The Lacuna

I finished the novel a week ago. I'm still mourning the loss of it from my life. Need I say much more? For two decades, Kingsolver has been in my Top Five list of American authors (along with Michael Dorris and E.L.Doctorow, to demonstrate my varied taste in literature). This novel is my favorite of all she's written. Here's what I loved (in no particular order): The tightly woven inclusion of historical events The 'transcribed journal' structure The evolution of Shepherd from boy to man to writer and recluse The tenderness with which Kingsolver, as always, treats her protagonist There will be those who won't appreciate this novel, as they will view Kingsolver's compassion for humanity as 'political' (apparent in reviews already posted here). But for those of us who recognize the power of words to illuminate and heal, this novel has been offered as a love letter.

Once I picked up this latest Barbara Kinsolver novel I just couldn't put it down. Simply put, it's a great story. But it's much more than that. It's a luscious political and social interpretation of the period of the 1930s through the 1950s in both Mexico and the United States. Historical facts are combined with imagination to construct the worldview of the main character, Harrison W. Shepard, who we first meet as a 12-year old boy whose Mexican mother has left his American father and brought to Mexico. Here he learns to dive and learns about the lacuna, an underwater cave that might or not have an exit. The boy grows up in Mexico and winds up as a cook in the home of the painter Diego Rivera and his colorfully outrageous wife, Frida Kahlo. Always, the boy keeps a journal, recording the world through his eyes, including the years that the communist leader Lev Trotsky, who had to flee Russia as his life was in danger from his rival Joseph Stalin, was welcomed and sheltered by this non-conventional couple. Swept up in the political intrigue of the time, the boy has to flee to America but he is so immersed in his Mexican world that he writes novels about Mexico's Aztec past and enjoys success as a writer. The reader sees the world through his eyes - the war, the atomic bomb, and, especially, the witch hunts of the 1950s. His secretary, an older woman originally from the mountains of North Carolina, becomes his helpmate. She stands by him as his past makes him a target for the House Un-American committee. Throughout the book there are excerpts from real newspaper articles as well as the fictional ones used to move the story forward. Each character is deeply developed. I felt I knew each one of them personally, including their imperfections and humanity. I learned more about Mexico in this novel than I ever learned in school. And I felt real emotion as the book spun to its inevitable conclusion. Yes. I LOVED this book. I give my highest recommendation. Don't miss it.

It is quite possible that "The Lacuna", Barbara Kingsolver's newest novel, surpasses her masterpiece "The Poisonwood Bible" and that is no small feat. Or perhaps surpass isn't the correct word for an author of Kingsolver's talent who can make the unlikeliest of stories and characters come to life. "The Lacuna" manages to weave together some of the early twentieth century's most pivotal events without demeaning them, offering fresh insight into some of the darkest moments of American history through the eyes of a genuine and likeable misfit. "The Lacuna" is the memoir-of-sorts of Harrison Wiliam Shepherd, an author caught between two very different worlds. As a young boy, his Mexican mother drags him back to her native country as she pursues any wealthy man who is willing to take her on as a mistress. Years later, he is sent to live with his father, a man he does not even know, before returning to Mexico where he finds himself in the employ of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. His association with these two famous artists brings him in contact with Trotsky, on exile from Stalinist Russia, who continues Shepherd's odd education in the school of life experiences. When events turn sour in Mexico, Shepherd returns to the United States, fulfilling his dream of becoming a beloved author, only to have to confront his past and the words he has never said during the Red Scare of the 1950s. His story is told in his own words, his diary entries and letters, some too private to lay bare, and by the words of his secretary who takes it upon herself to compile his life's narrative. The sheer amount of history that Kingsolver is able to plausibly mix into Shepherd's story is incredible, and all of it believable. "The Lacuna" is a beautiful story, one man's search to find a place he can call home and to be accepted and loved for the person that he is. Kingsolver's prose sparkles with the poetry of her descriptions and her uncanny ability to craft intricate narratives that unspool effortlessly in the reader's imagination. "The Lacuna" is unforgettable. Readers will feel that they have lived alongside Shepherd and that he also lived, not only on paper or through words.

Plot Summary: In a story told entirely through diary entries and letters, we meet Harrison William Shepherd, a half-Mexican, half-American boy who grows up with his mother in Mexico. He has no education, but his love of reading and writing nurtures his own inner dialog that leads to his success as a writer. But that's getting ahead of the story. First he passes his adolescence working for some of Mexico's most infamous residents in the 1930s - Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Lev Trotsky. His break with Mexico is abrupt, and Shepherd moves to America where he embarks on a writing career with the assistance of his invaluable stenographer, Mrs. Violet Brown. I've spent the past two days in close communion with this novel, and it has moved me deeply. It's not often that I abandon popular literature for the big fish, but Barbara Kingsolver is one of the few authors whose writing entertains me in all forms - novels, essays and non-fiction. I suppose I'm like a book groupie, following her whether she's spinning yarns in the Southwest, or matter of factly walking me through slaughter day when her chicken's days are numbered. Make no mistake, her latest effort is Literature with a capital L, and the story is so poignant it could make a stone weep in sympathy. And weep I did. Frequently. When a novel covers a person's life, from the beginning to the end, it takes on an epic flavor by default. Harrison Shepherd's life could be considered epic even if it was condensed down to a three paragraph obituary. It's an extraordinary tale told during haunting times in both Mexico and the U.S. I regret that I don't know as much as I should about the history before, during, and after World War II, but I will use this novel as a crutch for my shoddy memory. This is history refracted through a miniscule lens; a tiny dot that represents the life of a boy who becomes a man. It's a scary proposition trying to populate a work of fiction with famous dead people. I don't know if Ms. Kingsolver got it all right, although I don't doubt that her research was extensive, however it doesn't matter. She brought everyone back to life in full color, so bright and blinding it almost hurt my eyes. I will always carry around these portraits of Frida and Trotsky, along with Shepherd and Violet Brown. They are permanently inked onto my imagination.

Barbara Kingsolver has written a book of historical fiction that reads like a Frida Kahlo painting: allegory, poetry, beauty & pain. Kingsolver writes likes a great artist paints. The story opens in 1929 and ends in 1951. Harrison William Shepherd (a fictional character) born in the US to a US father and a Mexican mother, is a child in Mexico. Since his parents are both disinterested in parenting, he makes his own way in life. First he is a cook/secretary in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, then for Bolshevik/Marxist Revolutionary Leon Trotsky during his exile in Mexico. After Trotsky is assassinated, Shepherd is encouraged by Kahlo to move to the US where he finally becomes what he was meant to be; an author of historical fiction. The backbone of the story is the Communist/Worker's Movement in Mexico & the US and Rivera, Kahlo & Trotsky's part in it. They provide the political dialogue. Kingsolver imagines what it would have been like living in these households during this turbulent period. The story culminates with Shepherd being called before the US Committee on Un-American Activities. But the story is about so much more than politics and history. If you are an admirer of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, reading this book will be like contemplating their art. The story mirrors the politics and history portrayed in Rivera's murals and the pain and beauty of Kahlo's paintings. If you enjoy reading historical fiction, this is a beautifully written example.