In this lush, sensual novel, Kingsolver explores human life as just another kind of life, subject to the same pulls of instinct as any creature. In the natural world, everyone and everything is interconnected and all-animals, birds, insects, and humans-are driven by the nuances of sex and procreation. In three interwoven stories, Kingsolver explores these connections. Deanna Wolfe, heroine of the first of three interwoven stories, is a park ranger who has isolted herself from humanity after a divorce. While tracking a pack of coyotes, she encounters Eddie Bondo, erstwhile coyote hunter and sex machine. Over the course of the summer and her through her time with Eddie, Deanna confronts her reality, reevaluating her ideas of independence and human relationships. In the second story, Lusa, a ”bugologist”, is forced to confront her in-laws, born and bred countryfolk, after the unexpected death of her husband. An outsider because of her background and education, Lusa begins to discover that life on a farm, of which she had always dreamed, is tougher than expected, and her in-laws are not so rigid. However, Lusa’s life begins to take root in the fertile farmland and by the end of the summer, she has found her place. Finally, in the third story, two bickering elderly neighbors eventually develop a relationship both out of lonliness and a burgeoning feeling of kinship that offers yet another vision of reconciliation and community. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Kingsolver’s Appalachians are exotic, vibrant, verdant, literally pulsing with life. Three great stories that through her craft, become one.

• The government is expanding.
  
• Taxes are increasing.
  
• More senseless wars are being planned.
  
• Inflation is ballooning.
  
• Our basic freedoms are disappearing.

Egan graphically depicts the horrific effects of the Dust Bowl on the people who stayed behind. On April 14, 1935, Black Sunday, the biggest dust storm on record descended over five states, from the Dakotas to Amarillo, Texas. People standing a few feet apart could not see each other; if they touched, they risked being knocked over by the static electricity that the dust created in the air. In movies like “The Grapes of Wrath” we hear the story of those who left-exodusters- and struggled to find a better life. In Egan’s book, the trials of those who stayed on in the areas of the Llano Estacado in Texas, No Man’s Land in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado are recorded. By the 1930s, ”sodbusters” had plowed up the grasslands to plant wheat, removing the natural grasses within a fairly short time. High winds, accompanied by high temperatures and a drought that came early in the decade and lasted throughout, ripped off the top soil. The dusters that followed would at times drop feet of dirt on the parched and barren countryside. The consequence of ripping up the native grasses resulted in a disaster that killed humans and animals, blackened skies, and isolated whole towns.

Egan blames the government for setting up the conditions that caused the Dust Bowl: clearing the land of bison to make way for cattle, offering incentives that lured settlers to plow, stimulating wartime demands for wheat during the Great War and encouraging unsustainable practices so Americans could produce more food than any other humans in history. This forced the next adminstration under Roosevelt to take extraordinary steps to undo the environmental damage done by overfarming and right a failing economy deep in depression that are still felt today.

The story is riveting while at the same time mind boggling because you can see the same mistakes occurring now.The parallel between the recent banking implosion and the collapse of Wall Street in the late 20s; the land speculation of investors who saw a quick buck in the empty prairie and the real estate lenders of today who took advantage of the CRA; the large agribusinesses of the high plains who thrive on government subsidies that were set up to aide the family farm storing wheat and corn instead of distributing it so prices stay artificially inflated. As you read, you can’t help but make the comparisons and wonder why don’t we ever learn?

Finally, Hugh Bennett, Roosevelt’s Soil Conservation leader, stated in 1932, as the first dusters began to roll,”Of all the countries in the world, we Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people barbaric or civilized.” Egan’s account documents why this statement is true, but he also shows how sheer determination, cooperation, and desire to right this wrong done to the land helped to settle the soil and eventually bring the grasses back to parts of the prairie.

Although this story meanders into the realm of Scifi, it is also a warped reflection of our world. The governments of the countries of the world wage war just because; soldiers go out and fight; others create weapons so advanced they can change the fabric of reality. When one army gets pissed because the other army actually causes almost irreparable damage, they use the weapon (which they consider a creation of their own)in retaliaiton which leads to retaliation by the first army (the one who caused the first damage-following so far?) with the same weapon (surprise!). The world is irrevocably changed forever and the unsuspecting citizenry have to learn to cope until a huge corporation begins repairs and eventually becomes the new governing body. I recommend this book for everyone-not just those of us with a mind bent towards the unusual. The concept forces you to think about how we are ruled today and how large corporations, i.e. banks, finance corporations, Haliburton, control our government.

The description of this debut novel says that this story is “equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana, and ultra-cool epic…a story of love, pirates, mimes, greed, and ninjas.” But it is also the story of a world, much like our own, in desperate need of heroes, however unlikely they may seem.” When I first read this I thought, “Wow! This must be some book to be able to put all that in between the covers.” Fortunately, for the most part, the book does live up to its review. The first chapter opens in a ramshackle pub called the Nameless Bar where the power has just gone out. As the occupants of the bar watch, the TV slowly comes back to life and shows that the pipeline, which is the lifeline for humanity, is on fire. The world in which our intrepid narrator and his friends live is a parody of what life used to be. Because of a senseless war, which came to be knwon as the “Gone Away War”, the world was irreparably changed by a weapon into two distinct parts: the “Livable Zone” and the “Gone Away World.” The dialogue is snappy and witticisms abound as the narrator relives life before the war (rather lengthy but necessary), during the war, and how humanity began adjusting afterwards. As soon as the narrator returns to the present, the story takes yet another turn, and we are treated to a clever twist that throws the whole book into a completely different light.