In rural Tennessee, Dellarobia Turnbow, struggles up the path of the mountain behind her home trying to run away from the responsibilities of her life-two small kids, a perfunctory marriage, and an emptiness that she can barely articulate. But at the top of the mountain, in the quiet stillness of the trees, she encounters a natural phenomenon that is so unexpected and astonishing, that she leaves that place a changed person. In the ensuing weeks and months, her startling discovery in the trees begins to draw scientists, media, tourists, religious leaders, townspeople and advocates against climate change to her doorstep, forever changing her small world, her family and even her view of herself. Dellarobia’s voice is sharp, witty and above all honest:

Something had gotten into her, yes. The arguments she always swallowed like a daily ration of pebbles had begun coming out of her mouth and leaping out like frogs. Her strange turnaround on the mountain had acted on her like some kind of shock therapy… A mighty blaze rising from ordinary forest, she had no name for that. No words to put on a tablet as Moses had when he marched down his mountain. But like Moses she’d come home rattled and impatient with the pettiness of people’s everyday affairs. (p. 34)

Seeing the world in a larger context, Dellarobia, is forced to engage with what is happening all around her and as a result her life opens up to greater and different possibilities even while she begins to understand that the “miracle” on the mountain is a harbinger of a global change at work in the world.

Some of the strongest parts of this book are conversations between Dellarobia and a scientist who comes to study the mountaintop phenomenon. As he explains what is happening and the wider implications of global warming, Dellarobia reframes what he tells her into her framework of understanding and the conversation shifts from the scientific ramifications to a conversation on how we can have these profound and difficult conversations. These conversations are striking as Dellarobia challenges him and explains why people cannot hear the message regarding climate change without going into denial, “I think people are scared to face up to a bad outcome. That’s just human. Like not going to the doctor when you’ve found a lump. If fight or flight is the choice its is way easier to fly.”(p.358)

Kingsolver tells this story with an ear for the cadences of the language and rhythms of life in small town Appalachia. The poverty that sucks ambition and keeps people small and fearful, and the lack of education that creates barriers to the larger world are all a part of the landscape that Kingsolver describes in Flight Behavior and the milieu in which Dellarobia lives as she struggles to understand what is happening on the mountaintop and to her life. As we follow Dellarobia’s struggle, we are able to confront our own blindness, our own unwillingness to be honest and like her find the courage to look squarely at our lives and what is happening to the planet we live on.

Brenda’s Rating: ****1/2 (4 1/2 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren, Keith and Ken.

Book Study Worthy: Yes!

Read in ebook format.