Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

Book Club Review:   We had an interesting discussion about the main character in the book, Dellarobia, and her relationships with her husband and his family, who own the land and, it seems, their son!  At the start of the book, she is going to meet a young lover and is risking breaking up her family.  But she is distracted by the butterflies and the beautiful, wondrous sight of the golden clouds that they form when the sun shines on them and makes them unfold their wings.  We felt that the butterflies were probably a metaphor for Dellarobia’s development from down-trodden wife of a weak man beholden to his parents, to a strong woman emboldened by working with the researchers who come to study the changed migration pattern of the Monarchs.   We felt that the themes in the book are like life itself.  For example, Dellarobia at times just puts up with things as they are, then she compares herself as she is now to as she was as a young, unburdened woman and wants to return to that person, despite having two children in tow. When her mother-in-law talks to her meaningfully for the first time, she reveals a similar life trajectory and attitude to life as that of Dellarobia.  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for the women or accept that life just deals you the cards and you have to play the hand your given?  This led to a discussion about motherhood and the joys, or otherwise, of being at home with very young children, through to domestic violence (this doesn’t occur in the book), police response to domestic violence and women’s escape, or otherwise, from dangerous family situations.

 Book Club Verdict:  7/10.