Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. She hikes up a mountain road behind her house towards a secret tryst, but instead encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders and the media.

As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town and a larger world, in a flight towards truth that could undo all she has ever believed.

It has been quite a few years since our last reading of a Kingsolver novel (Poisonwood Bible in 2002) so it was always going to be interesting to see where we placed her after so long. From the majority of responses the enjoyment level is still up there with many of our favourites.

 Everyone enjoyed the journey into the natural science world and found the migration and environmental plight of the Monarch butterfly fascinating. As a group we are all concerned about global warming and its effects, so Kingsolver’s eco-theme was of great interest to us all.

 In the matter of character relations, we had differing opinions as to whether Dellarobia was worth our concern. Ann took a dislike to her from the beginning and Tera found her character lacking backbone, maturity and simply frustrating to the extreme.

 Others sympathized with Del’s trapped circumstances, and knew where she was coming from. The fact that she had out grown her home town and family was evident, but there was also empathy for Cub. His simple, yet loyal personality struck a chord with some of us and believed his character to be well written and convincing.

The many social issues addressed in this novel is impressive. Most of us thought the story and characters all tied in well and that Kingsolver was successful in what she was trying for in this narrative. The humour was appreciated by all, particularly in Del’s relationship with her children and girlfriend.

The only other criticism was the novel’s length. Most thought it could have been edited down somewhat, but generally our group found Flight Behaviour a worthwhile read that will no doubt satisfy all but the pickiest of fiction readers.

 

Postscript: Tera took this beautiful photo during a walk through a local track just a few weeks ago. A very serendipitous find considering the subject matter of this month’s book. Let’s all hope we never loose these wonderful creatures!

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life.

Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.

What does the passage of time do to history (in particular, the memory of personal history). And how does reflection compare with the true history of your past?


Pondering questions such as these was the main driving force of this month’s discussion on Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending.

There were mixed opinions … mostly concerning the characters and the plot. The majority found Tony pompous, self-indulgent, and weak. Others, although in general agreement with these traits, found him extremely well written with an ability to draw the reader in with his contemplative dialogue. The perplexing Veronica and philosophical Adrian round out the drama played out in Tony’s memory and slowly lead us down the road to the novel’s closing stages, without a real conclusion.

This small book on the concept of time, history and memory gave us all reason to reflect on these intangibles and it turned into a very satisfying discourse. We all agreed that our memories, such as they are, tend to warp our histories into a story that generally suits our perception of ourselves. Barnes does not give us enough information on the main characters for us to challenge Tony’s version of the past, but there in lies the beauty of this well written novel.

The author gives us plenty of room to contemplate … and we felt this novel was not about the characters, or even the plot … but says more about the passing of time, how it becomes history and how we deal with our past.

In the end, Tony never really understands why things played out they way they did and what his role was in it all, but as readers we came away feeling we had at least some answers and a little insight into what makes this novel work.