The Lacuna

The Lacuna

First edition
Author	Barbara Kingsolver
Language	English
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	2009
Publication place	United States
ISBN	978-0-06-085258-0
OCLC	313656952

The Lacuna is a 2009 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is Kingsolver's sixth novel, and won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Library of Virginia Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award. Kingsolver won the 2010 Women's Prize for Fiction for the novel.

Plot

The novel tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd beginning with his childhood in Mexico during the 1930s. His parents are separated so he lives back and forth between the United States with his father and Mexico with his mother. During his time in Mexico he works as a plaster mixer for the mural artist Diego Rivera then as a cook for both him and his artist wife Frida Kahlo, with whom Shepherd develops a lifelong friendship. While living with and working for them, he also begins working as a secretary for Leon Trotsky who is hiding there, exiled by Stalin, and witnesses his assassination.

He accompanies some of Kahlo's paintings to Washington DC where he witnesses the shootings of the Bonus Army. He then moves to Asheville, North Carolina, where he writes successful historical novels set in Mexico. However he is investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and after he is vilified by the press he returns to Mexico, taking his secretary, Violet Brown, with him. He disappears while swimming off the Pacific coast and is presumed dead. However Brown, the chief beneficiary of his will, later receives a letter from Kahlo hinting that he has survived, by swimming underwater along a lava tube which emerges inland in a cenote.

He had instructed Brown to burn his diaries and letterspapers, but she secretly saves them and it is these papers that form the bulk of the novel. There are gaps, or lacunae, in the story, hence the title.

Reception

According to Book Marks, the book received a "mixed" consensus, based on thirteen critic reviews: three "rave", four "positive", four "mixed", and two "pan". On The Omnivore, a British aggregator of press reviews, the book received an "omniscore" of 3.5 out of 5. Culture Critic assessed critical response as an aggregated score of 85% based on an accumulation of British and American press reviews. The book received a 75% from The Lit Review based on thirty-three critic reviews. On September/October 2010 issue of Bookmarks, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a summary saying, "However, the novel's compelling, engrossing story certainly outweighed these minor complaints, and in the end, Kingsolver has created a convincing "tableau vivant of epochs and people that time has transformed almost past recognition" (New York Times Book Review)".