I have not read any of Kingsolver’s previous award-winning novels, documentaries, or poetry, so her unique style of writing was entirely new to me. In this 469 page 2018 novel set in the real Vineland, New Jersey, the action alternates in the 18 chapters between the 1870’s and 2015, with the last few words of each chapter becoming the title of the next one. But there is not a lot of action-the beauty of the story is in the meticulously sculpted prose and the vividly realistic cast of quirky characters as the main dysfunctional families struggle with poverty and uncertain futures in spite of having well-educated members and higher education teaching positions.

The author has obviously researched the area and the history well, carefully describing the life of the lonely naturalist, Mary Treat, with her correspondence with Charles Darwin and with the father of botany, Asa Gray. The resistance to the world view implied in Darwinism is well described, with its dire consequences within families and within 1870’s society.

There are places where the author seems to use the characters to deliver sometimes preachily sentimental and at other times insightful social, philosophical, and political commentary through the dialogue, with a distinctly socialist message. The protection of the environment and the carbon conservation record of Cuba is contrasted with the rank consumerism and throw-away culture of the United States, and is made to seem ideal, even if it is something Cubans have no choice about. Although Donald Trump is never mentioned by name and only referred to as a 2015 Republican primary candidate, almost everything he has stood for or accomplished is thoroughly and savagely disparaged.

Two of many typical lyrical lines of simple prose. At a funeral of a young suicide: “The officiating minister, a round-faced woman in owlish glasses, was crooning her way through a one-size-fits-all prayer.” And “They passed a field where two horses stood staring at their long shadows in the dusky light, and she wondered what else they did for fun.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. If there were not so many other great modern novels to read, I might take time to read Kingsolver’s earlier works, such as The Poisonwood Bible.