The Lacuna

By: Barbara Kingsolver

Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver

Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Mexico City of Frida Kahlo to the America of J. Edgar Hoover, The Lacuna tells the poignant story of a man pulled between two nations.

Born in the United States, but reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers and, one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed muralist Diego Rivera. When he goes to work for Rivera, his wife, exotic artist Kahlo, and exiled leader Lev Trotsky, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.

Meanwhile, the United States has embraced the internationalist goodwill of World War II. Back in the land of his birth, Shepherd seeks to remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. But 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.

©2009 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

This is a gem of a story…

even on the third listen. I regret saying earlier that I didn’t care for the performance. Clearly I liked it enough to hear it again and again. I’m fact, I cannot imagine how it could be better, either story or performance. It’s a favorite for this voracious reader.

An important book

A slow start as you learn the characters, but this is how Kingsolver draws you into identifying so fully with them. This is a great book that finally captures the awful human tragedy that was the result of the Communism scare in the USA after the war. The book is not about the politics, but about one person's admittedly extraordinary life and how it is ultimately affected. I loved Kingsolver's reading performance as well.

Yet anotheer great Kingsolver novel

Barbara Kingsolver's stories explore the important but little known, often misunderstood or intentionally hidden aspects of history and of living in human society. I think that I have bought most of her books and I have liked them all. When I realized the difficult main subject that she was taking on this time, I saw no way she could pull it off without being too depressing. But, as always, her extrordinary characters along with extra tidbits of history and underlying culture kept me listening. By the end, as the story came together, I was really impressed. She managed to turn it into a hopeful story without detracting from the seriousness of the subject.
While we may not be able to change what is wrong in greater society, we can recognize it for what it is and rejoice in indiividual triumphs, ...of a sort anyway.
I can't stop thinking about the book and what Ms. Kingsolver meant to say. I'm busy investigating the historical tidbits. The wrap-up of the story was brilliantly appropriate and satisfying. I can't wait for the next Barbara Kingsolver book. We need more people and authors this thoughtful. I worry about the effort such a work must involve.
Thanks,

part of our history

This gentle narrative of a good woman who witnesses, first hand,the Kafkaesque period in our history , the Mccarthy Era, and conveys its dangerous absurdity through her story of Harrison Shepherd, I assume, a fictional author of modest note, is read with a dreamlike voice by the author, Barbara Kingsolver. The frightening reality that unique thought is often met with a lack of understanding......and when people don't understand, they rarely react with innocent inquiry...but rather with ignorance....and that igonance is the fertile bed for hate and is vulnerable to manipulation.....was the essence of this era. Harrison Shepherd "chose" to write historical fiction so that he captured the absurdity of his times in a framework that would not be branded as dangerous.....ironically? this is what Ms. kingsolver may be doing providing us with an allegory of our own times.

Bravo!

A part of our history that very much needs remembering as the press and now cable and the internet pass along their missunderstandings. The story line was well done and it was very difficult to lose interest.

excellent

starts a bit flat but gains in information, story, emotion, interest. Ms. Kingslover's voice also warms as the book evolves. A work of art. Introduces to historic characters.

Needs a real narrator

Like a few others, I have loved all of Kingsolver's previous books, my favorite being the Poinsonwood Bible. Her writing is brilliant. It is unfortunate that she chose to be the narrator/reader of this one, as her narration has ruined the story. She enunciates way too carefully and reads like a grammar school teacher to children. It was hard to get through the book because it was so difficult to listen to her.

Larger than a novel

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes with suggestions. Do you enjoy Barbara Kingsolver as a performer as in Flight Behavior? Do you have the time to pursue the huge landscape of a work at least twice as demanding, like a course? The Lacuna is working best for me in audible plus multimedia supplements such as the PBS video "The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo" and an art history-biography of Frida Kahlo such as Frida Kahlo: The Paintings by Hayden Herrera. Then you can look at images of the paintings and photos of the historical characters while you read. I am fully enjoying this total experience. It could also work if you are able to visualize well. I would recommend The Lacuna to someone who has a large chunk of time and the desire to be immersed in a new world.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The narrator is wonderful--the portrait of an artist as a young boy through manhood. He is also a fragile soul. We see how one artist (in this case Frida Kahlo) can influence another. fledgling artist (in the PBS biography, you will hear testimony from visual artists who were Frida Kahlo's students). You see the world through the eyes of a young potential writer from the beginning. You may need to listen to the opening of the novel multiple times to get into his head.

Which character – as performed by Barbara Kingsolver – was your favorite?

Barbara Kingsolver does a great job with all the characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This would work better as a series rather than a single film. Individual titles for the individual sections could be labeled as Kingsolver did with dates and location. The Lacuna is an excellent succinct title and a recurring theme. It's meant to have multiple meanings that the reader discovers.

Any additional comments?

You will learn so much from this historical novel--from the process of preparing plaster for the murals of Diego Rivera to the history of Mexico and the Russian Revolution. You will view the twentieth century from completely different perspectives. At least I did. This is a great work.

A great book, a poor narration.....

I'm sure there is a reason why some people are selected, hired, or contracted to be narrators of books, and some people who only author them; just as there are actors/actresses that perform better in some roles rather than others. Barbara, you are my favorite author, but NOT my favorite narrator. I had to abandon the audio version and instead read your printed word. I found you slow, too deliberate, somewhat condescending and just annoying to my ear. Nevertheless, the book is fantastic, and, as all your other works, truly wonderful.

Beautiful story

An intricately woven story to spark the imagination and give life to the memories of frida and Diego. I love the way she writes and often wanted to pause and bookmark to remember turns of phrase so well crafted.