RollnSmoke Reviews: STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett

STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett (HarperCollins, 2011)

Patchett’s sixth novel is a fast and fun summer read situated in the steamy Amazonian tropics of Brazil where a doctor named Marina is sent by her employer, the head of a drug company that is funding research for an emerging fertility drug, to uncover the circumstances of a dear colleague who recently disappeared there. In spite of Marina’s poor sense of men and an overabundance of flashbacks and Larium dreams that serve to carry (unnecessary) backstory, the pace of the story is strong, loaded with attacking anacondas, pregnant old women, and poisoned arrows. Patchett’s writing remains strong and evocative, and the narrative ends with a winning and redemptive crescendo (8.5/10).