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Kingsolver traces the evolution of a misfit character, Harrison Shepherd, who seems orphaned even when living with his bohemian mother. A keen observer of others, displaced from both home and country, he uses his isolation as a listening post. The characters who touch his life are marvelously drawn and often historically and artistically significant like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Trotsky. In painting Harrison's life, Kingsolver creates a panoramic mosaic of post-revolutionary Mexico in all its idealism and messy reality.
When Harrison returns to the U.S. during World War II, we get the equivalent of a WPA mural of a country gung-ho for sacrifice and solidarity. But post-war, the society turns into a cubist collage of fear and paranoia as McCarthy's House Un-American Activities committee investigates any who dare to think America is less than perfect.
I found the creeping dissolution of civil liberties and privacy--as well as the hostility to innovation and criticism--scarily relevant to the situation in the U.S. today. Seized by fear of external enemies, the U.S. locked up Japanese, Germans, and Italians (even though long-time, loyal citizens) during the war (shades of ethnic profiling), then proceeded to invade the lives of suspected dissenters and free thinkers (called Commies) after the war.
Harrison is the center of interest and point of view who brings all these sweeping social issues into focus. I enjoyed the book's beautiful literary style, character portrayal, and finely tuned ear for dialogue as much as its never heavy-handed message of the need to protect individual liberties. It made me think about yesterday and today: the parallels and pitfalls. It made me care about this brave man who caused no harm in his quest for a family and truth-telling.
The title, Lacuna, refers to a hole that hides bones of our ancestors. The author exposes the dirt and the skeletons of the past, leaving it up to the reader to view them as compost from which something new may sprout or merely dust and detritus. Bravo, Barbara Kingsolver, and thank you!Get more detail about The Lacuna.