Nancy’s Reads & Reels: "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchet Is a Wonder, "Mao’s Last Dancer” An Overlooked Movie

After reading State of Wonder by Ann Patchett I’m in awe.  Even though Janet Maslin of the New York Times was lukewarm about this novel, I found it enchanting.

Dr. Marina Singh reluctantly travels to Brazil and down the Amazon to a jungle inhabited by various tribes to determine exactly what happened to a colleague who, after time spent with the other scientists in Brazil, never returns.

All the scientists work for a drug company, which is paying for the research in hopes of developing a fertility drug.

Patchett’s descriptions are so vivid that you almost feel you are there.  A fight with an anaconda was breathtaking. The scientists who live with the Lakashi tribe are being paid to learn why the women of the tribe are able to bear children into old age.

Ann Patchett’s other novels are: Run, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magicians Assistant, and Bell Canto.  Bell Canto is perhaps her best known but her memoir, Truth and Beauty, A Friendship, was also outstanding.

An Overlooked Movie: I watched Mao’s Last Dancer and couldn’t recall why I had ordered it from Netflix — must have been recommended.

If you are curious about how an 11-year-old peasant villager, Li Cunxin, after years of training in Beijing is brought to Texas to dance with a ballet company, you will enjoy this story. It's based on Cunxin’s autobiography.