Audio Book Review - State Of Wonder by Ann Patchett

How did I come into possession of this book?

My mom gave me this audio book since she knows I listen to audio books on my way to and from work.  I had never read anything by Ann Patchett, but I’m happy I finally did.

First Lines:

“The news of Anders Eckman's death came by way of Aerogram, a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both stationary and, when folded over and sealed along the edges, the envelope”  (Patchett 1)

What is it about?

This book follows a research scientist as she travels to South America to find another researcher who has lost touch with the company they both work for and find out about the mysterious death of another of their co-workers.  Marina, or Dr. Singh as she is called through most of the book, is sent on a whirlwind adventure trying to figure out what exactly is going on with the research and why there aren’t any details about the death of their other co-worker.

What did I think?

I now know why Ann Patchett is such a popular author, her writing was fantastic.  This a bit of an odd story with some really weird twists and turns, but I was thoroughly interested the whole time.  Some of this credit should be to the narrator since I listened to it on audio, but I think it is also very well written.  I had no clue how to feel about the main character Marina, she just seemed to always try too hard to be everything everyone wanted her to be.  Yes, she was driven but really had no direction.  I’m not sure I could pin point any of the characters that I actually liked expect maybe the little boy, but somehow I was very involved with the story the whole time.

Who would I recommend it to?

I can’t think of many people who I wouldn’t recommend this to, especially the audio version.  I guess if you don’t like stories about women or traveling this might not be for you.  Also, like I said it takes some weird turns, so its not exactly straight forward but I think that’s one of the things that makes it so great!

Check out other reviews on this book from fellow bloggers:

The Book Frog
Bookish

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