Bucket's Reviews > State of Wonder

** spoiler alert ** First, if you haven't read the book and intend to, don't read this review. I spoil just about everything, including the ending, below.

This just didn't work for me. So much bothers me about the way State of Wonder is written and the way the story plays out that I'm overwhelmed by where to begin.

I guess the first thing that bothered me was Dr. Swenson - she's a caricature. Her actions and words are absurd and the way the other characters respond to her is worse. It's not just that I didn't like her - she also made no sense. How would someone like her have ever gained such power over those around her? Why in the world does Mr. Fox wait years and not cut off funding? Even if he wants the drug, she could be laying on the beach down there and he has no idea. It's nonsense.

While Marina was a decently well-rounded character, there was a weird issue towards the beginning of the novel where her big secret is being divulged to the reader. Marina isn't stating it aloud - the reader is basically inside her head - yet there are continual interruptions where she has a conversation or notes something she sees or hears. Of course, this is meant to drag out the suspense, but stylistically it's bizarre. Are we meant to believe that Marina is literally thinking out the words we're reading and keeps getting interrupted? She's not writing or speaking. She's not even narrating, really - who writes that way??

As the book moves forward the sheer volume of convenient plot twists and coincidences made me want to scream. Everything feels forced into moving the plot along. For example: no one would ever put their phone in their suitcase instead of their carry-on and why didn't the other tribe kill Anders if that's basically what they do?

While I was happy to accept the fiction of the story (that there are trees that will let you be fertile into your 70s and beyond) I couldn't accept the coincidences and the tendency of characters to behave completely out of character to further the plot.

The worst part was absolutely the end. Anders and Marina have sex? For real? Our author justifies this by saying that they needed to be intimate after what had happened, and they would have been intimate with their respective partners had those people been available, but they weren't so they just had each other. Really? That is insane. Honestly, the idea that someone has to have sex with someone, doesn't matter who, because a rough experience has ended is offensive. The worst is over - I must have sex! Ridiculous.

There is one thing that is quite good about this book - the writing about the jungle. The description is excellent and made me feel like I was there among the endless green of the trees and the roots and the vines and the creepy crawlies. This, coupled with the decent characterization of Marina, is why I'll give Ann Patchett another try.

Themes: science, research ethics, culture, medicine, fertility, women, relationships, biological clock, Amazon, communication, biology, suspense