State of Wonder [First Read 2011] by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is one of those authors whose new books are automatically sent to the “top of the list” as a must read.  She’s an academic author.  She spends a lot of time perfecting plot and characters, so we only see a new work every two or three years.

This is an amazing story and a compelling read.  It’s all I can do to hold back from just reading it straight through, from cover to cover.  However, like a good Armagnac, the reading is best, when one savors it over time without guzzling.

Marina Singh is a Minnesotan medical doctor with an eastern Indian father, who abandoned her, returning to India.  She has nightmares about her childhood visits to Calcutta.  She gave up her surgical career because of a common mistake when in residency (she never watched Dr. House or Grey’s Anatomy).  At the opening, she is a lab tech with a partner, Eckman; and a quiet sexual relationship with her 20-years-older boss.  The boss sends Eckman to the Amazon; Marina’s old surgery professor reports Eckman’s death after three months.  Marina bonds with Eckman’s wife, who has every thing Marina really wants: kids, acceptance, and a stimulating life.  Marina travels to the Amazon to pick up the pieces.  She finds all those things she has been missing in her life.

 

Ann Patchett normally puts most of her attention on people and their psychology, motivations, and back-stories.  As a change of pace, Patchett has written an action thriller here, not much psychoanalysis. 

So, she has channeled Homer, using all the adventure devices we love in “The Odyssey.”  We have the Lotus-Eaters, who forget their mission preferring somatic drugs [Rapps].  We have the cannibalistic Laestrygonians [Hummocca] with yellow heads and poison darts.  We have the protective drug “moly” to resist Circe [malaria].  And of course, there’s an encounter with Scylla, the six-headed monster [Anaconda].  Marina exhibits growing strength and commitment as the story unfolds.

Patchett’s writing is tight: no meandering, no wasted words on fluff.  I appreciate the time and effort that went into scores of revisions; they were worth it.  There is never any hint of what’s going to happen next.

Marina blossoms when dropped in the Amazon jungle.  Life will never be the same.  Patchett explores the boundaries of love: for children, for a child, of a friend, and mentors; and not unlike Odysseus, the story ends when they get home.

There will be considerable temptation on the part of the movie director to turn this script into something like “Anaconda” or “Arachnophobia,” or even Tarzan.  This is not what the book is all about and it would be a shame to have the movie miss the point, while in search of some teenager-appeasing computer graphics.