Bibliosearcher: Information about The Lacuna

Product Information:
Pages: 688
Publication Date: 22/04/2010
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Binding: Paperback
ISBN 10: 0571252672
ISBN 13: 9780571252671

Editorial Review
Born in the US and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother, Salome. Making himself useful in the household of the famed Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky, young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating:

Too long
The hero of this book is Harrison Shepherd. His life is divided into three main parts - in Mexico with his free-wheeling mother, back in America as a successful writer and then back to Mexico as a refugee from McCarthy's anti-communist purges. Parts of the book are written with great vividenss : his life working for Trotsky, beautifully delineated relationship with his secretary, Violet Brown, and description of the pathetic attempts of the ex-servicemen to obtain justice. Parts are over-long - delirious descriptions of Harrison Shepherd's cooking prowess are irritating hold-ups to the story for example. Parts are full of well-planned symbolism.

The historical information is incorporated into the narrative with great skill, the fictional and non-fictional characters blend seamlessly and the story is original and well-told. With ruthless pruning, this could have been one of the greats but it just misses the mark.

Hard work!
I found this book really hard work, so much so that I packed it in half way through and I don't normally get beaten by a book.

It did win a literary award (perhaps I should have known better!) so I am sure it is well written etc but it just didnt do it for me.

Clearly not my thing
Given that the book was an Orange prize winner this seemed like an excellent opportunity to try an author I'd not read before.

I'm clearly the wrong sort of reader. I found reading it to be akin to wading through treacle and so much irrelevant detail (did we really need a discussion, either at all or for so long on making the perfect tortilla?)

Nothing in the beginning encouraged me to finish, and after about page 80 I gave up. If the plot ever were to emerge it hadn't by then.

It must be me.

A fine bookclub selection
This is another masterful achievement from Barbara Kingsolver. It reads well and easily and the author makes clear distinction between fiction and the historical events around which her story circulates.

A beautiful, engaging book.
Now this is what a call a good read; a beautifully structured slow burner with a faboulously controlled mounting of tension and a satisfying ending. The characters were engaging and Kingsolver skillfully builds her fiction around the historical reality of the 1930s and '40s, even bringing a young Richard Nixon in for a walk-on part.
This book has depth and beauty, with recurring themes and images which are subtle but effective.
I condemn the reviewers here who have rated it low without even having the stamina to finish the book first.
It is not a lightweight, but it lifts, soars and flies if you give it a chance.

Customers who bought this item also bought:
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
The Very Thought of You
A Gate at the Stairs
Black Water Rising
The Help

Similar Books By Subject:
Subjects > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards