I adore her writing. What else can I say?

“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams ( )

Animal dreams is a book about the strong bond between two sisters Codi & Halllie. When Halllie risks her life by traveling to Nicaragua during the height of its Civil War to help the poor villagers raise crops Codi goes into a downward tailspin believing her life has no meaningful purpose. And while this story is interesting enough and Codi eventually does discover a purpose in life late in the novel, she spends so much time thinking about Hallie that I couldn't help but think that a novel that focused on the life Hallie was living would have made for a much more interesting story. ( )

Sin sueños y contra las cuerdas, mientras envidia la vida comprometida que lleva su hermana Hallie ayudando a los campesinos nicaragüenses, Codi regresa a su pueblo de Arizona para enfrentarse a su pasado y a su padre enfermo. Lo que encuentra es un pueblo amenazado por una silenciosa catástrofe medioambiental, algunas sorprendentes claves sobre su propia identidad, una comunidad que la arropa y un hombre cuya visión del mundo podría cambiarle la vida. Con una combinación de flashbacks, sueños y leyendas de los indios norteamericanos, Barbara Kingsolver narra una entrañable historia llena de ternura y comprensión, una conmovedora exploración de los mayores compromisos de la vida, un convincente retrato de la compleja red de relaciones humanas a la que dan forma el tiempo, la memoria y la cultura.

Protagonist Codi Noline returns to her small hometown in Arizona, after fifteen years, to help her aging father, the town’s doctor, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Codi felt like an outsider growing up. She and her father are not close. She is hired to teach biology at the local high school and is staying with a friend. She is concerned about her younger sister, Hallie, who has relocated to Nicaragua to assist with agricultural education, at a time when the Contras are engaged in violent civil unrest.

The story is told in alternating perspectives between Codi, in first person, and her father, in third person. If you have read Kingsolver’s books before, you will find familiar territory – environmental activism, beautiful writing about nature, and a strong female protagonist with issues to overcome. In this case, the environment is being threatened by a large corporation harvesting natural resources to use in the manufacturing, while killing the microbiota in the area.

The stark beauty of the American southwestern desert is elegantly evoked, with its ancestral Puebloan dwellings and natural springs. It is a slowly developing novel that relies on many simultaneous threads, including a family secret, a love story, several environmental elements, a willingness to act on one’s beliefs, and a community coming together in a common cause. Kingsolver has crafted these components into a compelling, multi-layered story.
( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about treading this book: "Remember the book decently (young woman returning home to to AZ) and enjoyed, but left feeling little interest for reading further Kingsolver. Feeling persists to the day, although did read The Poisonwood Bible and enjoyed immensely." ( )