Up front I must confess that I am a huge Ann Patchett fan, so I was predisposed to like this book. And I loved it. The more I got into it, the farther the tale took me, the deeper into the Amazon the characters went, I went with them and became more taken by this story and the writing. It is probably a dumb thing to say about someone like Patchett but I will say it anyway: what a writer. That a person can, simply with everyday words, give you goosebumps or make you cry, is an amazing feat to me.
The story starts in Minnesota and ventures into the Amazon basin. While the plot centers around Marina, a medical researcher for a pharmacology company and her search for the truth about the death of a colleague, it is more a story of what the truth looks like for each individual person. The truth and what's right. A basic story of good vs greed, I guess, although whittling it down to that is too dismissive. But Patchett does that, she makes her characters stand for something, and that something is not always good. It could be greed or selfishness or it could be honesty or self-righteousness. No one is just a person in this story, everyone carries some weight.
But in the end it is a morality tale, at least to me. The oath that doctors take says, in part, to "do no harm" and this theme comes up again and again. There are many ways to do harm, aggressively or passively, and there are many ways to prevent that harm from being done. This story skirts those issues in a non-intrusive manner and many of the characters grapple with the thin line that separates the good for a few versus the good for society.
The bottom line is that I totally enjoyed this book. As I finished it and closed the book I almost wanted to start reading it again. I will, not just yet, but it is a keeper. When I was in Texas this summer Borders Bookstore was going out of business and when I went in to see what was left, all books were 75% off sticker price. I was lucky to snag a hard copy of this book and it is one to own.
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