review live on show by Corinna christopher 18th April 2013
If you want a fast action-packed book
this one is not for you as it unfolds in a slow and calculated way being, it
being completely unlike this author’s best-selling previous novels “The
Poisonwood Bible” and “The Lacuna.
The Turnbow family occupy land in the Appalachians, U.S.A.. Dellarobia, husband Cub plus two small
children live in one newish house and Cub’s parents Hester and Bear live in the
main house. Red-haired Dellarobia
although devoted to the children does not take kindly to marriage and often
indulges in mild flirtations . At the
start of the book she is escaping to meet up with a possible new paramour.
Their rendezvous is on a forested area
of mountain on their farm. On entering
the wooded area Dellarobia is accosted with a vision of orange flames on all
the trees. She concludes this is some
kind of sign and hastily returns home.
the area before making a decision .
This is done and the revelation emerges that the festooning of trees are Monarch
butterflies. Myriads of butterflies with
flame coloured wings scrolled with black lines like liquid eyeliner, expertly
applied and all rustling like taffetta.
Dellarobai is soon famous as the lady with a vision and people from all
over the country come to visit the sight.
Soon there is a scientist on siite to monitor the creatures. It is discovered that they have arrived from
Mexico where a landslide disrupted their habitat . Hester charges the visitors
and a new access road is constructed.
There are even protest groups of campers trying to make sure the butterflies
are kept protected.
The expert scientist worries about the coming winter weather. Their fragile lives could be affected by many
things e.g. temperature, food and parasites.
Dellarobia takes a job helping correlate all the facts.
His mother is described as sinewy, righteous and unbeatable and the two women are frequently at loggerheads. The interactions with the children are delightful and very accurate. There is a best friend Dovey, a charismatic local preacher Bobby Ogle and of course the attractive black scientist Ovid Byron. All these make for an interesting mix in the storyline. At the satisfactory end, I found I knew quite a lot about the world of the Monarch butterfly, the author had obviously done much research. In spite of the strong ecological and ethical themes it was a worthwhile read.
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