Red’s Book Reviews: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

With the backdrop of the plight of the Monarch Butterfly, Kingsolver weaves a tale that intermingles the behavior of insects to a changing environment and the behavior of humans reacting to their environment. The main character is Dellarobia, a young wife and mother struggling in her marriage, her career (or lack thereof), and her place within in her husband’s family. A major theme being the role of conversation. The mystery of how Monarch’s communicate with one another to continue and change their yearly migrations. The communication that happens and doesn’t happen within a family and how that influences behavior. The bigger scope conversation between scientists and the public, as one side thumps the climate change narrative to a population that greatly ignores it. It’s hard to sum up a Kingsolver book in so few sentences because she is always so nuanced in making her points. I recommend this one, and recommend pretty much all of her books.

Up next: Emily, Alone by Stewart O’Nan.