Flight Behavior
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This past week, my husband and I scurried off to New Mexico partially to escape the outrageous Austin heat (it hit 109 degrees…hard pass). So, when I saw Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver in our Airbnb, it felt like a must. After all, Flight Behavior is a call to action on the dangers posed by climate change thinly veiled in a fictional story. I respect Kingsolver after reading The Poisonwood Bible, so I set my packed books aside and popped this one open. On behalf of science, of course.
For fellow Kingsolver lovers, The Poisonwood Bible is better. Part of what makes that book so compelling is its multiple viewpoints (five different POVs). She’s able to make each voice distinct and worth listening to, so I became very invested in those characters. Flight Behavior is a first-person account, told from the perspective of Dellarobia, a smart, sassy woman stuck in a small Appalachian town who regrets her stuckedness and yearns for something more. Problem #1: I found it difficult to connect with her. I had empathy for her situation, but she checked a bunch of literature-trope boxes and I kept wanting to see other character’s perspectives.
Dellarobia gets the opportunity to challenge herself when a colony of monarch butterflies’ migratory patterns shift, unexpectedly landing them on her family’s sprawling property. This is where the climate change angle kicks in. The tension between climate scientists, activists, and the poverty-stricken people of her Appalachian town makes for a spicy dynamic with teachable moments. Dellarobia has been forced to live a life that focuses on putting one foot in front of the other, which (understandably) means little focus on her carbon footprint. When activists pass out pamphlets that encourage people to “fly less,” they’re missing the mark, because she hasn’t been outside of her town, much less traveled via plane.
The issue of climate change is such an absolute no-brainer, obvious problem that sometimes I can certainly get on my liberal high-horse wondering why people care more about stuff like reducing taxes and ~balancing the budget~ in the short-term when there are such disastrous, looming long-term consequences. Understanding Dellarobia’s perspective is legitimately eye-opening and placing that perspective within a fictional framework is more digestible and probably leads to more empathy. Still, reviewing the book on its own merits, I didn’t like it that much. The story was dragged out for a very long time (~450 pages) and the plot started to slog along about halfway through. I think that, while Kingsolver is a clearly talented writer, she could have done more with these characters and the storyline. Flight Behavior receives 3 out of 5 flames.
