Throughout their whole lives, Willa and her husband have done the
right thing: they went to college, got married, paid off their debts, lived
together, had children, etc. However, how is it that at the peak of them
finally gaining the security and benefits they so sorely need, they end
up in a broken house with a grandson from a son and a daughter who
recently arrived from Cuba, along with the husband's father who spews
bigotry every which way? What went wrong? UNSHELTERED by Barbara Kingsolver attempts to
answer the questions that are plaguing many people of the day.
Years ago I read THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver and I
have to admit that I just fell in love with the story, the writing, the world
building and so forth. In THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, Barbara Kingsolver
tackled the issues of family and colonialism, asking the question of
whether or not its worth it. In UNSHELTERED, Barbara Kingsolver dares to put a face
and needs on why the political climate is the way it is; why there is
aggression, fighting, and hatred when before there was tolerance, and
the answers are neither easy nor beautiful to answer. Strangely enough,
I also gained a lot of insight into a family member that supports the old
system.
UNSHELTERED, just like THE
POISONWOOD BIBLE, also contains a lot of beautiful descriptions as
well as amazing life lessons that I didn't even consider until I read it,
and I was thunderstruck when I learned about them. I found that UNSHELTERED is ultimately a tale of
hope, that its possible to pick up pieces and become resilient. I know
that UNSHELTERED is a book for
our times; an extension of an olive branch between conservatives and
liberals.
While there are a lot of elements that I loved about UNSHELTERED, one thing I found confusing is that the
two stories didn't connect as I anticipated. Many times when I have
read historical fiction, the past and the present found ways to obviously
connect with one another, and in UNSHELTERED, there is a connection, but it's not very
obvious until the very end on how the two stories connect and fully
relate to the other.
For a reader that is seeking to know why the world has become volatile
and why politeness and tender virtues have abandoned us, UNSHELTERED by Barbara Kingsolver
will be a mind-blowing read.
The New York Times bestselling author of Flight Behavior,
The Lacuna, and The Poisonwood Bible and recipient of
numerous literary awards—including the National
Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and
the Orange Prize—returns with a timely novel that
interweaves past and present to explore the human
capacity for resiliency and compassion in times of great
upheaval.
Willa Knox has always prided herself on being the
embodiment of responsibility for her family. Which is why
it’s so unnerving that she’s arrived at middle age with
nothing to show for her hard work and dedication but a
stack of unpaid bills and an inherited brick home in
Vineland, New Jersey, that is literally falling apart.
The magazine where she worked has folded, and the college
where her husband had tenure has closed. The dilapidated
house is also home to her ailing and cantankerous Greek
father-in-law and her two grown children: her stubborn,
free-spirited daughter, Tig, and her dutiful debt-ridden,
ivy educated son, Zeke, who has arrived with his
unplanned baby in the wake of a life-shattering
development.
In an act of desperation, Willa begins to investigate the
history of her home, hoping that the local historical
preservation society might take an interest and provide
funding for its direly needed repairs. Through her
research into Vineland’s past and its creation as a
Utopian community, she discovers a kindred spirit from
the 1880s, Thatcher Greenwood.
A science teacher with a lifelong passion for honest
investigation, Thatcher finds himself under siege in his
community for telling the truth: his employer forbids him
to speak of the exciting new theory recently published by
Charles Darwin. Thatcher’s friendships with a brilliant
woman scientist and a renegade newspaper editor draw him
into a vendetta with the town’s most powerful men. At
home, his new wife and status-conscious mother-in-law
bristle at the risk of scandal, and dismiss his financial
worries and the news that their elegant house is
structurally unsound.
Brilliantly executed and compulsively readable,
Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two
centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum, as
they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the
throes of major cultural shifts. In this mesmerizing
story told in alternating chapters, Willa and Thatcher
come to realize that though the future is uncertain, even
unnerving, shelter can be found in the bonds of kindred—
whether family or friends—and in the strength of the
human spirit.
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