My mother handed me Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, Flight Behavior, as we were packing up
at the end of a long and difficult weekend that included a family member’s
funeral. I’ll admit right off the bat that it’s been a while since I opted for
a work of literary fiction (lately I’ve been inhaling mysteries, young adult
novels, and anything with a pink or pastel cover) but I’ve read many of
Kingsolver’s books over the years, and have always loved her storytelling
style.
Flight Behavior (HarperCollins,
2012) did not disappoint. The book chronicles a winter in a small mountain town
in Tennessee, where a young wife and mother named Dellarobia has discovered
something strange and beautiful: a mountainside full, coated with orange butterflies. Butterflies that should not be
there. Kingsolver tackles big, relevant issues in Flight Behavior: climate change, the economic realities of
twenty-first century rural life, faith, family, marriage.
The writing in Flight
Behavior is lyrical, beautiful, but straightforward and clean -
Kingsolver’s expressive literary style infused with her background as a science
journalist. She writes easily between the worlds that collide in this story,
from the plain-spoken intelligence of Dellarobia and her family and friends to
the learned academics who visit the mountain from research universities.
- Click here to find Flight Behavior in RockCat.
- Click here to find more books by Barbara Kingsolver.
