State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Amy  

science fiction

In State of Wonder, Marina’s coworker at a pharmaceutical company dies during a work-related trip to the Amazon.  She is sent there in order to learn the details of his death so that his widow can have a measure of peace.

This is a tough one to critique.  It took me almost 2 months to read a mere 353 pages.  Considering I typically read longer books in about a week or two, that was an extremely slow pace.  I can attribute the slow pace to several things:   

• I started reading this novel a week before we moved into our new house so I was in the midst of packing, moving, unpacking, and settling (and also moving my son and my daughter into their new abodes).
• I was reading the hardcopy so I was unable to read in bed at night since the light keeps my husband awake. (I normally read books on my Paperwhite Kindle which has backlighting for bedtime reading.)  That limited the times which were available for me to read.
• My semester at school began which always takes some of my time.

However, the truth is that this book kept putting me to sleep.  I’d read 5-10 pages and my eyes would be dropping.  I’m sure some of my fatigue was due to the stress and exhaustion of moving but I was simply never drawn into the story.  I did not particularly care about the characters, the pace was slow, and the story was bizarre and unbelievable at times.  I never truly desired to read more. I just plodded through it because I’ve enjoyed two of Ann Patchett’s other novels and friends have told me they enjoyed this novel.  Alas, this one left me disappointed.  I will say that the ending was more interesting than the bulk of the novel so, at least, it ended on a good note.  For that reason, and because my mindset was admittedly preoccupied with other things, I’ll give this novel 3 stars even though I’m tempted to give it 2-1/2.