The title, State of Wonder, of  Ann Patchett’s latest novel is certainly an accurate reflection of the characters, the Amazon setting, and even, perhaps, the readers.  Marina, the main character, is in perpetual state of wonder as she gets farther and farther away from the safety net of her lab at the pharmaceutical research firm.  The research team is supposedly developing a “wonder drug” that will enable women to bear chldren their entire lives. And, finally, I am in a state of wonder trying to figure what it is about this book that makes me want to quit reading after the first 10 pages, but slowly, as I read, makes it impossible to put down and impossible to forget.  I had much the same reaction to Bel Canto.  I had to plow through the first third but, by the halfway mark, I was hooked, not only by the plot, but by the characters.  Patchett tends to draw her characters from the inside out, and so they come into focus slowly, like an old photograph in developing fluid.   Patchett tends to be overly generous with words, belaboring a point in two pages that could be made in a couple of sentences.  This characteristic in a less skilled writer would  be devastating, but Patchett uses language so beautifully, the tendency to overdo it is annoying but not deadly.  Initially, however, it does make the characters unsympathetic and remote as they are wrapped in a cocoon of self absorbed language.   However, as the novel progresses, they do emerge as fully drawn characters, sympathetic in spite of their shortcomings.  And they do have shortcomings.  Marina can be exasperatingly passive, her office mate is dangerously naive, Marina’s boss is unforgivingly  single minded.  The NY Times review calls Annick Swenson despotic and uncommunicative.  This strikes me as a colossal understatement, as she makes unilateral decisions in her pursuit of scientific knowledge, and then misleads and falsifies.

I really enjoyed this novel.  I think it would be a great choice for a book club, as there are many discussion ideas.