Tig is her brother’s antithesis–while he pursues money and traditional success, Tig sees such pursuits as futile in the rapidly changing world they (and we) inhabit. Willa and Tig do the lion’s share of caring for the baby, a helpless being whose uncertain future resonates across all of Kingsolver’s characters.

Zeke is saddled by crippling debt thanks to his fancy education and has a baby of his own in tow after the suicide of his girlfriend. Willa’s two children, Tig and Zeke, are also living with them. Willa and her husband have assumed the role of caregiver, but lack the financial resources or health insurance to provide for him.

Willa’s father-in-law lives with them and is in the process of dying. This is furthered by the idea of shelter as provided by a parent. Willa and her family live in a world in which things that are supposed to be steady and reliable have begun to break apart, leaving them feeling exposed and unsure. There’s the literal idea of shelter as provided by a home, but also the shelter of careers, stability, and institutions. Right there we arrive at one of Kingsolver’s central themes, and how she approaches the idea of shelter from several different directions. Her husband, a professor, lost his tenured position when the college he worked for also closed, and he has been forced to take a humiliating position (given his academic credentials) just to earn some money, relocating his family to Vineland, New Jersey, and into an inherited home that is literally falling apart around them. Willa has been a successful journalist until she recently lost her job due to the closure of the magazine she worked for, and she has been unable to get a freelance career off the ground as yet. The novel has two storylines, the primary of which follows Willa Knox in the near-present (it takes place not long after Hurricane Sandy). It doesn’t feel that she’s trying to say one side is right or wrong, just that she’s laying out both sides so the reader can pick them up and think about them. It should feel preachy but it doesn’t–which is probably helped by how even-handed Kingsolver is on these issues. This feat is pulled off particularly well in Unsheltered, which has many scenes in which characters either reflect on the state of the world (and how it has not lived up to their expectations) or debate sides of a political/economic/societal issue. What is great about her work is that for the most part, you never feel like you are being beaten over the head with her themes or that you are being scolded. Barbara Kingsolver’s novels have always been socially conscious, going all the way back to her very first book, The Bean Trees–in which a young woman leaves rural Kentucky to pursue her dreams only to unexpectedly find herself caring for a Native American child in Arizona.

Unsheltered barbara kingsolver review