Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

genre: fiction

Dellarobia is in a rut.  Much like her rural Tennessee town, she sees life going by while she wipes the mouths of her two children and languishes in an unfulfilling marriage.  But then, when she finally decides she's done with that drudgery, a miracle of the natural world stops her in her tracks and changes the trajectory of her actual existence.  Soon, her tiny world is blown apart by nothing less than science.  Facts.  Things she observes with her own eyes that cannot be denied despite the dubious questioning of science that she's grown up with.  Dellarobia and her small town are soon forced to come to terms with the world beyond their farms as forces greater than fear demand to be reckoned with.

This was a slow read for me, but a solid and stirring one.  While on the one hand Dellarobia is frustrating, she also becomes incredibly sympathetic as she dares to let herself learn and stretch and process the person she is and who she wants to be.  Her restlessness and curiosity while also loving her life as a mother rang so true.  I loved the scientific slant of this novel, the things I learned and the way this community became a part of something so much bigger than itself.  It's intelligent and literary while also being true to the Appalachian setting and the slower pace of life.  I loved the scenes of marvel, of the moments we take to truly appreciate the wonder and miracle that are the natural world.  I also loved this reminder of the ridiculously delicate balance that all that wonder and miracle hinge on and that our changing climate WILL inevitably destroy some of that wonder if we humans do not do our part - small or big if we're in a position to do so, to try and change our behavior.