Washingtonpost.com: Live Online

Bookclub: "Prodigal Summer"
Presented by Francis Tanabe
Washington Post Book World Assistant Editor
Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001; Noon EDT

Welcome to the online meeting of The Washington Post Book Club, a monthly program presented by the editors and writers of Washington Post Book World. Book World assistant editor Francis Tanabe will be leading the discussion on this month's selection, Barbara Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer".

Below is the transcript.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Francis Tanabe: Welcome to The Washington Post Book Club's online chat. The book I've chosen is Barbara Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer." I'd like to begin with a quote from the author which I found on her Web site (www.kingsolver.com):
"This novel is not exclusively--or even mainly--about humans. There is no main character. My agenda is to lure you into thinking about whole systems, not just individual parts. The story asks for a broader grasp of connections and interdependencies than is usual in our culture. . . Think about why the story's three main narrators are obsessed with what they call ghosts: extinct animals, dispossessed relatives, and the American chestnut. In the networks of life described in this story, notice how the absence of a thing is as important as its presence. Notice the sentence that begins and ends the book: "Solitude is only a human presumption."
Perhaps someone can comment on this. In the course of our chat. In the meantime, I'd like to post some comments that have already arrived.

Chevy Chase, Md.:
I really enjoyed Prodigal Summer. I loved entering this world full of details of natural life - especially in these past few weeks...

Re your discussion points: First, I don't think Daniel Woodrell got the full picture of Kingsolver's male and female characters. "Women are cosmologists, thinkers, who see the big picture, while men are basically pollinators looking only for food, a warm place to sleep, and something to pollinate". Think of the details, the "small picture" outlook that Deanna has to have in order to know what she knows about the intricacies of the food chain and the many aspects of life in the forest. Also Lusa, a bug scientist. And Nannie, who even knew how to quickly heal Garnett's strange dizziness affliction through some obscure method she invented? As for Kingsolver's depictions of the men, as a whole they came across as more sort of in awe of the women around them - kind at heart and intelligent, and deferential to women rather than brainless pollinators. All in all I found that in the end, Kingsolver had created a world where men and women were becoming more equals. Eddie Bondo and Deanna may not have been right as mates for life, but he left conceding that he had met his match; not a small feat coming from such a macho guy. By showing the women as strong or using their strength to it's fullest, brave, and independent, Kingsolver is raising the stature of women. And Crys and her brother then represent the trend of the future towards more equality, the one more boy than girl, the other more girl than boy.

A couple thoughts on the word Prodigal. There are so many ways to find prodigality in this book! The very nature of the word. There is one meaning of the word, from the Oxford English Dictionary, that means "proud". Most of the characters that succeed in life are portrayed as proud. And the natural world, in Deanna's eyes as awe-struck appreciative observer, also comes across as proud in it's ability to function smoothly, man being just one part of the whole picture that makes it work. Another interesting aspect of how man provides a certain balance in nature is how all the main characters show a lot of restraint, prudence and thriftiness regarding their property, versus nature, which just continues to grow and grow recklessly, lavishly, abundantly. The one needs to other, is a part of the other.

Lastly - could you please comment on your last question, "in what ways do the political overtones of her last two novels... help or hinder the overall appeal?"

Thank you!

Francis Tanabe: In the Book World article for The Book Club, I mentioned Eudora Welty's essay, "Must a Novelist Crusade?"
I don't find Barbara Kingsolver "crusading" in either "The Poisonwood Bible" or "Prodigal Summer." But there are political reverberations for the reader. And the reader is free to react in any way.
I find a lot of novels are much enriched by issues of the day, whether it be politics in the Congo or about how we should respect Mother Nature.

McLean, Va.: The political overtones in Prodigal Summer did not spoil my enjoyment of the book. The author's awareness and sensitivity to the environment was uplifting.
The main characters were like models. The women strong, independent, wary of men, with a go it alone attitude. The men kind, intelligent but unenlightened. I was uncomfortable with this aspect of the story and have recognized it in other works by Kingsolver. Do you sense an underlying bitterness?

Francis Tanabe: No, I don't find any underlying bitterness. Eddie Bondo and Old Chestnut (Garnett) eventually are pulled by the strengths of the evidence provided by Deanna and the ecology-minded old lady.

Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Tanabe,

As a big fan of Poisonwood Bible (think the sorrows of the Price family a worthy successor to Matthiessen's At Play in the Fields...), it was nice to get to Prodigal Summer.

I liked the narrative weave, the gradual disclosure of the links, the bipolar play (conservators-predators, religionists-biologists), the humor, the romance, the natural tragedies, the didactic offerings.

As to your questions, thought Woodrell's observations about Kingsolver's males very interesting if a little beyond the mark. I think there's a place for both "societal-concern/behavior-engineering" and Welty's more "life-pure imagining" fiction.

QUESTIONS: Did the Lusa episodes put you in mind of Anne Tyler? Were you satisfied with the characters' dialogue? Have you read Kingsolver's poetry?--is it mostly about nature? Thanks.

Francis Tanabe: Perhaps someone else can reply to this person's reference to Anne Tyler and to Barbara Kingsolver's poetry.
I thought most of her characters were convincing. The preachiness of Nannie Land Rawley, the ecology lady, seemed a bit contrived, though.

Washington D.C. : Would you say that Prodigal Summer is as good as Kingsolver's other big novel, The Poisonwood Bible? I really enjoyed that book, but this one doesn't seem as interesting. What's your take on the difference between these two?

Francis Tanabe: These are two very different kinds of novel in subject matter. I really enjoyed reading "The Poisonwood Bible." It is a much more ambitious novel than "Prodigal Summer" in terms of scope, characterization, historical research, etc.
"Prodigal Summer" brought me back closer to home, the hills and mountains of Appalachia. The author's concerns are different. But I am attracted to Barbara Kingsolver's "voice" that comes through both these novels.
Let me add a comment which I received by e-mail earlier:
"There are some absolutely beautiful paragraphs like the last one of Chapter Three. Mr. Garnett notices in May the full form of the birds and how 'he had never dreamed of an age when there was no song left, but still some heart." Aging cannot be expressed in more beautiful English. I keep reading over and over again like a beautiful poem the way she describes on pp. 51-52 through Deanna the waking up of the birds, the 'dawn chorus' they sing, the 'season of courtship mating' the music that earth itself sings with an increasing crescendo as daylight progresses, the change in the dawn chorus into a whistling roar expressing the males' calling out love to silent females ready to remake the world."

Lenexa, Kans.: The last chapter was the only one not headed as "Predators," "Moth Love" or "Old Chestnuts." It was, of course, from the coyote's point of view and a nice frame for man and his part in the biodiversity of nature. Did you think the last chapter effective? Also, I liked the author's choice to leave much of the three narratives unresolved, e.g., whether any of the three pairings eventually marry. Agree? Thanks again.

Francis Tanabe: I didn't notice that the last chapter did not have a header. The coyote's concerns, of course. We humans never think from their perspective. Kingsolver is urging us to think beyond our world to encompass the animal kingdom and further. I'm sure Barbara Kingsolver will be pleased with your observations.

Bowler, Wis.: I was wondering about Deanne's relationship with Eddie. The author spends a lot of time didactically emphasizing the need to work within nature's framework, and portrays Deanne to be such a person. Yet Deanne doesn't even tell Eddie he's going to be a father. To me, the denial of his fatherhood, seems contrary to those principles.

Francis Tanabe: This is precisely the point raised by the Washington Post's reviewer, Daniel Woodrell. He wrote: "None of the males approaches nobility in any regard--the best of them have decent though misguided hearts. This is a conceit of the novel: Woman are cosmologists, thinkers who see the big picture, while men are basically pollinators looking only for food, a warm place to sleep, and something to pollinate."

Haymarket, Va.: I don't know if the novelist must crusade, but as a reader, I enjoy a book that allows me to explore a crusade. Barbara Kingsolver's books mix the crusade with enjoyable characters that allow the crusade to be palpable. I believe Barbara Kingsolver started a foundation for new authors who write about social activism with the money she earned for Poisonwood Bible. If that's true, I believe she's active on a crusade to encourage other writer's to address political issues.

Francis Tanabe: As a reader I tend to like books that tackle political issues. Think of the great novels such as Tolstoy's "War and Peace" or Stendhal's "The Red and the Black." Or, on a more popular level, Victor Hugo's novels and Alexander Dumas's.
By the way, I agree with Kingsolver's views, about the politics of Africa or about our lack of concern to save the endangered species, whether it be butterflies and bugs or the mammoth whale. Come to think of it, the mammoth became extinct because we didn't know better.

Arlington, Va.: I am in the process of listening to "Prodigal Summer" on tape, read by Barbara Kingsolver. I enjoy hearing the author's voice; her cadences, the emphasis on certain words. The slight twang in her voice is also enjoyable and makes the story and setting more real/authentic.

Francis Tanabe: I have not heard the tape. I've never heard her voice. I heard from someone that PBS had a special about Barbara Kingsolver.

Francis Tanabe: I promised this writer to post her comments which she sent via e-mail. So here goes:

I read your piece in the Post's Book World yesterday and, as I just finished
Kingsolver's _The Poisonwood Bible_ (I have not read _Prodigal Summer_) but
cannot join your online bookchat on Thursday, I thought I would send a comment
directly to you.

I would like to make two points.

First, about the female/male portraiture: I don't see that the male characters
being weak individuals and the female characters being intelligent and
thoughtful is so much a "conceit" as a choice of the author, just as many
authors
choose to portray men as thinkers and women as background-keepers. It is helpful
and healthful for the public at large to see that female characters are every
bit as good at representing the struggles of being human as male characters.

In the case of the Poisonwood Bible, their struggle is epic and each of the
women's responses is different. Rachel, in many ways repeats her father's
narrow view of life, although by taking the indifferent relativist's point of
view. It is the opposite of the absolutist construction of the world of the
father, but it has many of the same outcomes - loneliness being the most
devastating. Each of the women characters struggles with guilt, loss, and
lonliness and none of them ever becomes really whole again after their
experience in the Congo. Leah, perhaps, comes the closest.

The political message about the colonization of Africa, or of women's minds and
hearts applies equally to men's minds and hearts. Close readers know that this
is not
so much about being against one way or another - it is about opening minds to
thoughtful consideration. Indeed some of the MALE characters, Anatole and
Nelson, (esp.
Anatole) are intelligent, thoughtful, compassionate. Anatole is forward-looking
and a big-picture visionary. He is the character who embodies real so-called
"Christian" values. I wonder how Woodrell missed him/them. Was it because they
are African?

And secondly, crusading is always a political agenda wrapped up in virtue. If
there are any characters who are acting mechanically or carrying placards in
_Poisonwood_, it would have to be the father whose literal interpretation of the
Bible is utterly devoid of nuance or complexity. Clearly, Kingsolver is showing
the failure of such a stance.

She is making the experience of colonization live for the reader. You don't
have to have lived in Africa to recognize this, or be a woman living in similar
circumstances. The writing is powerfully poetic and if there is anything this
book is about, it is the suggestion that the way we can move forward is to
accept our wounds and to know that we are richer for them. Life without
conflict or desire is boring, and the only way we have of getting passed painful
experience is to come together - the way the women and also Anantole and Leah do
- to help each other.

There are many authors who write to expose a situation, to bring it to life, to
bring it to consciousness. I am thinking particularly of Maghrebian writers,
male and female, and Paule Constant (Prix Goncourt 1998), since I work with
these writers myself. But many of them also offer this same suggestion about
how to accept the basic blendedness of being, mtissage, as the richness of
possibility in community. "Poisonwood" makes me think of Malika Mokeddem's
"L'interdite" (The Forbidden Woman) and her more recent "N'zid" and especially
of Paule Constant's "La Fille du Gobernator" (The Governor's Daughter).
Mokeddem and many other Maghrebian writers (Sebbar, Djebar, Khatibi, Bhabha)
work on this theme and Constant's works are excruciating portraits of the losses
incurred when there is no such understanding.

Writers do work in some sense to condemn and to suggest correction - but it is
only successful when it is carefully woven into the writing - never, as Yardley
must have been suggesting, when it is overt or preachy. The degree to which it
is integrated and available to the careful reader is one of the hallmarks
of a great novel.

Authors' observations of the evolution of awareness can only suggest that
awareness is worth the effort - otherwise why write about it? Writing about
consciousness of the human condition is always found in writers who have
recently emerged from subjection, so it is natural that their characters reflect
themselves. Sometimes female characters represent the human condition better
than male characters because their experience is more likely to be one of exile
and loss. The Woodrell comment, which appears to be a criticism of Kingsolver's
"crusade", seems to me to be a reaction that is not unlike that of the father in
Poisonwood when Leah goes to the hunt: initial anger, then a turning away as if
it/she has no merit/existence.

You may post my comments on the bookchat on Thursday if you like.

Frederick, MD

Crofton, Md.: Is the author Barbara Kingsolver the voice of Deanna, a tough, smart, independent woman?

Francis Tanabe: The voice of Barbara Kingsolver seems to be not just Deanna, but Lusa as well, the city slicker with a mother from Palestine and a father who is a Polish Jew. And also Nannie. It seems the male voices are never hers. Or am I mistaken?

Waldorf, Md.: Question: In this novel I sensed a feeling of seemingly female superiority until the very end of the novel. Did you sense this as well?

Francis Tanabe: Yes, I did-- a healthy reaction to all the male-dominated novels of the past.

Washington, D.C.: I find Barbara Kingsolver's knowledge of species interaction including humans very thorough. I know she studied chemistry, but I wonder how much time she spent in the Appalachians to be able to write the book with such accomplishment? I think it's interesting how she is able to weave the human experience in the Lusa character from the city and the other characters from rural Kentucky.

Francis Tanabe: Barbara Kingsolver lives partly in Arizona and partly at a farm in Washington County, Virginia.

Francis Tanabe: Thank you for participating. Our next Book Club selection is "Housekeeping," by Marilyn Robinson. My colleague Michael Dirda will be leading the discussion. Please remember the session will be on at noon, Thursday, Oct. 25.

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