Book Review

The Orange Prize-winning novel from the bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible.

The Lacuna is the heartbreaking story of a man’s search for safety, of a man torn beween the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America. Born in the U.S. and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother, Salomé. 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. A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in World War II. In the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina he remakes himself in America’s hopeful image. But political winds continue to throw him between north and south, in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach – the lacuna – between truth and public presumption. A gripping story of identity, loyalty and the devastating power of accusations to destroy innocent people. The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World.

Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in eastern Kentucky. Her books include poetry, non-fiction and award-winning fiction, and in 1999 she was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for The Poisonwood Bible. She lives with her husband and daughter in southern Arizona and in the mountains of southern Appalachia.

With over 600 pages to get lost within The Lacuna is an epic tale. The book is written using a combination of diary entries and letters as well as newspaper articles but this does not make it difficult to read or upset the flow. Although the book is fictional some of the New York Times newspaper articles appear as originally published. The historical figures within the book are quoted from the historical record but any conversations they have with the character Harrison Shepherd are entirely invented. I found this book very difficult to get through and you may have to push through to reach the middle of the book and beyond. It is very descriptive and the author succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of life in Mexico and America.

Overall the book does a gallant job of giving the reader an insight into Mexican history, Frida Kahlo, Communism and Trotsky.