Book Review: UNSHELTERED by Barbara Kingsolver

Title: Unsheltered

Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper
Read: December 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Willa Knox has always prided herself on being the embodiment of responsibility for her family. Which is why it’s so unnerving that she’s arrived at middle age with nothing to show for her hard work and dedication but a stack of unpaid bills and an inherited brick home in Vineland, New Jersey, that is literally falling apart. The magazine where she worked has folded, and the college where her husband had tenure has closed. The dilapidated house is also home to her ailing and cantankerous Greek father-in-law and her two grown children: her stubborn, free-spirited daughter, Tig, and her dutiful debt-ridden, ivy educated son, Zeke, who has arrived with his unplanned baby in the wake of a life-shattering development.

In an act of desperation, Willa begins to investigate the history of her home, hoping that the local historical preservation society might take an interest and provide funding for its direly needed repairs. Through her research into Vineland’s past and its creation as a Utopian community, she discovers a kindred spirit from the 1880s, Thatcher Greenwood.

A science teacher with a lifelong passion for honest investigation, Thatcher finds himself under siege in his community for telling the truth: his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting new theory recently published by Charles Darwin. Thatcher’s friendships with a brilliant woman scientist and a renegade newspaper editor draw him into a vendetta with the town’s most powerful men. At home, his new wife and status-conscious mother-in-law bristle at the risk of scandal, and dismiss his financial worries and the news that their elegant house is structurally unsound. 

My musings:

I adore Kingsolver’s writing and some of her books feature on my all-time-favourite-books list, so I was very excited to receive an ARC of her latest novel from Edelweiss (thank you!). The premise of two people from different times in history being linked through the house they live in sounded intriguing, especially in the context of real historical events. Having read Kingsolver’s books in the past, I knew that she would not shy away from difficult subjects and would include thought-provoking and well-written observations in her story.

I am not going to beat around the bush though, and will admit straight up that I initially really struggled with this book. It took me a long time to engage with the characters, and I may even have DNF’d it if I hadn’t been invited at that very moment to read it as a buddy read with The Traveling Friends group hosted by Brenda on IG. Ultimately, whilst it may not go into the history books as one of my favourites, I am glad that I persevered because Kingsolver raised some interesting points that made for a great discussion and made me reflect on the meaning of shelter in the context of recent political events.

Unsheltered plays out in two separate timelines, with fifty-something journalist Willa Knox leading the narrative set in the present and teacher Thatcher Greenwood featuring in the events taking part in the 1870’s. Both timelines are loosely tethered by the house Willa’s family have recently moved into, a dilapidated old mansion in Vineland, New Jersey, that also provided shelter for Thatcher at one stage. Another interesting side character is botanist Mary Treat, a real historical figure who was in correspondence with Charles Darwin at the time and was a great supporter of his theories. After struggling with the first third of the book, I gradually became more and more intrigued with each of the characters and their struggles, even though I thought that their connection remained somewhat intangible and read like two completely separate narratives. 

An interesting concept that runs through both timelines and features several times in the book is that of “shelter”, with many different meanings attached to it. Firstly, there is the physical shelter in the form of the old house, which is crumbling around Willa’s family and threatening the comfortable retirement they have envisaged after a life of moving around the country whilst raising their children to adulthood. On the other hand, shelter also refers to the comforts our society has come to expect, which are being threatened by current political events and the environmental disaster waiting just around the corner for us. In the course of our discussion, I realised how sheltered my life has been to date, as we still enjoy a lot of the concepts that are being threatened for Willa’s family in the book – like free healthcare, housing and living in a country that has still remained relatively untouched from environmental disaster (or prefers to ignore it). I especially enjoyed exploring the topic through the eyes of Tig, Willa’s somewhat prickly but resilient daughter, who is the generation of my own children and will have to live with the fallout from decisions made by previous generations. As usual, Kingsolver’s social observations and the drawing of her characters are spot-on, which gradually pulled me into the story and made me think about for a long time after finishing the books, which I guess achieved the very thing she intended it to!

I admit I felt a lot less invested in Thatcher’s timeline, although being very intrigued by the whole science vs religion debates, which made for fascinating reading. I think that Thatcher and Mary would have been better served had a separate book been dedicated solely to their story, as there was so much that was left unexplored here. 

Summary:

I could go on and on about the different topics discussed here, which brings me to the conclusion that Unsheltered would make the perfect book for a bookclub choice or a buddy read. For me, the buddy read was a saving grace, especially being able to discuss the issues with readers from various different countries and backgrounds, who brought so much more to the table than my own very limited views on the matter. Kingsolver writes with an honesty not often found in other novels, and her social commentary is spot-on and very thought provoking. If you are looking for a book that will open your mind and make for many great discussion points, then this should definitely be on your radar!

Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.