Unsheltered

by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins 2018)

Barbara Kingsolver was inspired by the life and work of 19th century biologist Mary Treat to weave the stories of a 19th century family (science teacher Thatcher Greenwood, his young wife, his sister-in-law Polly, and his mother-in-law Aurelia) and a 20th century family (unemployed journalist Willa Knox; her untenured college professor husband, Iano Tavoularis; Iano’s elderly father Nick; and Willa and Iano’s squabbling adult children, Zeke and Tig (short for Antigone). In alternating chapters, Kingsolver tells these stories from the points of view of Thatcher and Willa.

The Tavoularis family and the Greenwood family happen to live on the same plot of land in Vineland, New Jersey, where eccentric developer Charles Landis controls everyone’s life in Vineland. The Greenwoods move to Vineland so Thatcher can teach at the high school there, but Thatcher suffers under the thumb of the school director, Mr. Cutler. Thatcher is all about science and is eager to teach his students about Charles Darwin’s revolutionary ideas; Cutler is having none of it. But Thatcher makes a friend: Mary Treat, the quirky next-door neighbor, who collects carnivorous plants and tower-building spiders. A century later, as a Donald Trump-like blowhard called “the Bullhorn” begins his ascent to the presidency, Willa Knox and her family move in to a house they have inherited, and Iano works as an adjunct at a local college, but the house is in a terrible state of disrepair and basically needs to be torn down and started over. Willa discovers the existence of Mary Treat and Thatcher Greenwood as she researches the property, trying desperately to find a reason that someone would want to save the house.

Lots more is going on in both centuries, and Kingsolver’s inimitable skill at story-telling draws the reader in. At the end, she writes in the Afterword, “This is what I know for sure: stories will get us through times of no leadership better than leaders will get us through times with no stories.” (Cf The Girls Next Door 1986 hit)