The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

The Lacuna

by

Barbara Kingsolver

Last pm on the way home from work I drove around an extra ten minutes to finish listening to this book.  Barbara Kingsolver is one of my go to authors.  I have aspirations to read everything she has written and The Lacuna had been on my wish list for quite some time.  It was not a disappointment.  It is not a book I would recommend to everyone.  It is a book that reaches deep into the reader's  heart and challenges the mind to think.   The author herself answers questions about the book and these answers can be found HERE.  One of the things I love about Barbara Kingsolver's books is the way she uses description to paint a detailed picture in her scenes.   In this particular book I was challenged to follow the parts of the story that take place in Mexico due to the details.  It was easy to get bogged down in what for me was unfamiliar surroundings.  But as the book progressed into the United States I became more comfortable and realized the importance of the back ground of the story that was laid in Mexico.  This book is also a little different because it is written in diaries,  letters,  newspaper and magazine story format.  Although fiction this format gives the story credibility.  And although fiction it contains historical events that actually happened.  The author tackles some hard subjects in this novel.  She talks about that in the preceding link but I would like to quote a portion of that interview as follows:  

It raises questions I’ve wondered about for nearly as long as I’ve been a writer, starting with this one: Why is the relationship between art and politics such an uneasy one in the U.S.?  Most people in other places tend to view these as inseparable.  Mexico, for example, has historically celebrated its political artists as national heroes, but here that combination can make people nervous, to put it mildly.  We seem to have an aversion to national self-criticism in general.  We began as a nation of rabble-rousers, bent on change.  But now, patriotism is often severely defined as accepting our country to be a perfect finished product.  As in, “Love it or leave it!”

I suspected this internal shift might date to the mid-20th Century, a time when U.S. citizens were persecuted, lost jobs and could even be imprisoned for expressing dissident opinions.  People were singled out not just for communism, but for supporting unions, women’s rights or racial desegregation.  Those times seem to have put a stamp on our national psyche that has never completely washed off.  I always thought someday I should go sleuthing, to see if I could turn up something interesting: the end of World War II, the House Un-American Activities Committee, the blacklisting of artists, I knew these were probably relevant, but wasn’t sure how.

In the autumn of 2001, after the September 11 attacks, I witnessed a ferocious backlash against people who raised questions about how we should respond.  The mainstream media launched a lot of vitriol at any artist or public person identified as a dissident voice.  It stunned me.  The culture of fear is potent and terrible, something worth dissecting in order to understand.  That was the push I needed.  It was time to sink or swim, so I dived into that question and swam.

She touches on the differences between social democracy and communism.  She has the protagonist (Harrison Shepard) accidentally present when the Bonus Army was destroyed by the US Military.  

She has him present as a servant in Trotsky's home when he is assassinated.   And she has her fictional Harrison Shephard investigated by the HUAC.http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/huac  

There is a lot in this novel to ponder.  It is not a light read.  But for those that want to be challenged to  digest and think through ideas The Lacuna is an excellent book.  It will stay with me for a long time.  Barbara Kingsolver has done it again.   This book will no doubt make my top ten list for 2017.  It is a brilliant work of historical fiction.   I encourage readers of this blog to  take time to follow the links and watch the videos that can be found through out the post.