Book Review: Unsheltered

Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver

A lovely book by a lovely writer.

Kingsolver melds past and present into a sentimental yet unsparing tale, exploring how our present  determines our future and influences interpretations of the past. It's based partly on a real-life place, Vineland, N.J. -- founded as a temperance town by Charles Landis -- and uses historical figures from the area along with fictional characters, to construct a tale of how the foundation of a life can collapse like the foundation of a home.

She does so by juxtaposing the lives and experiences of families living in the same houses as unknown families from 150 years ago. Both families have similar experiences -- with life, with family, with friendships, and with their homes literally falling down around them. They deal with similar political problems of the larger world: Men who want to control their thoughts and actions by stoking fear and resentment, and promising to fix their concerns by shutting out those who think and act differently.

It centers around Willa Knox, a middle-aged woman who appears to be very much like I imagine Kingsolver to be. Knox's life has not turned out as she hoped and expected. She and her husband, Iano, after chasing dream jobs their entire lives, take residence in a dilapidated home inherited from her relatives. The family includes their grown children, daughter Tig, a free-spirited millennial who dislikes and refuses to participate in the current consumer culture, and Zeke, a son who is determined to both reform and take advantage of that culture.

Meanwhile, 150 years ago, Thatcher Greenwood is trying to begin a family life under stress. He has married above himself, and even with the advantage of an inherited house, he struggles to properly provide for his wife and desired family. His life is complicated by his job as a science teacher at a nearby school, run by a man who sees Greenwood's insistence to teach about Darwin and the natural world as being unnatural and against his (and god's) wishes.

Greenwood befriends a neighbor, Mary Treat, a real-life scientist who corresponds with Darwin, and despite the prevailing culture, lives and works as a botanist. He also strikes up a friendship with Uri Carruth, who publishes a newspaper at odds with the town's benefactor and founder.

As the story develops, Knox is trying to rebuild her family's lives, and discover what, if any, connection she has with Treat, Greenwood, or Landis. In her literate prose, with a gift for the narrative of empathy and understanding, Kingsolver touches on what moves us all -- our family, our homes, our beliefs, and our hopes for the futures.