Having really liked Ann Patchett's prizewinning "Bel Canto" a few years ago, I had no hesitation in recommending "State of Wonder" for book club, even though it's location in the Amazon jungle seemed unpromising. What a great story it turned out to be. The first part is pretty good as Dr Marina Singh travels to Brazil to find out what happened to her dead colleague Anders Eckman. From the moment she meets the formidable Dr Annick Swenson in Manaus and accompanies her back to the labs in the jungle, we are in for a treat.
The book does slightly falter in the middle, but very soon things happen really fast. The best feature of the book for me was the dialogue between the two women. Their relationship changes over the time Marina spends with Dr Swenson but their exchanges are some of the best I have read for some time. In the background is a question about morality in science when drug companies become involved. The actual development of a drug in this case is very unusual and almost surreal. But that does not detract from what is a wonderful novel with a superb ending.
For some reason, possibly because I read a recommendation, I made a note to look out for a Penelope Fitzgerald novel called "The Bookshop". However, I then found she won the Booker Prize in 1979 for "offshore" and thought it might be an idea for our Book Club. It is not a long novel, only 181 spaced out pages. But it is a little gem. All the characters who inhabit the houseboats on Battersea Reach are splendid creations. I particularly like Nenna and her two children, Martha who is a mature twelve and Tilda a grown up six year old. The latter comes out with some great lines. She sits a visitor down at the table, makes him a cup of coffee, slams down the mug and tells him "Get outside of that". Brilliant.
The writing somehow seems quaint. The story is set around 1961/2, although we have to guess the date. So although the prose is quite idiosyncratic, there are some very funny passages as well as some that are quite dark. Even after only 30 pages, when a passing Dutch barge shouts across for a dingy, we already know there is none without being told. The book certainly took me back to my youth. The Christmas of 1961 I was nearly seventeen and in the December of the first year sixth we could help deliver the Christmas post for a small wage. So the novel's description of coffee bars, frothy coffee and a jukebox reminded me of it's warmth after a cold morning delivering Christmas cards. But that was not the only reason I loved this book. It was just a great read. A shame it was over too soon.
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