State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
State of Wonder
by Ann Patchett
Harper Perennial, 2012
ISBN: 978-0062059810
353 p.p.
Playing on the dual meaning of the word wonder, State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett, is an adventurous mystery that rouses questions whose eventual answers will stun you. The star of the story is a relatively ordinary woman who has been put into an extraordinary situation: 42 year old researcher Marina Singh who studies cholesterol at pharmaceutical giant Vogel and is in a fairly unremarkable relationship with her boss Mr. Fox. Vogel has researchers working on a fertility treatment in the Brazilian Amazon but so far Marina’s duties are domestic in safe, predictable Minnesota.
Marina’s quotidian life is turned inside out when she receives the startling news of her coworker, Anders’ death. He had been sent to the heart of the Amazon to find the renowned but elusive Dr. Swenson, who was put in charge of the fertility project, studying the Lakashi tribe, whose women continue to bear children up through their seventies, in hopes of unlocking the secret to their long-lasting fertility.
Not only is Marina tasked with breaking the news to Anders’ wife but she is also sent by Mr. Fox to attempt what Anders failed to accomplish: get an update on Dr. Swenson’s progress to report back to Vogel. As she ventures into the heart of the Amazon, she faces the inhospitable jungle as well as her own demons.
The first part of State of Wonder is meandering as Marina struggles to adjust to her initial arrival in Manao, Brazil. Her luggage is lost and the heat and humidity threatens to overwhelm her Minnesotan constitution. Marina realizes she is out of her element before she even ventures outside: “The minute she stepped into the musty wind of the tropical air conditioning, Marina smelled her own wooliness. She pulled off her light spring coat and then the zippered cardigan beneath it, stuffing them into her carry-on where they did not begin to fit, while every insect in the Amazon lifted its head from the leaf it was masticating and turned a slender antenna in her direction. She was a snack plate, a buffet line, a woman dressed for springtime in the North." Through Patchett’s elegant prose, we share in a disorientation and vulnerability that goes beyond mere jetlag.
In addition to the physical discomforts of the jungle and the frustration of looking for Dr. Swenson, who has made a point of making herself difficult to reach, to the point of hiring a young couple for the sole purpose of guarding her from visitors, Marina battles the nightmares induced by her antimalarial medication and her personal history with Dr. Swenson. We learn that she was once a medical student of Dr. Swenson’s until a particularly grievous mistake drove her to quit. Here Patchett’s pace drags, succeeding, intentionally or not, in making us sympathetic to Marina’s mounting impatience.
This purgatorial period of waiting finally ends at an unexpected place: the Manao opera house. Described as an oasis of civilization amid an unendurable wilderness, the opera house is where Marina finally meets Dr. Swenson, who shows up unannounced during the middle of a performance of Orpheus, a fitting backdrop as Marina compares the story of Orpheus to her own situation: “She was Orfeo, and there was no question that Anders was Euridice, dead from a snake bite. Marina had been sent to hell to bring him back.”
Here, State of Wonder picks up steam. Marina follows Dr. Swenson into the heart of the Amazonian jungle to monitor the progress of her research. After several twists and false starts, Marina discovers that Dr. Swenson’s research has been successful but that new life, in all its forms, comes at a cost.
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Ann Patchett is the author of six novels, including Bel Canto (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize) and the nonfiction bestsellers What Now? and Truth & Beauty. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is co-owner of Parnassus Books.
