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Description edit
Barbara Kingsolver, a writer praised for her"extravagantly gifted narrative voice" ( New York Times Book Review ), has created with this novel a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters edit
- Deanna Wolfe: a reclusive wildlife biologist
- Eddie Bondo: a young hunter
- Lusa Maluf Landowski: a bookish city girl and entomologist turned farmer's wife
- Garnett Sheldon Walker: An old man who is trying to raise a blight-resistant American chestnut.
- Cole Widener: A farmer and Lusa's husband
- Little Rickie: Cole's teenage nephew who is into Lusa.
- Nannie Land Rawley: An old woman who is into organic farming; mother of Rachel and Deanna
- Mary Edna Goins: Stuffy sister-in-law
- Lois: One of Lusa's sister-in-laws
- Mama: The Widener's mother, or Jewel, who was also a mother
- Lowell: Jewel's young son
- Joel: One of Lusa's brother-in-laws
- Jewel: sister in law of Susa's and her first friend in Zebulon
- Mrs. Widener: Could be Susa or her mother-in-law
- Crystal: Called "Crys", is Jewel's daughter.
- Jerry Lind: Delivered supplies to Deanna
- Shel: Garnett's son
- Sammy Hill: classmate of Deanna's whom she suspected of poaching
- Rachel Carson Rawley: Nannie's daughter
- Ema: Short for Emaline, one of Lusa's sister-in-laws
- Mr. Big Rickie: Susa's brother in law
- Oda Black: mother of boy who chopped down trees
- Frank: One of Lusa's brother-in-laws
- Ellen: Garnett's wife
- Sevin: a pesticide
- Herb Goins: One of Lusa's brother-in-laws
- Marshall: Add a description of this character.
- Mommy: I guess this refers to Mrs. Widener
- Ray Dean Wolfe: Deanna Wolf's father
- Dink Little
- Daniel Boone
- Dr. Gibben
- Zayda Landowski
- Regina
- Turner Blevins
- Timmy Boyer
- Emaline
- Hannie-Mavis
- Arlie
- Clivus Morton
- Adam
- Jarondell
- Jackie Doddard
- Dennis Grandy
- Hal
- Jennifer
Quotes edit
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“Of course not, you're a man! Men walk around with their bald heads bare to the world and their pony put out to pasture, but they refuse to admit they're dead wood. So why should I? What law says I have to cover myself up for shame of having a body this old? It's a dirty trick of modern times, but here we are. Me with my cranky knees and my old shriveled ninnies, and you with whatever you've got under there, if it hasn't dropped off yet -- we're still human. Why not just give in and live till you die?”
Nannie Rawlings as said to Garnet Walker when he complained about her wearing shorts
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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She needed to listen to this: prodigal summer, the season of extravagant procreation. It could wear out everything in its path with its passionate excesses, but nothing alive with wings or a heart or a seed curled into itself in the ground could resist welcoming it back when it came.
Highlighted by 64 Kindle customers -
How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.
Highlighted by 53 Kindle customers -
Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.
Highlighted by 52 Kindle customers -
I’ve always found people love you best if you can laugh at your own foolish misfortunes and keep mum about everyone else’s.
Highlighted by 50 Kindle customers -
but she’d never forgotten, either, how a mystery caught in the hand could lose its grace.
Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers -
Arguments could fill a marriage like water, running through everything, always, with no taste or color but lots of noise.
Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers -
“I lost a child,” she said, meeting Lusa’s eyes directly. “I thought I wouldn’t live through it. But you do. You learn to love the place somebody leaves behind for you.”
Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers -
Thanks for this day, for all birds safe in their nests, for whatever this is, for life.
Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers -
The pounding of What do I want went still in her breast. It didn’t matter what she chose. The world was what it was, a place with its own rules of hunger and satisfaction. Creatures lived and mated and died, they came and went, as surely as summer did. They would go their own ways, of their own accord.
Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers -
Envying, even, their self-important fuss and bustle. A bird never doubts its place at the center of the universe.
Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
First Sentence edit
Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Barbara Kingsolver (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 464
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3561.I496
- Dewey: 813.54
Subjects edit
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