| | |  | | Home » The Lacuna: A Novel | | | | | | | Description: | | In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities. Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence. Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption. With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Barbara Kingsolver | | Hardcover:
| 528 pages | | Publisher:
| Harper | | Publication Date:
| November 03, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0060852577 | | Product Length:
| 9.26 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.52 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.43 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.82 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.5 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.85 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 365 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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543 of 570 found the following review helpful:
 This is Literature with a capital LOct 28, 2009
By Mrs. Baumann
Plot Summary: In a story told entirely through diary entries and letters, we meet Harrison William Shepherd, a half-Mexican, half-American boy who grows up with his mother in Mexico. He has no education, but his love of reading and writing nurtures his own inner dialog that leads to his success as a writer. But that's getting ahead of the story. First he passes his adolescence working for some of Mexico's most infamous residents in the 1930s - Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Lev Trotsky. His break with Mexico is abrupt, and Shepherd moves to America where he embarks on a writing career with the assistance of his invaluable stenographer, Mrs. Violet Brown.
I've spent the past two days in close communion with this novel, and it has moved me deeply. It's not often that I abandon popular literature for the big fish, but Barbara Kingsolver is one of the few authors whose writing entertains me in all forms - novels, essays and non-fiction. I suppose I'm like a book groupie, following her whether she's spinning yarns in the Southwest, or matter of factly walking me through slaughter day when her chicken's days are numbered. Make no mistake, her latest effort is Literature with a capital L, and the story is so poignant it could make a stone weep in sympathy. And weep I did. Frequently.
When a novel covers a person's life, from the beginning to the end, it takes on an epic flavor by default. Harrison Shepherd's life could be considered epic even if it was condensed down to a three paragraph obituary. It's an extraordinary tale told during haunting times in both Mexico and the U.S. I regret that I don't know as much as I should about the history before, during, and after World War II, but I will use this novel as a crutch for my shoddy memory. This is history refracted through a miniscule lens; a tiny dot that represents the life of a boy who becomes a man.
It's a scary proposition trying to populate a work of fiction with famous dead people. I don't know if Ms. Kingsolver got it all right, although I don't doubt that her research was extensive, however it doesn't matter. She brought everyone back to life in full color, so bright and blinding it almost hurt my eyes. I will always carry around these portraits of Frida and Trotsky, along with Shepherd and Violet Brown. They are permanently inked onto my imagination.
189 of 197 found the following review helpful:
The Crucial Missing Piece -" The Lacuna"Oct 27, 2009
By Katawampas
Barbara Kingsolver has written a book of historical fiction that reads like a Frida Kahlo painting: allegory, poetry, beauty & pain. Kingsolver writes likes a great artist paints.
The story opens in 1929 and ends in 1951. Harrison William Shepherd (a fictional character) born in the US to a US father and a Mexican mother, is a child in Mexico. Since his parents are both disinterested in parenting, he makes his own way in life. First he is a cook/secretary in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, then for Bolshevik/Marxist Revolutionary Leon Trotsky during his exile in Mexico. After Trotsky is assassinated, Shepherd is encouraged by Kahlo to move to the US where he finally becomes what he was meant to be; an author of historical fiction.
The backbone of the story is the Communist/Worker's Movement in Mexico & the US and Rivera, Kahlo & Trotsky's part in it. They provide the political dialogue for the relationship of US politics and art. Kingsolver imagines what it would have been like living in these households during this turbulent period. The story culminates with Shepherd being called before the US Committee on Un-American Activities. But the story is about so much more than politics and history.
If you are an admirer of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, reading this book will be like contemplating their art. The story mirrors the politics and history portrayed in Rivera's murals and the pain and beauty of Kahlo's paintings.
If you enjoy reading historical fiction, this is a beautifully written example.
Update: 6/10/10 Barbara Kingsolver was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction for "The Lacuna". The Orange prize was started in 1996 to recognize female fiction writers around the world.
87 of 94 found the following review helpful:
A Life Well LivedNov 06, 2009
By R. Chaffey
"beckahi"
It is quite possible that "The Lacuna", Barbara Kingsolver's newest novel, surpasses her masterpiece "The Poisonwood Bible" and that is no small feat. Or perhaps surpass isn't the correct word for an author of Kingsolver's talent who can make the unlikeliest of stories and characters come to life. "The Lacuna" manages to weave together some of the early twentieth century's most pivotal events without demeaning them, offering fresh insight into some of the darkest moments of American history through the eyes of a genuine and likeable misfit.
"The Lacuna" is the memoir-of-sorts of Harrison Wiliam Shepherd, an author caught between two very different worlds. As a young boy, his Mexican mother drags him back to her native country as she pursues any wealthy man who is willing to take her on as a mistress. Years later, he is sent to live with his father, a man he does not even know, before returning to Mexico where he finds himself in the employ of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. His association with these two famous artists brings him in contact with Trotsky, on exile from Stalinist Russia, who continues Shepherd's odd education in the school of life experiences. When events turn sour in Mexico, Shepherd returns to the United States, fulfilling his dream of becoming a beloved author, only to have to confront his past and the words he has never said during the Red Scare of the 1950s. His story is told in his own words, his diary entries and letters, some too private to lay bare, and by the words of his secretary who takes it upon herself to compile his life's narrative.
The sheer amount of history that Kingsolver is able to plausibly mix into Shepherd's story is incredible, and all of it believable. "The Lacuna" is a beautiful story, one man's search to find a place he can call home and to be accepted and loved for the person that he is. Kingsolver's prose sparkles with the poetry of her descriptions and her uncanny ability to craft intricate narratives that unspool effortlessly in the reader's imagination. "The Lacuna" is unforgettable. Readers will feel that they have lived alongside Shepherd and that he also lived, not only on paper or through words.
62 of 67 found the following review helpful:
Caught in the tides of historyOct 28, 2009
By Jill I. Shtulman
In the beginning, there were howlers, mother and son joined in terror of the devils stalking from above. With this metaphor, Barbara Kingsolver launches into a novel that's steeped in real historical events -- primarily the Mexican painter Diego Rivera and his mercurial and artistic sometime-wife, Frida Kahlo and the period in the 1930's when they played host to the exiled Lev Trotsky. Central to the narrative is Harrison William Shepherd, an enlightened Forrest Gump character, who seems to always be in the right place at the right time to experience history in its unfolding.
Harrison -- who enters into service as the Rivera/Kahlo cook and secretary -- forges an unlikely friendship with the slightly older Frida that lasts a lifetime. She encourages him to keep a journal, and through these journal entries, the reader uncovers Kingsolver's truth about Trotsky -- how the propaganda and lies cast him in the role of Communist villain and lead to Stalin's ultimate supremacy and eventually, Trotsky's assassination. Harrison's association with Rivera and Kahlo exacts a toll: he quickly goes from becoming a novelist who is respected and admired to becoming abhored virtuallly overnight as the Joe McCarthy era and its excesses spread across America.
The Lacuna is exquisitely written: Kingsolver's sense of place holds an almost magical lyricism where the reader can almost taste the red chalupas and scrambled egg torta with sugar, feel the echoes of the ancient Aztec civilization, smell the fresh rain and see the women in long braids selling vegetables while nearby, the charlatans are selling miracles. The luscious writing brings the 20th century Mexico boldly into life, not unlike one of Diego Rivera's murals.
But make no mistake: Kingsolver's focus is not Harrison or Diego and Frida or Trotsky or even Mexico. It is the lacuna -- the Spanish word meaning space between two objects or in this case, the space that lingers between the truth and the falsity that is perceived as a truth. The "howlers" that begin the novel are not the long-tailed monkeys at all, but those who seek to persecute, including (especially) the press and the Un-American Activities Committee.
Lacuna is very ambitious and it works -- to a point. Kingsolver is intent on creating a story that merges social commentary with fiction, and often errs on the side of the commentary. The dialogue between Harrison and Frida, for example, seemed forced to this reader; Frida came across as much too one-dimensional for such an intriguing painter and figure in history. While any astute citizen realizes that there have been way too many lies and innuendos that comprise our so-called history ("history is written by the winners"), the results are often more nuanced than presented. Because of the distancing device of the journals, we relate to Harrison Shepherd, but never truly inhabit him; he is the vessel through which events are revealed.
For Kingsolver, who is a true social activist, "attention must be paid." Half-way through the novel, she writes: "Write down the story of what happened to us. So when nothing is left but bones and scraps of clothes, someone will know where we went." That is precisely what she does in Lacuna as she details one of our most colorful collective journeys.
26 of 26 found the following review helpful:
What has been missed?Dec 25, 2009
By Marjorie G. Martin
"traveling book worm"
I have just finished reading Lacuna. Like all the other books of Barbara Kingsolver I could not put it down. It is not just a novel, or an historical novel, but a wonderful social commentary of our times.
I've read a number of the reviews of Lacuna and I believe that a lot of people are missing the whole point of the book. I am almost as old as Harrison Shepherd would have been had he lived a full long life. I have lived in and observed America, at close hand since the mid 1940's, so have a very vivid understanding of the events that pass by in the second half of the book, and some knowledge of Mexico, to understand the first part.
The second half of the novel, when Harrison was vilified, was exactly what happened in the fifties when fear and mass hysteria ran rampent and the constitution was pushed aside. Hundreds of innocent people were charged with the crime of association with a communist. It could easily have been association with a christian or a republican or anyone who did not believe exactly as those in power believed. This showed the rest of the world the black inside of America. Sadly, so much of what is going on in Washington today is a strange echo of those times. When those in power and in the public eye shouted the loudest lies and untruths and vilified anyone with a different opinion. What else could Lacuna mean? That Harrison lived on? That he was a very ordinary person living in extroadinary times? Think for youself, it is all there.
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