I hated this book. I couldn't even finish it. I started it and had so much trouble reading it that I put it down and didn't even want to pick it back up. Curious, I went to Goodreads to see what other people had said about it. Surprisingly, a lot of people loved it. A couple of people couldn't finish it, but the majority gave it good reviews. So I thought I'd give it another try. Ugh. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out its appeal!!I just Googled it and found a NPR review that made me feel...

I had the privilege of listening to Kingsolver read this aloud as well as reading the print...I love her. Her voice and her style of narration, her perfectly articulated words and sounds all captivated me instantly. Hearing V.B.'s voice as Kingsolver intended it is what made me want to just hug Violet Brown. The characters were so lovable (even though I'd never want to hang out with Harrison or Violet in real life, but Trotsky definitely).I have heard people say that this book had a political ag...

About a week before I started reading Lacuna, my friend asked me when I thought Barbara Kingsolver was going to write a gay character. Little did we know...The fascinating part of Shepherd's homosexuality, of his entire character really, is how it is revealed. Slowly, carefully, the way we had to peel away the thinest possible onion skins to put on slides in my 6th grade science class. Most of this story is told through Shepherd's journal entries, entries in which the pronoun "I" is notably lack...

I don't give a book the 5 stars without much consideration. This author's beautiful language and the things she taught me make Lacuna very special to me.I found myself in the bright and colorful world of Frida Kahlo's Mexico, and the gloomy sphere of the iron curtain and our country's disturbing consequences of McCarthyism. A real work of art that took me away from my cozy home.It's not a quick read or one you can put down without considering all the circumstances of all the main characters. Hop...

Yep, Barbara Kingsolver does it again, with a book that almost demands that you keep reading. This is the story of Harrison William Shepherd, the son of a Mexican mother, and an American father. The father is indifferent to the boy, and his mother longs for romance and adventure, so she returns to Mexico with the boy.The book is written as if it is a diary or journal of Harrison's life from his earliest memories. He details his life in Mexico, where through a series of events, he becomes the coo...

Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Mexico, Leo Trotsky, Committee on Unamerican Activities: The Lacuna is a wealth of information on these topics. But it's outstanding feature is it's narrator, Harrison Shepherd; Mexican/American, cook, sometime secretary, novelist and gay. Kingsolver's wonderful telling of his tale and those whose lives cross his path is insightful, humorous and full of pathos. I was, by turn, amused then saddened by his story; Harrison may have been a fictional character but many live...

The only disappointing thing about this book was that I finished it, and have no new Kingsolver books to look forward to. As always, her writing is exquisite. I found myself re-reading parts just to savor her use of language.The Lacuna is a novel based on real events in history--the Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and the period in the 1930's when Trotsky was exiled in Mexico. I learned a lot while enjoying a good story, not really sure where it was heading--but oh! does it come tog...

This is a book I read quite a while ago, I rated it a 4 1/2 because I didn't care for the ending.This is the story of Harrison Shepherd, parents divorced when he was young, his mother took him to Mexico. First they lived on a beautiful hacienda by the ocean where the boy was lonesome until he discovered swimming and diving in the sea. He was much draw to the deep holes, "lacunas" in the ocean and often figured out when the sea was at the right level that he could swim through some of the lacunas...

3 1/2 starsThe two sections of this book are different enough that it could almost be reviewed as two separate books. They really are THAT different.First 275 pages or so = 4 starsFinal 230 pages or so = 2 stars Kingsolver is at the peak of her descriptive powers in the first part of the book. Her bright, lively detailing of Harrison's early life in Mexico compensates for the patchiness of the narration. Add to that the real characters of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Lev (Leon) Trotsky, and it...

Is there anyone who writes with such beauty as Barbara Kingsolver? She has an ability to transform the reader from reading on a dreary porch to Isla Pixol, Mexico of the 1930s to Asheville, North Carolina of the 1940s. To transform someone from a beloved novelist to a scourge to be abhorred overnight. The Lacuna is about Harrison Shepherd, son of a Mexican woman and a US government official, who belonged to both countries, yet not to either of them. He wound up working for Diego Rivera and Frida...

The Lacuna was a sweeping and epic work of literary fiction that spans from Mexico to Washington, D.C. to Asheville, North Carolina combining history and fiction and taking place from the 1930's to the 1950's. This is the intricate tale of fictional character Harrison William Shepherd with the background of people like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, renowned Latin American artists, to Lev Trotsky and the rise of McCarthyism in the United States. There are beautiful literary and artistic reference...

Kingsolver's best book since The Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna is the story of a diffident, unassuming man who is thrust unwillingly onto the centre stage of history. Harrison Shepherd, is born in America but raised in Mexico by his half American, half Mexican mother, a woman who is temperamentally discontented with her position in society and is always seeking to improve it through a series of affairs with married men. As a youth, Harrison becomes involved with the painters Diego Rivera and Frid...

I really liked the first part (roughly half) of this book about a boy (Harrison)who is being raised by a mother who eeks out an existence by sponging off the men she manages to ensnare. The setting is 1930's Mexico. Mexican artists Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo are an integral part of the story, as is Lev Trotsky (leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and Rivera's friend and houseguest). The second half of the book completely switches gears. The setting is Asheville NC where Harrison is liv...

For some or other reason, being a staunch admirer of Barbara Kingsolver's books, I just could not connect with this one anywhere. Do I blame the author? No. We, the book and I, just did not gel and that's it.What I appreciated:1) Historical background of Mexican history going back thousands of years, and American society between 1900 and more or less 1955: brilliant with enough detail to last a lifetime.2) The characters: The protagonist as introduced by Violet Brown, his personal assistant and

This one is so close to being 5 stars. It's got the scope and ambition of The Poisonwood Bible, but with the butterfly touch of her breezier novels. Ranging from the 1930s Mexico of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and (exiled) Lev Trotsky to the 1950s America of J. Edgar Hoover, this book uses an epic backdrop to tell the story of one solitary, forgotten man. The dozen or so different formats (including journals, book reviews, letters, newspaper articles, and transcripts) are deftly handled and perfe...

Really good story. Lots of history.

The story is told as the collected journals of Harrison Shepherd, put together after his death by his secretary and friend Violet Brown. Beginning with his childhood, (just before WorldWar2), as his mexican mother leaves his american father and takes him with her back to mexico. Harrison writes his journals because he can't help but write, like other people cannot help breathing, he is destined to become an author one day.Harrison's childhood is surreally beautiful, the problems of his chain-smo...

Placed in context with Kingsolver's other books this is essentially worthless. She turns Freida Kahlo into the most magical pixie dream girl ever and gives us a main character so thoroughly desexed and generally grey that one sort of imagines him as a Ken doll, completely generic and non-threating in every possible way. And I KNOW that's sort of the point of the main character, but still, he is pretty much one of the least enjoyable protagonists I've ever read since all you do is spend time with...

The Lacuna is really two books. One, the latter, is quite engaging, with a well-written historical perspective, emotional content, a bit of action. The other is an overlong back story, very light on involvement, written as if the author was watching the events and characters from behind a cloud. Considering that the stable of characters includes Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, it takes some effort to make them dull. Barbara Kingsolver - image from OfficeOnline.comThe Lacuna is Kingsolver’s attemp...

This is quite the novel, as full and satisfying as anything I've read in some time. Its picture of Mexico in the 30's is spot on, and the characters of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Lev Trotsky feel fresh and sharp. The political correctness which bored me in Barbara Kingsolver's novels seem naive has developed--she's showing, not preaching. A wonderful read by an author who is at her best.