The Lacuna

“Nearly every day I wake up shocked at how little in this world I comprehend.”

An incredible achievement. I stopped short of giving it five stars purely because I struggled with the opening part of the book and some of the bits set in Mexico. However, the 2nd half of the book is something else and when you get to end it's an almost euphoric experience. Read the blurb and the other reviews because I don't have the words.

Fun and engaging story, kind of plays around the edges of magical realism without diving deep into it, and I liked the inclusion of the historical characters.

Compelling, beautiful, and full of heart. Reading it felt like being pulled along by a current, and I was never sure where I was going, but the trip was well worth it.

I really struggled to get into this book. I found the narrator's refusal to use a first person pronoun (I, my etc) really distracting at first, however after 100 pages or so the prose began to flow. By the end of the novel I loved it. I felt completely outraged by the injustices Harrison had to face, and a book that made me feel that strongly about a fictional character must be worth reading. Stick with it, and it will reward you.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Poisonwood Bible and thought this Kingsolver offering sounded interesting. I was not disappointed. I really enjoy her style of writing and found her “message” in this work to be very compelling. I look forward to reading more of her novels.

The most important part of the story is the thing you don't know–the lacuna. With this brilliant trope, Kingsolver explores the the abuse heaped on working people, the lies spread by politicians and newspapers, and the meaning of art. This is one of the best books I've ever read, but by the end I saw parallels to the present political atmosphere–parallels that I'm sure were not unintentional–and it just made me angry that we're still letting people get away with spewing their nonsense. A terrific read. (While I agree with those who say it is a little slow to take off, I was hooked as soon as Frida and Diego arrived on the page.)

I know this is unfair, but: I didn't like this as much as I liked Poisonwood Bible. But I LOVED Poisonwood Bible, so it took me awhile to come to terms with the fact that this is still a good book. I connected less with Harrison, the protagonist, than I did with the characters in PB. But partly that is by design... he's a more distant, reclusive character. Possibly... I liked the Mexican-American history, and the Red Scare, etc. but I already knew more about that history, whereas in Poisonwood Bible I knew very little about Congolese history so it was more of a surprise to me. Not that I have to compare those 2 books, but it's hard not to. Anyway... good book!