Book Review: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

 

Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder is about a pharmaceutical researcher, Marina Singh, and her descent into the dark frontiers of the Amazon to discover what progress a disturbingly uncommunicative colleague, Dr. Swenson, is making toward formulation of an important fertility drug. She also must try to discover the truth behind the mysterious death of a close friend and colleague, Anders Eckman.  

Patchett describes Marina’s journey as one beginning in reluctance and confusion but ending in courage, slowly stripping Marina of modern trappings and emotional insecurities to show how she learns to face the dangers of the Amazonian rainforest and sacrifices what she is just beginning to love.

Patchett describes Marina’s internal wondering and thought associations enough that we understand Marina is very thoughtful.  We see how Marina’s fears of loss have affected her and prevented her from expressing more love to her family and friends. Marina goes from being a passive character whom things happen to, to being an active character with initiative.  

Few of the plot events seemed contrived except for the sudden appearance of Dr. Swenson in Manaus at the opera performance. This seems like an unexpected burst through a plot problem that doesn’t quite feel earned and isn’t fully explained, but since it happens about midway through the book, the reader will likely forget about it as they move on through the strong second half.

Some criteria the reader might use to judge this book are the following:

• How much detail does the author use to transport the reader into the Amazon jungle?  Does this detail succeed?  I believe it does.  We are treated to descriptions of wildlife, tribal peoples and their customs, and adventures that fit with the atmosphere. 
• How much detail does the author use to describe the relationships and motivations of the characters?   Does this detail succeed?  I believe this does as well.  We are given pertinent background narrative and scenes that allow us to connect with characters or question them.
• How well does the author describe the biology and medical details that the researchers/doctors would discuss and notice?  Does this detail succeed?  I think it does as well.  We are given enough to convince us, but not so much technical terminology that we would be drowning in it.  Educating the reader without doing a data dump is a fine art and the author succeeds.

Through the narrative and dialogue of this book, Ann Patchett examines a number of questions and issues in a manner that does not feel forced or awkward. These issues are the following:

• What level of responsibility do outside researchers have toward those they research to help improve their lives and make a difference?
• How much should researchers be involved with their human subjects?
• How language barriers can lead to laziness and hurtful assumptions of other peoples.
• The appropriate time to have children and whether women should wait to have them.  Eventually the conclusion drawn is that having children is for the young, both for responsible care-taking and because it is when the body is the freshest.
• How critical a person should be of a mentor they admire, especially when they know about their private life.

Why you might like this book

A woman has to travel deep into the Amazon jungle to try to find out the truth.  Amazon jungle is interesting! 

Interesting view of pharmaceutical business and research and development. 

Seeing how researchers may interact with tribes they are researching.

Why you might not like this book

You might not like the dream sequences.  There are a number of them throughout the book, so they may get tiresome.  They seem to be used to indicate Marina’s continued insecurity and reluctance to go on the trip to the Amazon.

If you read with a moral lens, you might not like the instances of premarital sex and adulterous affairs.  They are not graphic, but you may find yourself feeling that they weren’t necessary.  You might also not care for the interest in hallucinogenic mushrooms, although the books mentions them more from the biological/medical perspective.  There is an instance of marijuana drug use, though it is not dwelt on. 

This book is meant to both provoke thought and thrill.  It’s the kind of book that you have to read slowly to take in all the imagery and reflection.  The description is careful and apt, but not over-done.  You get enough to realize that the main character thinks about things and is reminded of her past a lot by the experiences she is having.  Events raise associations in her mind and we get to see that, but it is always for some purpose.  Fans of literary fiction may find just enough description and ambiguity to interest them, while fans of genre fiction will find enough of a plot to draw them in and keep them reading.  Medical professionals would probably be perfectly at home in this book.  As it is, it gives the rest of us a bit of an insider view of the Amazon, pharmaceutical research, and conflicts that can occur when the two mix.

 

Review of Android Calendar apps

I've gotten my first smartphone, and I'm hoping to be able to find applications that will allow it to replace my Palm Tungsten E2, which I've had for at least 5 years now.  I'm a diehard Palm user since 2000 and 13 years of Palm habits have worn deeply into my brain, so any Android apps I use have to be as good or better than what I've been used to.

There are a lot of calendar applications out there and I've tried at least six now, including the Google Calendar app that comes with the phone, so I thought I'd share what I see as the advantages and disadvantages of each of them below.  Dashes indicate disadvantages, while + indicates an advantage.

I must mention first that I have a certain bias against any agenda view, since my brain doesn't seem to comprehend time very well in that setup.  (Agenda view is when all events are simply listed with their times under each day with no depiction of scale as to how much time occurs between them or how much time they take up.) So, take any ranting I do about agenda view with a grain of salt.

Google Calendar

+Agenda view's font makes events easy to distinguish from dates

-Month view tells you nothing. You only see there is an event represented by a dot.

-Week view shows the days in long narrow vertical strips that make the text awkward and unreadable

-Adding an event takes 3 touches as the option is in a sub-menu. (Inexcusable!)

-Day view requires you to scroll to see if you have anything

-Difficult to edit events once put in

Pimlical (Supposedly designed for Palm users)

+ Synchs with Google Calendar

+ Week view is good and readable, using an eight-square grid

- LOTS of gestures to learn and remember (location of gesture on the screen is just as important as what gesture is made)

- Events in month view are displayed too small and too limited text to read

- Includes a 4-day view with long narrow vertical strips that make text awkward and unreadable.  I consider this view to be pretty close to useless, yet I have to scroll through it constantly to get to day view from week view.

- 2 touches to edit events (once you figure it out)

- Inconvenient to put in done tasks (I track what I've done each day by making a floating event that holds todo list items I've completed)

AnCal (Emulator for Palm software)

+ Very simple interface

+ Navigation with screen buttons (similar to Palm)

+ Supports inclusion of tasks, appointments, and notes

+ Easy to enter task, appointments, and notes (unknown whether notes float between days or not)

+ Takes 1 touch on a time to enter an appointment in day view (This is the GOLD standard of efficiency!)

+ Takes 1 touch on an appointment to bring up an edit box in day view! (Excellent! Why aren't other apps like this?)

+ Tasks have settings for two priority levels, alarm, and due date.

+ Appointments have alarms, a floating event setting, and repeat settings

- DOES NOT synch with Google Calendar (Sooo disappointing!)

- Day view requires scrolling to see events

- Does not show text on week view, only shows a dash for events

- Does not show text on month view, only shows a dot for events

- Tasks for future days do not show due date and only two priority settings available, and no repeats available

- Notes can't be attached to a particular day

- I personally dislike the black background

aCalendar

+ Synchs with Google Calendar

+ Week view is good and readable, using an eight-square grid

+ Has a widget which is very large, also transparent, but configurable.

- Month view doesn’t show much useful text

- Hard to edit events put in (takes 2 touches to get to edit screen)

- Can't edit events put in with other calendar apps

- Difficult to get to a dayview of the day you want from weekview. It took me a while to figure out that I had to click the right day and THEN scroll left.

Jorte

+ Synchs with Google Calendar

+ Week view is fairly readable

+ Incorporates tasks and memos

+ Can create task templates and different task lists

- Uses only one calendar view (month/week) which is set by the user.  Makes it annoying to switch views.

- No day view, only agenda view, a sliver of which is shown below the main calendar. It can be expanded, but it still feels very cramped. (and did I mention that I hate agendaview?)

- Hard to get to day-specific agenda list (requires 2 touches)

- Difficult to edit events once they are input (3 touches required)

- Icons at bottom of the screen seem annoying (should have been in menu)

- Supposed to have a widget, but didn't find one in the widget list

- Tasks incorporate only 1 priority setting.

- Unable to set tasks to different task lists.

CalendarPad

+ Synchs with Google Calendar

+ Week view easy to read (8 grid boxes)

+ Month view shows events, though only first word fits

+ Day view can be customized to show 3 different ways, one of which shows the whole day without having to scroll at all

+ Day view displays open slots of time and beginning and ending event times

+ Entering events seems intuitive (touch anywhere on the day view)

+ Has a widget which has customizable size and customizable view of day, week, or month.

- Month view does not show event times, and only first few word(s) fit

- Entering a new appointment takes 4 touches instead of 1 to bring you to an edit box (ABSOLUTELY INEXCUSABLE!!)

- Editing an existing appointment takes 3 touches instead of 1 to bring up an edit box. Also inexcusable. 

- When trying to edit, program keeps asking what program I want to use to edit, even though I already chose what I want by default!  (Update. Okay. It seems to have stopped for some reason, so now I'm down to 3 and 2 touches to input and edit events respectively.  But that's still too much.)

- Menu contents change depending on what view you are in, which is kind of weird

So far I think CalendarPad has the best views and the best navigation.  I just wish it had 1-touch entering and editing of events like AnCal.  I think CalendarPad will probably be what I use, although if I get discontented, I will probably try out some more apps.

After trying out all these calendars it is enough to make me wish I could make one myself.  Here's what I would include:

• Synch with Google Calendar
• Month view with time and a few words of the event showing
• Week view in an 8-square grid layout
• Day view in which the whole day is visible without scrolling
• 1-touch entering or editing of appointments
• Floating appointments
• Memos for appointments
• Using the edit box to change appointments or tasks with 5 priority levels, due dates, and memos.
• A pane in day view showing tasks in priority order
• Completed tasks are tied to the day they are completed

 If you happen to know someone who has already made an application that does these things, please comment and tell me!

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

It is 1819.  Owen Wedgewood is the household cook whose rich employer has just been shot point-blank by the red-headed pirate captain Mad Hannah Mabbot.  Mad Hannah happens to taste Owen’s food and decides to drag him captive back to her ship.  His culinary skills are tested to the limit when Mad Hannah tells him he must cook for his life, making her a fantastic meal every Sunday evening or… (finger across throat)

Just what is Owen up against?  He has to work with flour infested with weevils, horse meat, and hardly any spices to speak of.  How he collects more appropriate supplies and makes ingenious use of what he has is one part of the enjoyment of this book.  Another part, surprisingly enough, is the description of the cooking; somehow the author infuses it with a passion that is almost sensual.  A third part is how the relationship between this temperamental chef and his captor progresses.

The larger historical context of the story is depicted very well and we discover that Mad Hannah’s piracy amounts to economic sabotage aimed at the tea traders as protest for their policies of enslaving the orient in drug addiction to opium. 

The book is surprisingly clean, although it has brief mentions of prostitution, bestiality, homosexuality, and fornication.   Such is probably to be expected in a story featuring life on a pirate ship, and I am only grateful that it wasn’t worse, as much as I dislike such.

It seems as if once Owen and Mad Hannah reach a romantic understanding, the energy of the cooking descriptions and the narrative falls off, although it is probably because the character has Mad Hannah to care about in addition to cooking for her.   Still, as a reader it felt like the author’s main goal was to get them together and then didn’t know what to do afterward.   The story was there, but as a reader I just didn’t care as much.  I wish I did, though.

I was a bit disappointed by the ending.  It left me with a “What? That’s it?” feeling, although it was probably the best ending that could be expected with when Mad Hannah’s driving motives are met or removed.  Still, it left me what the impression that the romance was a fling, rather than love.  Mad Hannah deserved better, considering her deep concern for her lost family pushes her to such lengths in the story.

I will keep an eye out for more books by Eli Brown, though.