Marina Singh is a scientist who is asked to travel to the Amazon by the company for which she works. They had been funding a maverick researcher, Dr Swenson, for many years but had become frustrated that she had stopped reporting on her work and engaging with her employers so they had sent another researcher, Anders, to find out what was happening. They have now received word that Anders is dead and so Marina is to be sent to find out what has happened to him and to try and fulfil his original mission.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett is mostly set in Brazil and the Amazon rainforest as Marina enters the region full of good intentions and carrying all the appropriate equipment only to end up stripped of her possessions and all her illusions and opinions about life.
You first have to accept that a large pharmaceutical company would happily pay for a group of researchers in such a remote place for years without taking steps to find out what their money is being spent on – sending out another researcher without proper preparation is really not sufficient. Once you’ve swallowed that idea, however, the novel explores all sorts of other things such as what we really need to thrive, what constitutes research and how we relate to indigenous peoples who have something that we want. The book raises lots of moral problems and doesn’t give us a lot of answers, although we do end up with plenty to think about.
Although all the scientists and the people who help Marina are well described the indigenous people who are the subjects of the research are not individualised. This may be to show that the visiting scientists aren’t interested in them as people but only as subjects but it feels awkward when you read it. The only exception is Easter, an indigenous boy who has been semi-adopted by Dr Swenson and whose story illustrates the chasm between the local people and those who are visiting.
This is quite a quick read and Marina is an engaging character with her own issues. Some plot threads are resolved within the story but others are left hanging at the end of the book so you don’t really know what will happen next. There are maybe a few too many coincidences for me and I would have preferred a neater ending but that is just personal choice. I enjoyed this book and would read others by the same author.
Anne Is Reading 