![]() ![]() Marina loses her suitcases, her clothes, reading materials, cell phone, and ties to the outside. Speed bumps along the way are also what give a story literary traction, and, as in Bel Canto, Patchett is a master of creating extraordinary circumstances for seemingly ordinary characters. Swenson, whose work on developing a controversial new fertility drug suggests a scientific quest for progress, and the invasion and potential exploitation of the Lakashi, a fictional population indigenous to the Amazon.Īs in all odysseys, what particularize Marina’s journey are the hurdles, and how she reacts to them. The checkered relationship between mentor and mentee, between student and teacher, is at the fulcrum of the novel’s central tension.ĭeposited in the South American city of Manaus, Marina sets out to track down Dr. ![]() She is dispatched there to recover the details of her coworker’s recent death, and to evaluate the research of a field team deep in the jungle, a team headed up by her former mentor, Dr. ![]() The woman is Marina Singh, a researcher in a Minnesota pharmaceutical lab who embarks on a mission to the Amazon. ![]() When discussing plot, consider Leo Tolstoy’s axiom: “All great literature is one of two stories a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” In her sixth novel, State of Wonder, Ann Patchett launches a contemporary woman on a personal and professional journey, delivering an ambitious narrative and an entertaining read. ![]()
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