Aug 22

Aug 22 The Lacuna

Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper Perennial
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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico — from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City — Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach — the lacuna — between truth and public presumption.

With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist — and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

TL;DR Review

The Lacuna is an incredible feat of a novel that weaves real people and events together with expert fictional character-building. There were some moments that were slow for me, but it’s still a “wow” of a book.

For you if: You like historical fiction, particularly if you’re interested in the Red Scare.

Full Review

“A blank space on a form, the missing page, a void, a hole in your knowledge of someone — it's still some real thing. It exists. You don't get to fill it in with whatever you want.”

I read The Lacuna because I’m making my way through all the past winners of the Women’s Prize as part of their #ReadingWomen challenge. This book won in 2010, and it was nominated for several others.

The novel is about a character named Harrison Shepherd, who was born in the US but whisked away to Mexico by his mother when he was a child. He pops back and forth a few times, but as a young man finds himself employed by the artist Diego Rivera and forming a strong friendship with Frieda Kahlo (who was married to Rivera). Later, Leon Trotsky stayed with them during his exile, and Harrison became close with him, too. Eventually, Harrison moves to the US, where he finds himself a victim of the Red Scare.

The whole novel is composed of Harrison’s journals, beginning when he was just a boy and continuing until the end. Interspersed throughout is slight commentary by a woman who knew him named Violet Brown, who arranged the journals into a book. So the form is definitely interesting, and the way Kingsolver built Harrison from scratch through his changing and maturing voice is wildly impressive.

I have slightly mixed feelings about this book that skew mostly positive. My only downside is that the book is really long (over 500 pages), and some of it was kind of slow. There were times I was dragging myself through it a big. But at the same time, I can see how all of it built Harrison into a complete character with such expert care. Also, the way Kingsolver used real people and events — truly, there are even some actual newspaper articles reprinted in there, and several actual quotes by the historical figures — will make any historical fiction lover practically swoon. It’s unbelievably impressive what she’s accomplished here; a true feat.

I will say that I really, really loved the ending. And you know that feeling when an author has chosen the absolute perfect title for a novel, and you see it reflected and refracted all through the book? Yeah, this has that too.

I also listened along to the audiobook as I read, which is actually narrated by Barbara Kingsolver herself, and she did a really good job. It adds so much to the characters to hear how she imagined all of them speaking, and pacing the paragraphs just so.

At the end of the day, if you like literary historical fiction, I definitely recommend this book.