March 2011: The Lacuna (Kingsolver)

Post date: Mar 18, 2011 8:24:6 PM

A group of 14 (15 counting baby George) alumnae, representing classes from '46 to '09 gathered at Sherrill's on March 17 to discuss Barbara Kingsolver's book, The Lacuna.

While some were grabbed by the story from early on, a few found the book to be slow going, especially in the beginning. Nancy found the early part quite slow when she read it some time ago, but when rereading it for book club, she loved it from the start: knowing the characters already makes the beginning more interesting. The structure of the novel was generally considered a success, and Sherrill was struck by how much better job Kingsolver did at constructing her literary device than Rebecca Skloot did in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Everyone found the story interesting, although Kingsolver's choice to have real historical figures so deeply involved in her fictional world engendered various levels of discomfort in readers. Kate especially disliked it. Perhaps it is only recent historical figures that we are reluctant to see fictionalized; we don't have the same reaction when Shakespeare puts words in Richard III's mouth. We contrasted The Lacuna with Cutting for Stone, which also successfully explored a historical period and place, but in which actual historical figures were kept on the periphery. It was proposed that Kingsolver used Kahlo, Rivera, and Trotsky because they were famous, and part of the story she wanted to tell was about fame, notoriety and the media. The fact that it was set in recent history, and history that we are familiar with, made it feel a bit like an artsy/literary Forrest Gump: famous events and people flowed around Shepherd, who just happened to be in the right (wrong?) place at the right time.

Everybody liked Violet Brown, although some found her a bit too good to be true. Opinion was more divided on Harrison Shepherd, with some finding the young Harrison in Mexico more compelling that the older one, in Asheville. Many people liked the Mexico and early experiences in America parts of the book better in general, and we wondered if there could have been some way to tighten up/slim down the middle part. Were there just too many letters from fans, perhaps?

The anti-communism character assassination depicted in the latter part of the book was especially real to the older alumnae in the group who lived through that era. We discussed current trends that seem to parallel some of that hysteria: the tea party movement and anti-Muslim sentiment.