Flight Behaviour

I enjoyed reading the novel Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver. You may know this author's name from the remarkable Poisonwood Bible, but she has written other interesting novels and a memoir or journal of sorts called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. The novel is ambitious in that it addresses the troubling subject of climate change. Kingsolver chooses to do so through the life of a poor young mom in rural Tennessee. Millions of monarch butterflies descend upon a wooded area of the family property, displaced from their usual winter roosting grounds in Mexico. The mixed-up butterflies end up making Dellarobbia a religious star in her local congregation, as well as a reluctant media celebrity.

I found this a very readable story of how humans are messing with the patterns of the natural world. The monarchs become tiny, luminous harbingers or prophets of catastrophic change. Because of my twenty year interest in the changes to our environment and the importance of paying attention I'm not sure whether Flight Behaviour will appeal to a wider audience. There are some heavier, more didactic bits, but by and large it is well-told story with plenty of insights into human nature written by a skilled and sure-handed author.

Have you heard about Flight Behaviour? Does it intrigue you, or does the very notion of a novel which speaks to climate change turn you off?