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November 17, 2005
Pigs in Heaven
Barbara Kingsolver's book, Pigs in Heaven, tells the story of several people who lost family struggling through many difficulties to get back to it. After all the non-fiction, science fiction, detective stories, stories by guys, it seemed like the story got off to a very slow start. Kingsolver spends a lot of time getting you involved in her characters.
Kingsolver does such a good job, however, at making you believe her characters and at getting you to appreciate them that you get drawn in anyway. You keep reading to find out how Annawake's going to help resolve Turtle's custody, whether Taylor's going to fight so hard she ends up putting her and Turtle's lives into jeopardy, whether Alice is going to declare herself Cherokee or not.
There's a strong family message amidst the characters, showing one case where the family can work out a thorny legal problem and save the emotional day in a way that allows potential adversaries to live happily ever after together. At the same time the family is getting exterminated by the legalistic, individualist, anti-family tendencies in the surrounding society.
You don't have to go all the way from white America to the Cherokee nation to see that sense of family disappearing. It was obvious the first time I met my wife's parents in their home town, that family looks quaint already to my generation. The episode I recall was years ago. We were eating at the kitchen table in Nath's parent's house. Michel and Colette were catching up with the gossip about everybody they knew in Desvres. They seemed genuinely interested, eager to know who was up to what. For a male American of my background, it was a visit to an alternate universe. So was this book.
Posted by Mark at November 17, 2005 09:54 PM
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