Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

I've been a Barbara Kingsolver fan since I read her novel, Bean Trees, about a decade ago. I also have enjoyed many of her essays and her non-fiction book, Animal Vegetable Miracle. Overall, I liked Flight Behavior, but I found her/it to be more concerned with the evils of global warming and religion, especially that of the so-called fundamentalist variety, than the story she was telling.

But even more troublesome to me was that Kingsolver seemed intent on making sure readers knew how smart she is when it comes to science. Like many readers, I already knew she had a science background. And frankly, I found her sometimes overly complex details about climate change and at other times condescending explanations of it a huge turnoff.

Do not misunderstand. I agree that global warming is a serious problem. I agree that more people should listen to scientists, less to politicians when it comes to climate change. But Ms. Kingsolver, it's not just fundamentalists who reject climate change. There are others who do as well -- many solely for political reasons, some out of ignorance or apathy. And it's not just poor Southerners as one might think after reading your latest novel.

Kingsolver also is more than a tad harsh in her portrayal of the news media -- which she seems to lump into one stereotypical TV reporter -- long, blonde hair, perfectly manicured nails, sound bites only, happy news only. Kingsolver is so harsh in her presentation of this character, it makes me wonder if she had a bad experience with the media. Granted, I'm not keen on TV and radio reporters either. Few, if any, newspaper reporters and editors hold TV reporting "personalities" in esteem. That's why it's so disturbing that she lumps all the media together as she does.

All that and I heard Kingsolver tell an NPR interviewer that she tried to make sure that she didn't cast anyone in the book as the "right" ones, for no one had all of the right answers. If that's true, she didn't try hard enough, for her novel made it more than clear who had the right answers and who had the wrong ones -- at least from Kingsolver's point of view.

Two things I did respect about the novel were Kingsolver's depiction of Dellarobia's mistaken view of her mother-in-law -- not all bad, not all stupid after all, it turns out. The ending of the book, while a tad too tidy for me the cynic, was interesting and even thought-provoking. And I speak not only of the butterflies that survive but also of Dellarobia's escape from a bad relationship -- the kind so many of us never escape, whether in friendships, marriages or jobs.

The novel is worth reading, but with the mind of a skeptic and the heart of a bird -- or butterfly -- watcher.