{"id":473,"date":"2013-03-07T09:29:54","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T13:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/~reviewing\/?page_id=473"},"modified":"2013-03-20T12:48:47","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:48:47","slug":"flight-behavior-elevates-kingsolver","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/?page_id=473","title":{"rendered":"‘Flight Behavior’ elevates Kingsolver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted March 7, 2013<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFlight Behavior\u201d
\nBarbara Kingsolver<\/p>\n

By ISABEL BRADOR<\/p>\n

Award-winning author Barbara Kingsolver leads readers into the small farm world of southern Appalachia once more in her 14th book, \u201dFlight Behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Flight<\/a>While filled with vivid descriptions, colorful analogies and very real characters, the novel does at times seems a bit lengthy.<\/p>\n

Kingsolver masterfully crafts each analogy and metaphor to draw the reader into the life of an economically disadvantage family. The scenes dedicated to thrift store shopping, the inner monologues which cover a range of worries from threadbare clothes to unpaid light bills, and the joy felt over opening a savings account make Kingsolver\u2019s characters strikingly real portraits of everyday Americans who live in poverty.<\/p>\n

While Kingsolver receives kudos for accurately capturing the essence of reality, she could attempt to do so in fewer words. The book teeters on the edge of being painfully long. Some scenes, such as when Dellarobia — the main character of the story — and her husband are having an intense argument in the Dollar store, are well written, but seem painfully long.<\/p>\n

Despite some of the slow scenes, the overall pace of the book is fast enough to keep Kingsolver\u2019s reader\u2019s genuinely interested. The relationships between the characters in the story mimic many of the relationships in real life, and may cause a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for many readers (i.e., the relationship between Dellarobia\u00a0 and her dominating mother in law).<\/p>\n

The relationship between Dellarobia and her husband may also inspire readers to recall snippets of information heard from their marriage counselors. The scenes describing the lack of love and overall annoyance that Dellarobia feels around her husband almost seem too real and personal, but are part of the characterizations that are Kingsolver\u2019s crowning achievements.<\/p>\n

Also, Dellarobia\u2019s overwhelming feeling of\u00a0 being \u201cstuck\u201d is something to which all readers can relate. The scenes that reveal she hasn\u2019t gone out to eat in more than \u00a0two years, her feeling of isolation from the real world since she stopped working, and the sense of loss over not having gone to college cause Kingsolver\u2019s audience to genuinely root for Dellarobia.<\/p>\n

Readers feel concern, sympathy and maybe even an inkling of familiarity as Dellarobia still struggles to accept events in her life; like the hasty wedding to her husband at the age of 17 due to an unplanned pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Yet, by the end of the reader\u2019s journey through southern Appalachia, Kingsolver has worked her magic; she\u2019s not only inspired here readers but perhaps imparted a bit of wisdom she picked up along the way. \u00a0Through realistic characters and fluid storytelling, Kingsolver manages to turn an average story plot about environmental disaster into a heartfelt story. She manages to communicate the \u00a0idea that life is composed of various choices an individual makes rather than a series of unplanned\u00a0 events.<\/p>\n

Kingsolver has written 14 books, which have been translated into more than\u00a0 20 languages. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2000, for service through the arts. She is also the recipient of Britain\u2019s Orange Prize in 2010 and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2011. Kingsolver now lives on a farm in southern Appalachia with her family.<\/p>\n