"State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett

Many of us have wondered at one point or another what it would be like to undertake a trip in the insect-infested Amazon forest. Many of us imagine the exotic flora with a number of majestic and vividly-colored animals to be found at every turn.

However, most of us do not stop to wonder as to the psychological impact such a trip would have one us, especially considering that we would be in unknown territory with there being hundreds of things out there which can kill us.

Well, it can be said that Ann Patchett went the extra mile in her book titled State of Wonder in which Dr. Marina Singh goes on an odyssey in the Amazon on a mission to find her former mentor, Dr. Swenson.

Naturally, not all is clear with this disappearance as it happened in a crucial period during which Dr. Swenson was working on a valuable new drug. As Marina goes deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness she will not only have to deal with the immediate sacrifices she is making to achieve her goal but also with demons from her past who simply cannot let her go.

While at its core the story can described as a textbook cliché, the book goes much further than that. Apart from providing a breath-taking description of the Amazon forest, Ann Patchett also devotes many of her pages to examining Marina’s state of mind as she battles onward, into the unknown.

The contrast created by the lush scenery and the cruel challenges is especially interesting to observe. All in all, the book makes for a very enthralling read and should really be a pleasure to anyone who enjoys stories which can be classified as a character study.

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Ann Patchett Personal site Ann Patchett is a writer of American origin. She received numerous awards and accolades, the most prominent ones being the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her masterpiece, and some say her magnum opus, Bel Canto.