the lacuna.

i really want to like barbara kingsolver. people rave about her, but after first reading the bean trees and now the lacuna, i am still not onboard. her novels are inventive, she tells a great story, but the writing itself feels like it is missing something.

in the lacuna we follow the life of harrison shepherd, a kid who grows up in virginia and at age ten is brought along by his mexican mother back to her home country in pursuit of wealthy men and excitement. we see harrison grow up and eventually he comes to serve as a cook in the frida kahlo/diego rivera household, which parlays into a stint as trotsky’s typist. frida kahlo is the most spirited and natural character in the book, and as soon as the narrative pulled away from mexico and back to the united states i lost interest.

overall, i enjoyed the book but the writing itself felt stilted and not rich enough for the colorful people and places the novel touched on. i also thought the newspaper clippings about mccarthyism, the red scare, and truman were a bit heavy handed. leave the reader something to piece together on their own. before i give up on kingsolver altogether i will give the poisonwood bible a shot.