What better way to start a new year than spend some time reading Ann Patchett?
State of Wonder was published in 2011 and is the story of a researcher, Dr Marina Singh, who travels to the Amazon after the death of her colleague, Dr Anders Eckman, who had travelled there to report on the progress of a deliberately uncontactable doctor undertaking research funded by the pharaceutical company Singh and her colleague work for.
It’s difficult to say a lot about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it, but what Dr Singh finds on her arrival in Brazil and upon finding the reclusive Dr Swenson. The story takes what I felt was an unexpected turn, though completely plausible in the research world, if unlikely.
As with the other Patchett books I have read so far, the development of character is central to her writing and State of Wonder is no different, although I’d argue that this book has equally as much focus on the plotting itself, more than some of her later novels I have enjoyed. In this instance, the balance is great and, as Patchett is wont to do, she leaves some questions open and the character progression is not tied neatly in a bow. That’s not to say there are storylines left incomplete. They’re just left in a place where there is of course more, we just don’t get to follow it up.
I am a huge fan of Patchett since reading Tom Lake back in 2023 and I deliberately spread out reading my copies of her books for the first time, because I fear the day there will be nothing left of hers to read. Patchett has become on of my all time favourite authors, and State of Wonder is another excellent contribution to fiction, even if it is not her best of all time.
This one has more of what I would call adventure in it than a Patchett novel normally would - I think that’s why people like it. It’s different to her other outings while remaining true to her style of writing and story telling.
State of Wonder was a terrific first read of the year.
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