The Lacuna : a Novel

The Washington Post - Ron Charles ?the most mature and ambitious [novel] she's written during her celebrated 20-year career, but it's also [Kingsolver's] most demanding?a novel of capital-L Liberal ideas?workers' rights, sexual equality, artistic freedom?Nevertheless, this rich novel is certainly bigger than its politics. It resurrects several dramatic events of the early 20th century that have fallen out of public consciousness, brings alive the forgotten details of everyday life in the 1940s, and illustrates how attitudes and prejudices are shaped by political opportunism and the rapacious media. But despite this large, colorful canvas, ultimately The Lacuna is a tender story about a thoughtful man who just wanted to enjoy that basic American right: the right to be left alone.