Unsheltered

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Kingsolver, Barbara, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Kingsolver, Barbara
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

How could two hardworking people do everything right in life, a woman asks, and end up destitute? Willa Knox and her husband followed all the rules as responsible parents and professionals, and have nothing to show for it but debts and an inherited brick house that is falling apart. The magazine where Willa worked has folded; the college where her husband had tenure has closed. Their dubious shelter is also the only option for a disabled father-in-law and an exasperating, free-spirited daughter. When the family's one success story, an Ivy-educated son, is uprooted by tragedy he seems likely to join them, with dark complications of his own. In another time, a troubled husband and public servant asks, How can a man tell the truth, and be reviled for it? A science teacher with a passion for honest investigation, Thatcher Greenwood finds himself under siege: his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting work just published by Charles Darwin. His young bride and social-climbing mother-in-law bristle at the risk of scandal, and dismiss his worries that their elegant house is unsound. In a village ostensibly founded as a benevolent Utopia, Thatcher wants only to honor his duties, but his friendships with a woman scientist and a renegade newspaper editor threaten to draw him into a vendetta with the town's powerful men. Unsheltered is the compulsively readable story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum in Vineland, New Jersey, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their tantalizing canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future.-- Publisher's description.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Nicely written submitted by sara on June 17, 2019, 11:24am Except for the weak ending, I enjoyed many things about this book. From the ruffled-edged paper to the literary touches such as heading a chapter with the last phrase of the previous chapter. It both flowed and jarred as you were thrust bank and forth into different centuries. There were several Jane Austen-esque statements such as: Here was the sort of woman who could recognize an occasion when further words are useless, and still say none. And, The runaway calamities of marriage could never be explained to a singleman. Shouldn't be, for the good of the species.

UHG submitted by johnbiancke on July 7, 2019, 9:09pm Tedious

I loved every bit of it submitted by AnahSoble on March 15, 2021, 12:44pm I finished it yesterday and it was really good! I loved learning about real historical figure Mary Treat, I felt that the families depicted in both time periods were highly relate-able and dealing with the political turmoil and division of their times, and I always love Barbara Kingsolver's beautiful imagery heavy writing. What's not to love?

A good read submitted by lizgiessner on August 15, 2023, 5:51pm Kingsolver is obviously a talented writer, and this story (2 separate ones actually) has interesting characters and settings as well as some actual history. I enjoyed it but it was not as good as my favorite Kingsolver novel: "The Poisonwood Bible".