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The Lacuna: A Novel | 
| Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $26.99
Buy Used: $3.97
as of 7/31/2010 12:41 CDT details
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Rating:  230 reviews
Sales Rank: 3678
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0060852577
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060852573
ASIN: 0060852577
Publication Date: November 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 230
 Kingsolver Delves Deep July 29, 2010
Kaitlyn Michaels
Ah, the holes, the lacunae in our lives, in our history, in our awareness. Barbara Kingsolver uses humor and drama to make us see the empty spots in our consciousness.
The political and sociological history of the U.S. during the Depression, World War 11, and the post war hysteria over communism come to life through the eyes of a shy young American writer. His story begins with his childhood in the Yucatan, his friendship with Frida Kahlo and other figures I always wanted to know more about and eventually to the America I grew up in. This is a well written and enriching story.
 history lesson? July 27, 2010
Jeanne B. (The Villages, Fl. USA)
If I wanted to read a history of Mexico, I'm sure there are better ones than The Lacuna. I expected an engrossing novel, with characters I could identify with and understand. Instead, I got hundreds of pages of history, most of which is already pretty familiar (I mean, we all know what happened to Trotsky in Mexico, right?) This is not historical fiction as I see it. It's a journal kept by a neurotic and untalented individual during some interesting times he lived through in Mexico.
Just short of greatness! July 26, 2010
Ellen M Willard
The Lacuna is a stimulating and fascinating read. Kingsolver has done everything a writer could to capture the atmosphere of the times in the U.S. and Mexico throughout the main character, Harrison Shepherd's 20+ year life span from 1929 to 1951. As a boy of twelve uprooted from Dad and country by a mother focused on her need for a secure place obtainable only by chasing and hoping to wed a rich man, we anticipate the bildungsroman story of the young boy growing up. While the form is fulfilled, the novel shifts to the wider canvas of the larger than life figures of Diego Riviera, Frida Kahlo, Leon Trotsky, FDR, J. Edgar Hoover, and Joe McCarthy. Thus, the growth-to-manhood story intertwines with art, politics, and culture of the period. Being old enough to remember the terror of the cold war and 'hide under the school desk' drills in anticipation of Russia dropping the bomb on the U.S., McCarthy's screeching,angry, accusing voice is jolted into my memory by Kinsolver's use of House UnAmerican Activities Committee's FBI investigations, threatening form letters, and televised Congressional Hearings, all directed at destroying the lives of creative people represented in the book by Harrison Shepherd's ordeal as the writer of historical fiction based in Mexican Azteca history (shades of Kingsolver's own fiction....a mirror?).
Shepherd's talisman is a tiny Aztec statue of a warrior with an open mouth found in an Aztec ruin, but open to say what?? Left to our imagination, we can hear the scream of the writer whose work is persecuted when the correct political line is not followed. Can such happen in the 'land of freedom'?? Of course we know that, yes, it does...The Patriot Act is our modern rendition of the UnAmerican Activities committee. To return to the main character is difficult for Kingsolver's adept recreation of our histerical 'witchcraft' period in the fifties overwhelms our investment in Shepherd's character. However, the ambiguous ending reminds us that the 'missing piece' called the lacuna is the very essence of Shepherd as the artist who has no obligation to reveal the deeper essence of himself. Just as any writer is obliged to create believable characters, plots, and settings, but not to reveal him/herself, so does Shepherd escape leaving the reader to wonder 'how can we know anyone, even ourselves'? I give 4 stars and not 5 for the book because some sections are so very detailed in the insignificant that I skipped such items as recipes for Mexican dishes; otherwise, a fabulous read. Ellen Willard
intriguing historical epic July 24, 2010
Harriet Klausner
His father is an American who has nothing to do with him; his mother is a Mexican who sort of raised him, but parenting was not her gig. Thus early on, Harrison William Shepherd learned to take care of himself as he grew up in Mexico without the benefit of schooling. He found books and loved reading; self taught of course. He begins writing as an adolescent; claiming his work is that of Mexican notorieties like artists Rivera and Kahlo, and Russian Bolshevik exile Trotsky; eventually he meets some of his heroes.
When his hero Trotsky is assassinated allegedly by another Bolshevik, Harrison heeds the advice of Kahlo to flee for America to become a full time writer. He authors historical fiction while supporting the Communist Worker's Movement in North America until 1951when the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities orders him to testify.
The Lacuna is a an intriguing historical epic that uses diaries and memoirs to tell the tale of the Communist movement in Mexico and the United States starting from the Great Depression until the McCarthy hearings. The story line is very deep as the audience sees into the souls of the two artists (and their works) as well as to a lesser degree Trotsky amongst other leading lights in the North American "heyday" of Communism. Although the pace is slow and never accelerates, the story line is insightful and in many ways cautionary as Barbara Kingsolver provides a powerful look at two decades in American and Mexican history that has reverberations with today's recession.
Harriet Klausner
The Lacuna July 17, 2010
Avid Reader (Washington, D.C.)
I loved "The Lacuna." It amazes me how Kingsolver gets better and better with each book. Her early works were good, and "The Poisonwood Bible" was excellent. I loved the characters of Harrison Shepherd and Violet Brown; I was sad when the story ended, although I loved the ending (which I won't give away). Also felt that Kingsolver handled the "frame" of her novel--a novel told in journal entries, newspaper clippings, and through an archvist--in a very skillful manner. I loved that Harrison's life was told against the backdrop of actual historical figures (including Diego Rivera) and incidents (the McCarthy hearings). I give this the highest recommendation.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 230
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