by Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Perennial
2012
433 pages Fiction
Dellarobia Turnbow is the young mother of two preschool
children living in a small house on the family farm in Appalachia.
"...being a stay-at-home mom was the loneliest kind of lonely, in which
she was always and never by herself." As Flight Behavior opens, she is on the way
up the mountain to a small cabin to meet a man with whom she has been having a
flirtation. She is on the cusp of throwing her life and marriage away when she
has a Moses-like burning bush experience. Thoroughly freaked-out by the message
she believes has come from God, she turns around and goes back down to her
mundane life filled with guilt and promises to do better.
She later discovers that her burning bush is in actuality a
gathering of millions of monarch butterflies, and the discovery changes her
life. The discovery of the monarch butterflies creates a media and scientific
frenzy. The monarchs are not supposed to be there, but their winter habitat in
Mexico has been destroyed. A biologist named Ovid Byron arrives from New Mexico
to study the monarchs, and he brings along with him equipment, student
assistants, and later, a job for Dellarobia.
Flight Behavior explores the relationships between Dellarobia and her family, friends, and community. The
book, however, is only in part about Dellarobia (I just love saying that
name!). It is in large part an exploration of the relationship between the
monarch butterflies up there on the mountain and the effects of global warming
that brought them there in the first place. Kingsolver is not subtle in her
feelings about global warming, nor is she subtle in the way she expresses those
feelings. In some ways, this is a polemic about global warming in the guise of
a novel. But, the book is redeemed by a cast of characters that is incredibly
appealing. You learn a lot of science in amidst the family drama, and believe
me there is plenty of drama. These are complex, fully developed characters for
the most part, although some of the minor characters are caricatures.
Kingsolver chooses to write novels that are not just a good
read, but she wants to make a point regarding social justice. In an interview
with Diane Rehm, she says: "That was my plan because novelists really
aren't writing about climate change. Well, it's pretty rare for novelists to
write about science, in general, so because I was trained as a scientist, I
really like to write about science and about the methods of science. And part
of the difficulty of this conversation, non-conversation, that as a nation
we're having or not having about climate change, is that it's hard for people
even always to understand the language of science." So, she has a message
about global warming for the non-scientist, using Dellarobia as the foil.
Dellarobia is a sponge for knowledge, and over the course of this scientific
journey, Kingsolver dispenses her scientific knowledge, and Dellarobia, as well
as her son, Preston, soak it up. In the end, it is the science of the monarch
butterflies and global warming that causes Dellarobia to make major changes in
her life.
Kingsolver's social justice point of view is obvious in two
definitive scenes: the first involving an environmentalist who sets up shop on
the mountain to tell the locals about how to behave responsibly about the
environment. One of his solutions is to fly less, but of course none of the
people in Dellarobia's family have ever been on a plane. The other scene is the
shopping trip Dellarobia and her husband take to the dollar store to buy
Christmas gifts for their children, and all they can afford is cheap, foreign
made junk, and she despairs the idea that another generation of children are
bound by poverty.
One of the things that Kingsolver really understands is the
relationship of religion to the lives of Appalachian people. Chapter 3 is a
description of a southern church that I found to be worth the price of the
book. Dellarobia was "what Hester (her mother-in-law) called a 911
Christian; in the event of an emergency, call the Lord." She goes to
church because it is conventional; in her world view, everything is open to
question, but that is not the style of the southern church. She has been kicked
out of the Wednesday evening Bible study because she asked too many questions
and made too many unorthodox observations.
The comment made by Ovid, the biologist, is Kingsolver's
message. When he is describing to Dellarobia the diminishing coral reefs and
dying insects, he laments: "What was the use of saving a world that has no
soul left in it."
My book club had a lively discussion about the book,
probably evenly divided between those who loved it and those who thought it was
only marginally successful. Frankly, I am in the marginally successful camp. I
found the science part of the novel cumbersome and didactic. The ending, no
matter how symbolic and breathtaking, was a bit cheesy. (Dare I say that about
such a famous novelist.)
On the plus side, Kingsolver is a compelling writer,
and I found myself underlining some marvelous statements on nearly every page.
She understands human nature extremely well, which makes
Flight Behavior worth
reading, even if it has less than glorious moments.
Kingsolver is committed to social justice, and her books
reflect her views. Apparently, she has even established an award called the
PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.
To that, I would add one other step. Read it aloud. Here is
what I have learned about reading something aloud. First, when you read it
aloud, you don't miss mistakes that got overlooked with the spell or grammar
checker on your word processor. Second, if you read it aloud, you will catch
run-on sentences and things that just plain sound stupid. Third, you may catch
misused words. Somehow reading a document aloud makes it sound
like a different voice than your voice. Finally, if this really is an important
document, have someone else read it aloud. They will most likely catch anything
that you may have missed.
