The persistence of the drug’s nightmarish side effects raises questions about what exactly medicine does, if the supposed “therapy” spawns new, harder-to-cure maladies (in this case, nightmares). All the potential disasters of the place would continue to linger inside. The trip would be in the blood stream, in the tissues.
It was the drug’s way of reminding the patient that the trip isn’t over. Throughout, Marina is plagued with nightmares-a reaction to the anti-malaria drug Lariam-and these nightly rebellions of the psyche provide a recurring connotative trope:Įven if she went home tomorrow she would have to take it for another four weeks. Divested of her creature comforts, we see her at a vulnerable state and one that is ripe for transformation. Swenson’s whereabouts, including scorching heat and a debilitating fever. Once in Manaus, she must endure numerous tests of will in order to find Dr. Marina loses her suitcases, her clothes, reading materials, cell phone, and ties to the outside. Speed bumps along the way are also what give a story literary traction, and, as in Bel Canto, Patchett is a master of creating extraordinary circumstances for seemingly ordinary characters. Swenson, whose work on developing a controversial new fertility drug suggests a scientific quest for progress, and the invasion and potential exploitation of the Lakashi, a fictional population indigenous to the Amazon.Īs in all odysseys, what particularize Marina’s journey are the hurdles, and how she reacts to them. The checkered relationship between mentor and mentee, between student and teacher, is at the fulcrum of the novel’s central tension.ĭeposited in the South American city of Manaus, Marina sets out to track down Dr. She is dispatched there to recover the details of her coworker’s recent death, and to evaluate the research of a field team deep in the jungle, a team headed up by her former mentor, Dr. The woman is Marina Singh, a researcher in a Minnesota pharmaceutical lab who embarks on a mission to the Amazon. When discussing plot, consider Leo Tolstoy’s axiom: “All great literature is one of two stories a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” In her sixth novel, State of Wonder, Ann Patchett launches a contemporary woman on a personal and professional journey, delivering an ambitious narrative and an entertaining read.
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