State of Wonder

My central preoccupation as a woman is to ask, how do we come back from places of darkness? In this book, we are led into the dark heart of a jungle where a headstrong scientist is studying the bizarre rituals of indigenous women who eat the bark of a certain tree. (Tree eating? I’m down.) Her former student, research scientist Dr. Marina Singh, is sent into the jungle to investigate what’s going on after a scientist dies, and I love the tense dynamic between these two women.

Marina’s sensory-rich journey made me feel like I was in the jungle, and… show more.

I am a fan of Patchett’s novels and especially liked this one about a female Indian-American physician working for a pharmaceutical company whose lover-boss sends her on an adventure to rescue a colleague at their company’s research site in the Amazon.

At the beginning of the book, the protagonist is at a liminal stage in her life: she is not sure about her romantic relationship, about her medical career, or about who she can trust as she undertakes the dangerous journey in South America.

I like the way she gains confidence as she becomes more suspicious of others’ motives, and… show more.

This book is an upriver journey of self-discovery, a mystery evoking Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and an exploration of the ethical entanglements of the modern pharmaceutical industry.

I was struck by the rich tapestry of life that Patchett evokes in the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil in stark contrast to the bland, suburban Minnesota from which the main character, Marina, travels. Science plays a major role in this, and I was moved by the central questions at hand, which are what price are we willing to pay for scientific advancement and, at the end of the day, is scientific… show more.

I enjoyed this book for two main reasons. First, it sucked me in from the very beginning and provided me with what I absolutely love about reading which is to be transported away to a new world.

Within that new world, though, was a unique page-turning story, filled with gorgeous writing and fleshed-out characters, that constantly left me wondering what will happen next.

Second, I thought this book – unsurprisingly considering the author – was a master class in novel writing. Pacing, character development, conflict, plot twists, a transportive quality… I could go on and on.

It satisfied me as… show more.

I recommend State of Wonder because it has complex characters developing in a place that is unique and visual.

Mine is the Indigenous and Spanish-colonial city of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hers takes place along tributaries in the Amazon Jungle. The intrigue of a man’s mysterious death there is visually compounded with poisonous snakes under the dark primal jungle canopy. The place itself is another character, menacing and mysterious and hiding secrets.

I loved this book because it is the journey and transformation of a professional woman who grows into her own power.

The book begins with the protagonist waiting for a man who promised to show up for an adventure in the jungle, but doesn’t. Life forces her to go on the journey by herself.

The main character ends up in a matriarchal society, where the women live in tree houses, independently of men. She initially goes there to exploit what the community knows about the medicinal qualities of the plants. The more she learns, the more she comes to support… show more.

A kind of woman-driven answer to Heart of Darkness cast in modern-day Brazil, this dark and thought-provoking story had me enthralled from the first page. A pharmaceutical researcher, Dr. Marina Singh, journeys into the Amazon on a quest to find her vanished colleague, and on reaching a remote jungle village whose residents harbor a potentially world-transforming secret, she’s forced to reckon with questions of morality, fertility, and her own complicated past. I loved the dreamy, almost hallucinogenic setting and the imaginative premise, all contained within Patchett’s trademark lyrical yet straightforward prose style. 

Dr. Marina Singh is a very reluctant adventurer, sent into the Amazon jungle to find her former mentor, a pharmaceutical researcher who has gone rogue. I like a novel with a bit of mystery, and I like a character who rises to a challenge. Marina doesn’t do everything right; she can be pretty hapless. But she adapts and grows over the course of this absorbing book (it’s Ann Patchett, c’mon), and she makes adventure seem possible, even for the squarest of us.