When I heard the plot of Ann Pachett’s “State of Wonder” I thought it might be a modern retelling of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” While the concept of the book may have been inspired by Conrad’s classic novel, the two have little else in common. Dr. Marina Singh, a 42-year-old research scientist working for a pharmaceutical company in Minnesota, is sent to Brazil to bring the remains of her deceased lab mate home to his family. She’s also been sent to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. In a matter of weeks, Marina is sailing “down a river into the beating heart of nowhere” (another “Heart of Darkness reference”) until she finds Dr. Swenson living among the natives. Swenson is working on a veritable fountain of youth, a way to ensure a woman’s fertility into her seventies.
While the plot sounds intriguing, I was never fully drawn into the book. Most of the characters, including Marina Singh, never came to life for me, so their motives and actions seemed arbitrary, and sometimes downright stupid. Why would Marina Singh–a non-traveler if ever there was one, a woman whose major life decisions were all based on maintaining safety–agree to go to one of the most dangerous and terrifying places on the planet? Because her boss/lover (I never believed that relationship for a second) asked her to? Because the company wanted her to? Out of loyalty to her dead colleague? None of these answers works for me. Marina and her dead colleague’s relationship is also barely developed. She’s sad he died because she liked him and…that’s about it. For all of the pharmaceutical executives wailing about costs and delays, they are invariably meek as lambs. Dr. Swenson was the only truly interesting character. She is almost a megavillaness- strong, dispassionate, unscrupulous and expects everyone around her to conform to her almost suicidally self-denying standards. I agree with Boat Girl’s review of this book; I would have loved to see more debate about the ethics of this wonder drug.
The book cannot help being compared to “Heart of Darkness” or “The Constant Gardener” or “The Poisonwood Bible” and it comes up short. The book has an interesting concept, and soars during descriptions of the wild Amazon but ultimately it lags due to pacing and underdeveloped characters.
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