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Article: Worldy women; New offerings by literary lights Barbara Kingsolver and Mona Simpson explore women's lives in contexts of the world at large and the world writ small. Ecological drama puts big themes first, characters second.(ENTERTAINMENT)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- October 22, 2000
- Author:
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In a verdant valley in southern Appalachia, three human dramas unfold over one particularly sultry season in Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel, "Prodigal Summer." But this generally delightful ode to the cycles of life is less a celebration of human drama than an attempt to put all things human in their place. In Kingsolver's world, we are ecological vandals, only occasionally embracing an honest role as bit players in the panorama of creation.
A weighty theme indeed. Kingsolver, whose previous novel, "The Poisonwood Bible," marked a leap forward in her thematic sophistication, is up to it. The Kentucky native holds a graduate degree in biology and knows well the ...