When a Minnesota pharmacological researcher and father of three dies under somewhat mysterious circumstances at the company's research station deep in the Amazon, his colleague Dr. Marina Singh has her arm twisted by her boss (and lover) to travel to Brazil to check things out. Her journey there and her efforts to gain access to the almost-secret research compound run by the dictatorial and driven Dr. Annick Swenson prove challenging, to say the least. Eventually her efforts and patience pay off and she is allowed to enter the hidden world of the Lakashi tribe, a sort of Shangri-la where women are fertile their entire lives due to an interesting environmental phenomenon (hence the interest of the researchers).The writing is wonderful and there are some fascinating characters (with a special nod to Werner Herzog's character Fitzcarraldo who may share more with Annick Swenson than just a passion for opera), but I thought the almost sci-fi botanical curiosity that was the focus of the pharmaceutical firm’s research efforts was almost a bit too like Michael Crichton to be in an Ann Patchett book. Still, there is enough to keep you absolutely captivated by the book even though it may not be perfect like Bel Canto -- the settings are exquisitely drawn and the plot is compelling, with a surprise twist at the end.
Here are a few passages I marked because they were humorous or descriptive, or both (though there were more places I wanted to mark but the Nook only allows you ten digital bookmarks, it seems—point scored for analog books).
On friendliness--
Maybe he was concerned, or bored, or inappropriately friendly, or Midwestern friendly. Nothing was clear. p 47
On insects--
She pulled off her light spring coat…, while every insect in the Amazon lifted its head from the leaf it was masticating and turned a slender antenna in her direction. She was a snack plate, a buffet line, a woman dressed for springtime in the North. p 54
On national stereotypes--
The accent she thought was Australian but she wasn’t positive. They seemed too tan to be English. p 70
On academic office hours--
…I didn’t keep office hours. I never believed in them. Questions are for the benefit of every student, not just the one raising his hand. If you don’t have the starch to stand up in class and admit what you don’t understand, then I don’t have the time to explain it to you. If you don’t have a policy against nonsense you can wind up with a dozen timid little rabbits lined up in the hall outside your office, all waiting to whisper the same imbecilic question in your ear. p 132
More on Amazonian insect life--
At dusk the insects came down in a storm, the hard-shelled and soft-sided, the biting and stinging, the chirping and buzzing and droning, every last one unfolded its paper wings and flew with unimaginable velocity into the eyes and mouths and noses of the only three humans they could find… When it was fully dark only the misguided insects pelted themselves into the people on board while the rest chose to end their lives against the two bright, hot lights… The night was filled with the relentless ping of their bodies hitting the glass. p 143.
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