - Ann Patchett

Date Started: 8/22/11
Date Finished: 8/24/11

One-Word Summary: Whaaaaaaat?!?

Since this is a fairly recent "hit" book I am going to be very clear here: Do NOT Click on the Link if You Want to Avoid Spoilers!

I really enjoyed this book. The author weaves a gripping tale set primarily in the Amazon and her descriptions are so thorough you can almost feel the jungle gripping you. The story revolves around the group's efforts to develop a fertility drug, though an ancillary outcome is a malaria vaccine. There are complicated relationships all around and everything is as intertwined as the jungle. Dr. Swensen and her affair with Dr. Rapp, Dr. Swensen as Marina's teacher, Marina and Mr. Fox (her boss and CEO at the pharmaceutical company at which she and Anders work), Marina and Anders her co-worker after whom she is sent into the Amazon in the first place.

The story dragged at points, particularly when Marina arrives in Brazil and is forced to get past the Bovenders, gate-keepers to Dr. Swensen. However, once the story moves to the Amazonian jungle it is enthralling and the details are doled out like sweet rewards. We meet Easter, in many ways the heart of the story and we wonder if Marina will truly honor Anders' request to take Easter home to Minnesota.

Was the fact that Andres was alive surprising? Yes, I will give the author this one. I didn't make the connection with Barbara Bovender's story of seeing her father running through the jungle and connect it with Anders. After all, we are told from the first page of the book that he had been buried. But after this? The fact that Easter is exchanged for Anders and we are left without knowledge of what happens to him? This was incredibly frustrating, as was the fact that we are left without an answer as to whether Marina goes back as Dr. Swensen had wanted. What happens?!

I have to say, I was literally shocked when the book ended. I knew it was coming but thought there would be some resolution, maybe in an epilogue. Even a line or two would have been appreciated. After all we have been through with Marina we simply say goodbye to her as she takes the cab home after witnessing the joy of Anders' reunion with his family.

OH! And clearly she is pregnant with Anders' child. I don't think that could have been made more clear. She was eating the bark that increased fertility and was repulsed by it the morning after their reunion, a sure sign of pregnancy. How would she deal with this pregnancy? It seems certain she would have the child but what then?

AND! What about Easter? We leave him in the jungle with the cannibal tribe he has never known (although we find out afterward that he was the son of someone high-ranking in the tribe who clearly recognized him on his return). Does he attempt to return to the only life he has known? Does he harbor bad feelings towards Anders and Marina? We are left to wonder.

So it seems the title of this book was apt: "State of Wonder" - it's what you're left in after finishing the book. But it is a book worth finishing, that much is sure.