Flight Behavior

By: Barbara Kingsolver

Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver

Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

Indie best seller

Barnes & Noble best seller

National best seller

Amazon Best Book of the Month

Indie Next Pick

Best book of the year: New York Times Notable, Washington Post Notable, Amazon Editor’s Choice, USA Today’s Top Ten (#1), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star

Prize-winning author: Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award), Orange Prize for Fiction

Prize-winning author: National Humanities Medal, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Orange Prize for Fiction, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award)

"Kingsolver is a gifted magician of words." (Time)

The extraordinary New York Times best-selling author of The Lacuna (winner of the Orange Prize), The Poisonwood Bible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver returns with a truly stunning and unforgettable work.

Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factions - religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians - trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world.

Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver's most thrilling and accessible novel to date, and like so many other of her acclaimed works, represents contemporary American fiction at its finest.

©2012 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

Everything known about Monarch butterflies

If you could sum up Flight Behavior in three words, what would they be?

Unique, scientific, concerning

Would you be willing to try another book from Barbara Kingsolver? Why or why not?

I have read many books by Barbara Kingsolver and have thoroughly enjoyed most of them.
I liked the basic story of Flight Behavior, particularly the characters, but I did find it a bit preachy and that, in some sections, the scientific information was heavy-handed. I would have to really look at the next book before I decided to read it or not.

What does Barbara Kingsolver bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her intonation and expression helped me understand the characters better. Because she had created these characters, she was able to give them more life and passion when she read the story.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The conversation between Dellarobia and her mother-in-law Hester towards the end of the book, where Hester finally opens up to Dellarobia, was the most moving for me as it gave Hester real humanity and explained why she had always been stand-offish.

Any additional comments?

I liked the story in general but it was obvious that Kingsolver was on her soap-box about climate change. The ending was not very satisfying as it left the me hanging as to what happened to the Turnbow family and was rather apocalytic.

Chagrined to say that I was disappointed

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

The Poison Wood Bible is one of my most beloved books, so I came into this with very high expectations. I respect Ms. Kingsolver and her work but I didn't feel for these characters or their exploits. I kept hoping it would pick up but the narrative plotted along at an uneventful pace.
I was most disappointed in the performance. I so wish that in general authors would leave it to the professionals for narration. Although I found Ms. Kingsolver's voice distracting and irritating in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle it was forgivable considering it was mainly a memoir, but true fiction deserves to shine with the very specific skills of an actor.

Beautiful, multi-layered story: a must-read

I've been a Kingsolver fan since my friend's mom loaned me "Bean Trees in Heaven" when I was a teenager. I love her protagonists: normal people struggling through sometimes ordinary and sometimes extraordinary situations, but always relatable. It feels like I find new ways to think my own thoughts through her writing. Not to mention Kingsolver's beautiful prose.

Every time I read one of her new books, I'm afraid that it won't live up to my expectations--but it always does. "Flight Behavior" is no different. It's slow. This isn't your typical potboiler novel with a super suspenseful and highly theatrical conflict. Instead, you really come to know the protagonist. Through her, you can see both sides of the climate change debate. You can feel the tug of peer pressure and her family--the way that she becomes ostracized as she starts to explore education in a town that doesn't value it. The scientists are distinctly Other: monied and wearing specialized Patagonia jackets to hike through a terrain that she lives in every day with normal hand-darned clothes from Goodwill.

As much as I know that the book had a liberal leaning, I also felt like it was written to help us high-falutin' scientists empathize and see how we can do a better job connecting with people. There was a scene in which Dellarobia is talking to her mentor. She tells him that obviously people don't like what scientists have to say. "Yeah," you think. "That is a good point." The townspeople love the butterflies as a message from God but are very resistant to them as a harbinger of doom and global warming. Maybe there is a better way to reach the public. But after Ovid gives an impassioned interview, there's also the realization that being overly polite and concerned with how one appears can get emotionally taxing and take away from what really needs to be said.

If you like to think, this book is for you. Kingsolver does an amazing job of laying out a multi-faceted, multi-layered story that is about motherhood and family as much as it is about science. I am consistently awestruck by her ability to interweave so many resonant themes, with beautiful imagery and never too heavy-handed.

One of the best books I've read this year.

First let me say that I have not been a fan of Kingsolver's novels in the past, particularly Poisonwood Bible... But a good friend recommended this one as beautifully written and I have to agree. The story is fascinating in itself, but Kingsolver's writing in this one is exquisite and I found myself pulled into the story, the family, and the wonder of what was happening on the mountain with the Monarch butterflies. It's really well done, with science interwoven into the story, and I could not put it down. Threads of global warming, threads of existence in a small town, woven with curiosity and thirst for knowledge, and personal growth. Highly recommended.

Story of monarch butterflies fascinating

I learned so much about the monarch butterflies that was very interesting. Did not like the characters at all. None except the little boy seemed real. Too much whining and complaining from the main character. She came across as a selfish, miserable person who was dissatisfied with her life who blamed everyone else for her problems. I only finished the book to see what happened to the butterflies.

Slow starter

Took a while to get fully hooked into the characters. I have like Ms Kingsolver's books so I knew to hang in there and it was worth it. I wish the story went a little longer into the Spring, some story lines were just amputated and bandaged.

Well Written, But Too Firmly Women's Literature

I expected this to be an environmental tale, but it was more firmly the tale of how a small-town woman feels about children, men, family in general, and being "stuck" in a socioeconomic class she has never 100% identified with. Kingsolver spends a huge amount of time rehashing women's issues that have been beaten so hard for so long in Oprah's Book Club that the dead horse is only bones. The actual environmental theme is interesting, somewhat original, well thought out, and apropos. The writing is extremely high quality if you can slog through another explanation of why a woman is bored in her marriage and stuck in it due to bad teen decisions. All male characters are flat and only presented from the myopic perspectives of the semi stereotypical women. That said, the female characters are fairly well developed, if also commonplace. Overall, the book is an OK read, probably best left to women who strongly identify with semi-traditional female emotional perspectives. I'm betting that Flight Behavior was probably on Oprah's list nearly immediately.

Not as good as previous Barbara Kingsolver

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, it was interesting and good for a long trip.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Global warming and it's impact. the cultural aspect is very interesting, though quite frustrating. Insight to much that is going on today and how isolated areas that are governed by fundamentalist churches, small, suspicious communities, poor access to outside information and lack of belief in science are affecting us all.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes.

Was Flight Behavior worth the listening time?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I was frustrated with this book. Though it would have been unrealistic to expect the changes I would have liked to see, the book stayed true to the area and culture it represented.

Flight or Flight

This book, like many of Kingsolver's, is interestingly about a topic that is mostly unknown. I always learn when reading her novels and I find the situations very intriguing. I decided no to fight my love of her writing and just go with it! No fight. Just Flight.

Dance With the Future

Being a longtime fan of Ms. Kingsolver, I had little doubt that I would enjoy this book. However, I had no idea it would change my way of thinking. I wept at completion, even though I knew it had to be. What a journey! I feel like flying!