“State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett. Harper Collins. 368 pages. $27.
By Adera Causey
The Amazon River weaves an intricate path into unrecorded cultures. Ann Patchett takes us on a mystical, magical journey to one of these cultures and gives us a glimpse into a “State of Wonder.”
The Nashville-based writer has won accolades for the breadth of her topics and ingenuity presenting a multiplicity of rich characters and viewpoints. In this latest novel, her skills are as dazzling as ever as she turns her sights to a pharmaceutical race to fortune that serves as mere window dressing to a more far-reaching plot.
Marina Singh, a failed physician turned pharmacologist, lives a controlled life doing cellular research for the Minnesota-based pharmaceutical company, Vogel, with only an emotionally distanced affair with her boss, Mr. Fox, and a gripping stream of nightmares from her past to distract her from her structured life.