{"id":3143,"date":"2016-07-08T12:09:41","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T16:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/?p=3143"},"modified":"2016-07-08T12:10:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T16:10:25","slug":"flight-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/flight-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flight Behavior<\/em>, by Barbara Kingsolver<\/p>\n

In most of her novels, Barbara Kingsolver explores the intersections of people, culture, and the natural world. \u00a0In Flight Behavior<\/em>, the main issue is climate change and its potential impact on the environment and the creatures living there.\u00a0 She also works in dysfunctional families, educational bungling, xenophobia, non-investigative news media, poverty vs. comfort, environmentalists vs. opportunists, superficial religiosity vs. internalization of religious precepts, and more.\u00a0 Kingsolver\u2019s way with words and her insights into human character enhance the story line(s) delightfully.<\/p>\n

The action is set in present-day rural Appalachia, where the protagonist Dellarobia Turnbow lives with her husband and two children on a failing farm.\u00a0 An (otherwise) intelligent young woman, Dellarobia got pregnant and married at seventeen; for the ensuing ten years she has entertained fantasies of flight.\u00a0 As the novel opens, she is heading into the nearby hills for a tryst with a potential lover, but is waylaid by a vision of the forest aflame without being consumed (she left her glasses at home), and returns home.\u00a0 Gradually, the \u201cfire\u201d is recognized as a large colony of monarch butterflies hundreds of miles off course and out of season.\u00a0 As the news leaks out to her family, church, town, and the larger world, everyone has an opinion of what this means and how to deal -or not- with it.\u00a0 Dellarobia\u2019s horizons are greatly expanded by her contact with the scientists, journalists, migrant workers, amateur environmentalists, and curiosity seekers attracted by the monarch phenomenon.<\/p>\n

The preconceived assumptions of the community and the various outsiders lead to interesting and conflicting interactions.\u00a0 Among the migrant workers (\u201cforeigners\u201d), for instance, is a Mexican family that used to guide tourists through their hometown, a wintering place for monarchs for centuries which was wiped out in a giant mudslide a few years ago.\u00a0 Looked down on by the community, the family\u2019s knowledge gets recognition from Dellarobia and the scientists who come to study the monarchs.\u00a0 The cash-strapped Turbow in-laws, who own the forest where the monarchs have roosted, want to clear-cut the area for the money; the thought of charging tourists\u00a0 gives them second thoughts.\u00a0 \u201cSophisticated\u201d TV crews try to catch locals being stupid.<\/p>\n

In the course of the novel, by engaging a wide spectrum of individuals and groups, Dellarobia acquires the self-confidence for creating a richer future for herself.\u00a0 Her first non-waitressing job is for the scientists, collecting and measuring data and recording it.\u00a0 Her salary \u00a0allows her for the first time to buy a few extras.\u00a0 Her piqued curiosity not only pushes her to learn more, but ignites her son\u2019s scientific curiosity.\u00a0 Of course, this means that her whole life changes in unexpected ways; the novel\u2019s climax (no, I won\u2019t give it away) underscores that.\u00a0 A good read!<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Frannie Blair<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver In most of her novels, Barbara Kingsolver explores the intersections of people, culture, and the natural world. \u00a0In Flight Behavior, the main issue is climate change and its potential impact on the environment and the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25014],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-reads"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/1961\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}