STATE OF WONDER: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

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STATE OF WONDER

BY ANN PATCHETT

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Ann Patchett has dazzled readers with her award-winning books, including The Magician's Assistant and the New York Times bestselling Bel Canto. Now she raises the bar with State of Wonder, a provocative and ambitious novel set deep in the Amazon jungle.

Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina's assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past.

Once found, Dr. Swenson, now in her seventies, is as ruthless and uncompromising as she ever was back in the days of Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins. With a combination of science and subterfuge, she dominates her research team and the natives she is studying with the force of an imperial ruler. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she may still be unable to live up to her teacher's expectations. 

In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and a neighboring tribe of cannibals, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels: State of Wonder; the New York Times bestselling Run; The Patron Saint of Liars, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Taft, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; The Magician’s Assistant; and Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, the BookSense Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the author of two works of nonfiction: the New York Times bestselling Truth & Beauty and What now? Patchett has written for many publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Magazine, Gourmet, the New York Times, Vogue, and the Washington Post. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Photo by Melissa Ann Pinney 

PRAISE FOR STATE OF WONDER:

“A spellbinder from bestselling author Patchett.  Thrilling, disturbing and moving in equal measures—even better than Patchett’s breakthrough Bel Canto (2001).” 

— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Patchett is a master storyteller…[An] expansive page-turner…Patchett’s fluid prose dissolves in the suspense of this out-there adventure.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)


“[A] superbly rendered novel.  Patchett’s portrayal is as wonderful as it is frightening and foreign. Patchett exhibits an extraordinary ability to bring the horrors and the wonders of the Amazon jungle to life, and her singular characters are wonderfully drawn. Powerful and captivating.” 

— Library Journal (starred review)

MY REVIEW:

Ann Patchett, award-winning author of BEL CANTO, is back with an elaborately involved novel, STATE OF WONDER.  Patchett's marvelous descriptions draw the reader right into the jungles of the Amazon, where the story is set, and this setting becomes as important a character as the people. The main characters are Dr. Marina Singh, who is a pharmaceutical company researcher, and Dr. Annick Swenson who at one time was Singh’s adviser in medical school when Singh left to pursue a career in pharmacology instead. Dr. Singh’s colleague, Anders Eckman, died when he was sent in search of the missing Annick Swenson who is in the Amazon rain forest working on a very important new, and profitable, drug.  Finding Swenson and the drug are very important to many people for many reasons.

Faced with her own fears and much apprehension, Marina Singh leaves on a journey to a jungle she can only imagine exists. While there, she not only needs to find the elusive Dr. Swenson and the new, mystery drug but also hopes to find out how her friend, Dr. Eckman died. 

After a long and drawn out beginning which, to be honest, I found tedious to get through, Marina is off to the part of the jungle where she does finally find Dr. Swenson. My thoughts about the first part of the book being a little tough to get into may have been due to the heat of the summer and my restlessness. I am one who likes to get to the main point of the story without quite as much time spent on getting there. With the rest of the novel’s description capturing my attention and Patchett’s reputation as the fine writer she is, I made myself stick with it and the result was worth it.

Dr. Swenson, now in her seventies, is still a force to be reckoned with as she rules her camp and the natives being studied with an iron fist, seemingly heartless and inflexible, demanding nothing but the best. However, Swenson is also hard on herself and as the story goes on, makes harsh demands of Marina Singh as well. As for this “miracle” drug, Dr. Swenson has found out that the bark from certain trees there give women the possibility of being able to conceive indefinitely with no regard to age. This is the exciting drug the company wants to produce. Little do they know, like Dr. Swenson does, that this bark also seems to make women immune to malaria. While this would be a huge discovery for science, it isn’t as profitable as when used to allow women to conceive on into their senior years. It appears Dr. Swenson has personal confirmation of this.

How Marina Singh handles this situation and what becomes of the drug and Dr. Swenson makes for an exciting conclusion. STATE OF WONDER not only leaves readers with a lot of questions such as if the use of innocent people to test a drug is right, but also at what point is it really proper and ethical for a woman to conceive a child? How liable to their employer are researchers and workers dealing with research when they discover other pertinent findings? Lastly, I think the ending showed Marina’s character as she was faced with so many difficulties to face both professionally and personally.  She took them on and found something in herself she didn’t know was there. Dr. Singh must battles snakes and cannibals but also her own beliefs are challenged and she has to come to terms with that which for her is the biggest battle of all.

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