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A review by andrewspink
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was recommended to me by a friend after I enthused about Demon Copperhead, and they were right, it is a great book, especially for me. There is a lot about the joys of fieldwork, of cobbling solutions together out of household equipment whilst you're out in the middle of nowhere and the slightly bizarre dedication that scientists have to their work. "Dellarobia tried to imagine loving to do something so much, she would get that miserable doing it".
The book was also really thought-provoking about communication and preconceptions between different groups of people, like well-educated scientists, and subsistence farmers. Barbara Kingsolver's unique perspective on this (due to her belong to both communities) was really good.
The book was written back in 2012, and that also gave an interesting perspective. Smartphones were a luxury, not a necessity of life, and climate change denial was still a widely heard belief. The polarisation that came into society after that period had not yet taken place - it is hard to imagine that meeting of minds between the different groups taking place today.
The one weak point of the book is that it is a little over didactic in places. The long lectures about the biology and ecology of the monarch butterflies are interesting, but perhaps just a little too much of a good thing.
Nevertheless, a great book, I really enjoyed it!
The book was also really thought-provoking about communication and preconceptions between different groups of people, like well-educated scientists, and subsistence farmers. Barbara Kingsolver's unique perspective on this (due to her belong to both communities) was really good.
The book was written back in 2012, and that also gave an interesting perspective. Smartphones were a luxury, not a necessity of life, and climate change denial was still a widely heard belief. The polarisation that came into society after that period had not yet taken place - it is hard to imagine that meeting of minds between the different groups taking place today.
The one weak point of the book is that it is a little over didactic in places. The long lectures about the biology and ecology of the monarch butterflies are interesting, but perhaps just a little too much of a good thing.
Nevertheless, a great book, I really enjoyed it!