The Lacuna: A Novel

It may have been easy for Barbara Kingsolver to choose the metaphor of the lacuna; it may have been easy for her to choose to write about Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Trotsky; but it took a literary master to create this sensitive story that ties these concepts and people together with a mixed-blood cook-cum-author laying bare the rotten bones of McCarthyism and the Anti-American hysteria of the post-war USA. Definitely a must-read, page-turner perfect for anyone not eager to see a repeat of that travesty of patriotism in our own time of ego-inflated and misogynistic politicians and policies.

Barbara Kingsolver has written a unique novel about the 1940s and 50s in the US and Mexico but very relevant to today’s political environment.Harrison Shepherd grows up in US and Mexico being the son of a US government official estranged from his somewhat unstable Mexican mother. He is an outsider in the both places and a homosexual to boot. To survive he adopts a passive approach carried along by the tide of life. More or less by accident he meets prominent communists in Mexico and becomes their cook, typist and translator. As a adult he drifts into writing and later living in North Carolina. He is persecuted by the Un-American Activities Movement because of his association with Communists using lies and misguided patriotism.Finally he escapes to a new life in Mexico.The author uses some novel techniques in the book. The title, Lacuna, refers an underwater cave between two worlds, Harrison Shepherd himself as a gap between US and Mexico, Harrison’s secretary Violet Brown as the gap between oppressed women and learned independent modern women and the gap between the truth and what newspapers write. Mystery and dramatic tension comes from manipulating the information available to different characters Harrison Shepherd, Violet Brown and others.The characters in the book areHarrison Shepherd – passive, lacks freewill in most of the book.Violet Brown – active, makes positive decision to develop herself despite opposition of her familyFrida - overcomes perception of weakness of small statue and lame leg but her outspoken and prominent personalityDiego – keeps staff in poor conditions and treats them badly despite political views supporting workersLeo- proposes democratic approach to the revolution, kindly, cares about people, animals and humanityMother – free spirit looking for an interesting man to provideFather- uncaring, conservativeLeandro- father replacement teaches Harrison how to cook Mexican food and gives him goggles to see a new world underwater.The novel is set in Mexico and US but Mexico comes out way ahead as being colourful with good food passionate people and a mind boggling pre-Columbian past. US is painted as oppressive with evil people in control brainwashing the populace.Some of the issues that the novel raises are- Power of words. Harrison’s own words from his novel are used against him, something he was worries about when he translates for Leo.- How Patriotism can go wrong. Criticism of norms of the day like segregation and a different role for women were considered unpatriotic in the 1940s- Freewill vs Determinism. Was Harrison free to chose his fate or was it predetermined and he was just carried alongSome quotations I thought interesting enough to highlight in my ereader are- Cortes – much grieved to burn the people but since it was more grievous to them he determined to do it- Azteca warriors uselessly flinging arrows at Cortes, just before their hearts were blown apart by cannon fire- What they left behind is in every measure as grand and elegant as the white marble temples of Greece- He wrote about those who came before giving flesh to their cares- Un-American hysteria not about communism but about insecurity (Arthur Gold)- Anti-Communist persecution (Arthur Gold) .. like putting poison on the lawn .. Kills the crabgrass all right but then you have a lot of dead stuff there for a very long timeQuestions for reader- The McCarthy era was down point for America but is some of the hysteria coming back ?- What is Patriotism about in 2018? Does it also include a committment preserving the bad things from the past ?

I enjoyed reading The Lacuna, and kept thinking how timely this book is, despite being published in 2010. It is a beautiful, if sad story, covering a period of time and places I knew little about. Kingsolver writes beautifully. I noticed that some reviewers on Amazon disliked the second portion of the novel, while loving the first part. There are 2 distinct parts of this book, one darker than the other. But I think both parts are well-written, and fit together perfectly. And the book comes around in a perfect circle to a moving, beautiful ending. You cannot come to the ending, and have it mean anything without having moved through both the lively first and the darker second parts. And both parts of the book introduce us to entertaining characters, beautifully drawn, as usual with Kingsolver. I really recommend the book and think it is a book for our present moment, especially!I don't want to issue spoilers, but think I can say without risking much that the main character is a gay man in the 1920's - 1950's, moving between Mexico (1st part of the book) and the U.S. (2nd part of the book). My argument for why it is so relevant right now is how the book shows the pressures and crusades against gays (and really anybody non-conforming) in the U.S. during much of this time period. Since there are currently so many hateful acts against gays, and apparently the climate has changed so our government may be seen by some as supporting such acts, it's worth being aware of history! I recommend this book, not just as history, or "mental vegetables," but because it is a beautiful story and fun to read.

Although The Lacuna is different in style to the Prodigal Summer and Poisonwood Bible, both of which I enjoyed, I found it compelling reading. The lead character, Shepherd has an American father, who has no interest in him and a Mexican mother, who drags him from place to place in her grabs for the next best thing. On his own he drifts through life hoping for a quiet space that might make a home, entangled with some colourful characters. From Mexico he moves to the USA and finds himself in small-town America during the mid 1940s, with a minor role in the civil service moving art works and then as a novelist.Some people will dislike the interruption of the narrative in the diaries of the lead character Shepherd, where the secretary Violet Brown knits together some of the gaps. For me, it made it seem all the more like a real biography. Mexico sprang to life in the descriptions. There are some beautifully rich descriptions of places, such as Yucatan and Carolina and many insightful and at times wry comments, both from Shepherd and, more surprisingly, from the prim but wise Mrs Brown. I knew a little about the life of the painter Frida Kahlo, but she appeared vividly to me as a person for the first time. I knew nothing much about Trotsky, besides a general familiarity with him as a name with Lenin and Stalin, but again Barbara Kingsolver brings him to life, whether living with the constant risk of assassination, writing continuously, or feeding chickens!Most compelling and shocking was the detail about the Committee on UnAmerican Activities and the manipulation of American society at the time.We know of the McCarthy 'witch-hunts', but this novel shows how the effects rippled out to all areas of society, sweeping up a shy, half Mexican/half American author, who just wants to write stories. Throughout the book there is the invidious power of the press, the papers whipping each other up into a self-righteous frenzy of allegation and outright lies converted to truth. There are powerful insights about people in power and the societies they rule, both told indirectly through the medium of Shepherd's novels and his experience of the political bureaucracy determined to crush any hint of Communism, real or invented by well-paid rumour-mongers.The purges carried out in the McCarthy years were the product of their time, in an America determined to show itself as a new world leader, sole possessor of nuclear weapons. It would be good to think it couldn't happen in present times. Yet there are things in The Lacuna with an alarming resonance in 2017 with the arrival the new Trump administration. Despite this, Barbara Kingsolver finds scope for some hope, a new life.

I belong to a book club and exercise to read this. I didn't realise what a full book it is. Initially I found i prodded thru it a bit but then it became fascinating. My knowledge and understanding of modern history is somewhat lacking - this is set in the 1930s. It is a very clever book where the main character is fictional but those around him and the events he experiences are true. I got totally absorbed in it. You learn about ancient Mexico as well as the Mexico of the time, world politics, the human condition and it has an intriguing ending! Go for it!

Possibly one of the best books I've ever read. Kingsolver's writing is beautiful and her descriptive powers are impressive. Places and people are brought vividly to life. This novel encompasses so much that it is difficult to know where to begin. It is the story of one man's journey through life from boyhood to middle age told mainly through his diaries and notebooks. Real people such as Frida Kahlo are introduced convincingly and produce a rich and entertaining backdrop to a complex history. Both funny and moving, the novel moves at great pace through a pivotal part of the 20th century. It is also a very angry book in its indictment of American foreign policy and domestic politics. Ultimately, it is the story of a boy and man making his way alone and looking for purpose in a world where events frequently overtake the individual. Someone describes him as an orphan and he asks himself how anyone who has both parents living can be an orphan, but that is what he is. Beautifully constructed, the storyline weaves diaries and a narrator's occasional voice into a compelling account that takes the reader to an inevitable but worthy ending. This is one of those books that you don't want to end and which stays with you. It's the first Kingsolver novel I've read, and I suspect it is her best.

Took me a while to get into this, but worth it in the end. Evokes great images of Mexico and the US in the 1930's to 50's. I found it particularly interesting on the McCarthy era America.i have only given it 4 stars, as i did not enjoy it as much as the Poisonwood Bible (which is one of my favourite books- so stiff competition). I would still recommed this book, and i am going to seek out further books by the author.

Many readers will know Kingsolver from her 1998 award winning best seller The Poisonwood Bible. The fact that The Lacuna took 10 years to complete and publish imbues it with a certain level of expectation. And surely no book is worth waiting 10 years for? Well, nearly.The main character, Harrison Shepherd, is a writer of popular potboilers set in the days of the Aztecs and Cortes' invasion of Mexico. In the fifties Harrison finds himself under the gaze of the anti-communism McCarthy hearings, due to the years he spent in the employment of famous painters Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo. When banished from the Soviet Union by Stalin it is with Rivera that Leon Trotsky spent his final days, and the young Harrison was employed as a secretary, dictating Trotsky's thoughts and articles.The book is composed of diary entries, short prose pieces, articles and letters collected together to form a coherent whole by Harrison's faithful secretary Violet Brown.Kingsolver tells us on a number of occasions that he is a man that people don't notice. As the invisible reporter he is in essence he is a metaphor for the art of writing. Of course, this could be a dangerous game to play with the reader, a lead character who is nondescript, yet Kingsolver pulls it off. The sad irony being that he is eventually condemned for actions which he didn't take, merely presented to us.The Lacuna of the title is an underwater cave that exists off the coast of the island. Once a month the tide flows in such a way that the brave diver is rushed along the tunnel and surfaced on the other side in a hidden cove. The idea of being able pass through a tunnel to a better world is something that haunts Harrison for his entire life.There's something weighty about identity at the core of The Lacuna, but also about the position of the writer in society and the purpose of literature in our communities. The artists at the core of the novel, Rivera, Kahlo are presented as essentially political entities, using their art as part of the revolution. The novels that Harrison writes are dismissed as populace and crass, the real value in his writing is his private work, the stuff he keeps for himself.There is a potential for a book constructed in the way of a collage to feel very piece meal. But even though the narrative is fractured across various forms there is a beautiful flow to the story arc. It pulls you along, like the tide through the Lacuna and you barely notice that you are switching mediums. The Lacuna is a book that addresses a number of important topics, I've already mentioned identity, but she also looks at imperialism, mass hysteria, and disease, both physical and social. That said, it is an incredibly smooth read. There are only a handful of moments when it strays near to polemic, particularly when talking about McCarthyism, but on the whole it is so skillfully crafted that you can forgive it. When presented with so many challenging subjects it would be easy to become overwhelming, but she doesn't allow the ideas to get in the way of what is a cracking story.