Ann Patchett keeps on adding new things to fiction in each tale; there is no sense of urgency in the novels almost all of them move on in a rather calm perspective. Though the book takes us to the Amazon jungle and the characters are in an extremely tense situation all the time but still the rush of a thriller lacks in the book. It is perhaps the idea of the writer to keep you in a less tense mood when there is a tense scenario in the novel.
The stories never make a fuss in your mind for example the researcher Dr. Marina Singh is highly occupied by thoughts when she is told that her mentor has gone missing. Still she does not make any hue and cry instead she starts the search in the Amazon with a rational approach. Dr. Annick Swenson her mentor disappeared while he was searching for a wonder drug in the forest that is full of deadly insects.
Not only Swenson disappeared without a trace but the one looking for him also died in a mishap. That’s why the company sends Marina on the job that has devils of her own to tame.
The darkness terrorizes us the more Marina goes deeper into the forest and the root of the matter. It is something we never imagined that Ann would write when she presented Bel Canto and impressed us by the music that the book contained. So it is a nice experiment from the writer’s side as well depicted well by Hope Davis who uses a sole tone till the end but that does have a negative impact of any sort.
