State of Wonder by Anne Patchett

The opening sentence:

The news of Anders Eckman’s death came by way of an Aerogram, a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both the stationary and when folded over and sealed along the edges, the envelope.  The single sheet had traveled from Brazil to Minnesota to mark the passing of a man – a breath of tissue so insubstantial that only the stamp seemed to anchor it to this world.

I read that opening line with my mouth hanging open at the beauty of the writing.   Full disclosure, I’m a Anne Patchett fan – Magician’s Assistant is one of my all time favorite novels…as is Bel Canto.    So after that opening sentence,  I was mentally cancelling all plans for the next few days so I could loose myself in this book.

Marina is a drug scientist who is sent to  Brazil find out what happened to her dead colleague.  She is set down in the middle of  the Amazon jungle and immediately faces unforeseen challenges at every turn.  The dramatic storyline takes many twists and turns.  She discovers an experiment taking place among the native women, wherein they chew a native tree bark while it’s still on the tree (really?) and this bark extends their fertility well into their senior years (just say no!).

Marina finds dishonesty and false claims among the drug reports back to headquarters.  The tribal people themselves hold secrets.  She finds love (of sorts) and suffers from long drawn out, vivid dreams as a result of Malaria medication.  The dreams tended to bog down the flow of the story and I must say I kept hoping Marina wouldn’t fall asleep again so I didn’t have to read through another one of her tangled dreams.

I agree with other reviewers that the jungle itself plays a major character.  The vivid descriptions of the heat, humidity, insects, dirt, and torrential rains gripped me into believing I was there.  The story line under another author’s hand might seem incredulous, but as always Ms. Patchett allows you to suspend disbelief and journey with the characters.   I even believed it when they accidentally canoed down the wrong small river tributary and discover … well I won’t spoil it for you.

Bravos to Anne Patchett once again – a must-read adult adventure story, reminiscent of reading with a flashlight under the covers – too wrapped up in the story to go to sleep

Two of my favorite quotes (in addition to that grand opening line):

“The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived. That is how one respects indigenous people. If you pay any attention at all you’ll realize that you could never convert them to your way of life anyway. They are an intractable race. Any progress you advance to them will be undone before your back is turned. You might as well come down here to unbend the river. The point, then, is to observe the life they themselves have put in place and learn from it.”

“But we cannot un-braid the story of another person’s life and take out all the parts that don’t suit our purposes and put forth only the ones that do.”