Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder"

Read: November 19, 2011

This book was my first exposure to Ann Patchett, who from the reactions some have given me to that statement seems to be a relatively popular author with a devoted fanbase. I came across this most recent of her books because a book club I joined first picked The Elegance of the Hedgehog before giving it up (much to their loss, in my opinions). I will give the caveat here that reading State of Wonder under the shadow of Elegance of the Hedgehog probably influenced my reading of the former. They are very different kinds of novels. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Elegance of the Hedgehog is a very cerebral book that relies almost exclusively on characterization and witty language. State of Wonder, in contrast, emphasizes atmosphere over character.

State of Wonder follows Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist at a pharmaceutical company in Minnesota. Originally trained as an OB Gyn, a horrific experience as an intern under the inimitable Dr. Annick Swenson’s mentorship led Marina to leave her internship and take up a research position. The novel opens with the news that Marina’s co-worker, Anders, has died in the Amazon jungle on a business trip to investigate Dr. Swenson’s work on a malaria vaccine. Marina’s boss, Mr. Fox, with whom she has a secret relationship, sends her to continue Anders’ investigation and, at Karen Eckman’s request, to learn more about Anders’ mysterious death. Once in South America, the novel finds its stride in the descriptions of the intense heat, heavy air, and dangerous insects. Marina’s antimalarial medicine gives her horrific nightmares about her father, an Indian man whom Marina and her American mother would visit infrequently. In these dreams, Marina loses her father in a large crowd of people and faces that inexplicable terror of nightmares. Once Marina successfully finds Dr. Swenson, who at 70 is just as abrupt and irascible as Marina remembers, the novel shifts focus away from the Anders mystery to a tree bark that gives both malarial immunity and lifelong fertility.

The atmospheric language that so aptly describes the sticky heat of the Amazon moves slowly through the plot and gives the impression that the story barely moves forward. Marina spends quite a long time in Manaus, a city in Brazil, before she makes it into the jungle and the plot gets very bogged down there. Perhaps my greatest complaint, though, is that with the shift of focus away from Anders and to the mystery of the tree bark, the ending (not to give away any spoilers) has the distinct feel of the deus ex machina (not to mention overly Hollywood in a way that is even more disappointing in print). Marina, as a character, is a rather passive woman with obvious daddy issues (both in her memories of her father and her relationship with Mr. Fox) and who seems incapable of making herself heard. I think it would be quite a challenge to write a main character like this, who is the perspective of the story but who does very little herself to push the story forward. I think in this she is a very realistic person, but the conclusion leaves her story feeling unfinished (and obviously lacks any state intention on her part).

Ultimately, I would not recommend this book. It might be one that I should return to and reevaluate outside of the context I mentioned above, but ultimately, I think there wasn’t enough in the book to make me return to it.