Are you a woman, a liberal, a cynical idealist, a little confused about your purpose in life? Then you'll love this book.

My mother forced this book on me several years ago. After many months of whining and pushing on her part, I broke down and decided to read it with little joy. I was anticipating yet another piece of psychobabble schlock -- my mother's favorite form of "literature." What I found was a powerful story about family, miscommunication, mistakes, and redemption. Yes, the setting is a little dated, but the way father and daughter hurt and misunderstand each other is timeless. This book introduced me to Kingsolver and an entire world of her characters. It is an emotionally difficult read, but well worth it.

This is what I would call a character book, as distinguished from a strongly plot-driven book. The whole point of the book is the character growth and the emotions which accompany it. The characters are imperfect and complex, characters we can relate to rather than cookie-cutter characters who exist only to act out a plot. Reading this book is an emotional experience. I laughed and I cried, sometimes at the same time. After reading some of the other reviews, I have a hunch that younger readers may not appreciate the book because they simply can't relate to experiences common later in life (death of loved ones, ailing parents, rediscovering yourself, a desire to find your roots, etc.)

WORST BOOK EVER! Kingslover destroyes and dismisses all of the characteristics that create a decent novel. This book is devoid of any plot or driving force for the main character to face. Kingslover has the uncanny ability to spend hundreds of pages, for a main character to dream and wish of a past that she clearly never had and cannot reclaim. As pointed out by a friend of mine during Senior English (the year myself and others were forced to read this atrocity), all of the lessons that one could possible come away with from this book are present in the Disney film, The Lion King. "Remember who you are", and remaining true to your past, all of which are present in a kid's movie. I would reccomend this book for anyone who enjoys, reading about horny Native Americans, and 300 pages of liberal dribble so humanity shan't forget the electrical engineer who died in Latin America. To quote Comic Book Guy "WORST BOOK EVER!"

Animal Dreams was a phenomenal read! I personally enjoyed the intricately woven plot, and variety of unique characters. The essence of the novel is the narrator, Codi Noline's, struggle to find identity. The characters that fill this book drift in and out of the chapters, but each leaves a meaningful impression. Grace, Arizona, is Codi's home town. Grace is diverse in terms of people, genetics, and history; it's as if the town has a personality of its own. Codi abandons Grace after high school and then returns at the start of the novel, to aid her ailing father Doc Homer. Animal Dreams is highly recommended for those who enjoy empathizing with a rather confused narrator. It is a story of `returning to the nest' to find the necessary roots to hold one's self down.
Codi Noline's character is a lost young woman. While she encounters obstacles she gradually discovers who she is and what makes her authentic self. She realizes when separating from Grace that she leaves behind a great part of who she is. Hallie Noline is Codi's close sister who is the only person Codi lets in and trusts. Hallie moves to Nicaragua, a country in dire need of help. Codi and Hallie's father, Doc Homer, hasn't been the same since his wife's death; after Hallie was born. He has a tremendous love for the girls, but does not have the capacity to show it. Another important man in Codi's life is Lloyd Peregina. Lloyd was Codi's high school flame that re-enters her life, triggering both fond and eerie memories. The novel, Animal Dreams, is filled with passion and suspense. I highly recommend this beautiful story of an individual's life from the stages of childhood memories through adulthood discovery.

This is Kingsolver's second novel and its as good as Bean Trees. Also set in the southwest (this time Grace, Arizona), Animal Dreams revolves around Codi Noline who returns to her hometown to care for her father, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She is content with being alone because throughout her life she has consistently felt let down- first by the lack of attention by her father, by her failure to become a doctor, and lastly her pathetic personal life. Returning home though brings back her past which she has blocked many memories of, and the resurgence of an ex lover who wants to make amends by loving her right. While at home, Codi faces a lot of unanswered questions including the death of her mother, the disappearance of her sister, and the reasons behind her father's disguising (or simply ignoring the truths). Her father, a once non-emotional, inflexible family doctor must also try and remain the composure he has always held, yet his thoughts and mind race and spill out opening secrets that Codi has always wanted to find out.
What makes this book exceptional is that Kingsolver writes honestly, and doesnt have flowery descriptions or paints her characters as immoral or saintly. They are vulnerable, likeable, and faulty. She builds her characters to become stronger, and considers miscommunication a cancer which if not taken care of will spread and cause trouble for years. Kingsolver also has a way of writing about the southwest that makes it come alive. Codi's heritage is American Indian as well as her lover's, and we learn more about their teachings, practices, traditions, and spiritual beliefs. Kingsolver paints a good description of the importance the American Indian way of life.
If this book appeals to you, then Bean Trees may also be a good choice for your second novel. Kingsolver will not disappoint you, she is an excellent and realistic writer.

I enjoy Kinsolver's descriptions of Arizona but the main character, Condi, just kept on getting the in the way of the scenery. I never grew to care about her past or her tough life or her inability to fit in. She spends the entire book wining and feeling sorry for herself when much of her trouble is of her own making!

Animal Dreams felt like anything but a dream to me. The emotion within the pages of the book felt real. The characters are the invitation to read. Though I can admit to not liking Cosima (Codi) for the first hundred pages or so, I warmed to her as she found herself.

Codi moves to Grace to care for her ailing father. The story is told in the first person (from Codi's perspective) with the exception of her father's chapters, which are told in the third person. They reveal the insight of a father - careful to not love to love his daughters to outwardly.

Codi grew up in the Gracela Canyon in the town of Grace. The town itself is an orchard in the middle of the Desert Mountains outside of Tuscon. The town reveals itself slowly, as a new friend does.

Codi is reunited with visions of her past. There is Loyd, a native man she dated as a teenager. He is the soul of this book. He teaches Codi love in the most beautiful way. He teaches her about the land. There are the students of the school (that she once went to) who with the rest of the people in the town, give her the acceptance in life she had always desired. The Stitch and Bitch club provides her with the warmth of a mothers love. (Her own mother died when Codi was just three).

And there is the Codi's sister Hallie. Hallie is the sort of literary character most destined to break your heart. She was what all people should strive to be - driven, caring, selfless.
The innocence of the bond between sisters tugged at my heart as I read about her.

This book was good, but not great. Barbara Kingsolver quoted herself too often, repeating words she had already wrote. It was as if she didn't trust the reader to remember which points were obviously important to the story.

On a side note...

She uses a piece of imagery I first read in a Steinbeck novel. "She'd watched a man sell shrimp from a bucket that was counterweighted with a plastic jug of drinking water. He drank as he went along, to keep the load balanced. The purity of direct necessity."

As I began this book I was a little restless as I was not really "into" the central character, Cosima. The more I read, the better it got. Kingsolver has a beautiful way of bringing about change. In this case the change is a 180 for Cosima. By the time I finished reading I was ready for it to go on and on.

In this compelling novel, the characters' relationships predominate--sisters, and lovers, and father/daughters will all relate to Kingsolver's creations. After a few years pass, often I only remember my gut reaction to a book, no matter how much I enjoyed it. Even after so much time, I remember these characters by name, and I remember the plot. It's a memorable read, most enjoyable in the summer!

I am a late-comer to Kingsolver, despite years of friends urging me to read her. So when I began, I went backwards, from her newest to "Animal Dreams," one of her first and most brilliant works.

How can I describe the way Kingsolver writes? She has a way of putting together simple words in ways not thought of before, and the result is a kind of poetry--a lyrical, deceptively simple way of sharing deep truths--that simply is one of a kind.

Most of her books are similar: Disaffected woman seeks meaning of life in the simplicity of a forest, a small town, travels through the Southwest, or whatever. This book is no different, but seems so original, so distinct. It's the story of Codi Noline, who returns to her hometown of Grace, AZ, to care for her ailing father, recently diagnosed with Alzheimers. Codi has left behind a half-hearted relationship, a go-nowhere minimum wage job (despite the fact that she has all but completed her medical degree) and a go-nowhere life.

Now she returns to memories, dreamed or otherwise, that almost overwhelm her with their vividness. Deeply missing her cherished sister Hallie, Codi tries to find some sort of center--all the time desperately wanting to run away. The ending, like all of Kingsolver's books, is so true, so satisfying, so real that the reader just has to weep.

Along the way are Kingsolver's deeply held views on the environment, the sanctity of the earth, the beauty of the Native American culture--all woven into the story but never subtle. It's part of who she is, and she is indeed one of a kind. A gem.

Currently I am reading this book in my English class. Everyone pretty much hated this book saying it was too hard but seriously, I really liked it. So just because someone you know says this book stinks like french cheese, you should try it anyways because different people love it and others hate it. In my opinion this book is more for girls than guys.

This is a beautifully written story about a young, single (and emotionally isolated, by choice) woman, Codi Noline. The story takes place in the magical Southwest, in a Spanish speaking community in southern New Mexico. Kingsolver's writing about the land in the Southwest reminded me of the draw - the pull - that this part of the country has on many people. Throughout the story, Codi learns to trust her memories, her heritage, her emotions, but most importantly, the relatiionships in her life. Her sister Hallie, although not physically with her in the story, is a significant part of Codi's maturing process.
Topics that the story deals with: pregnancy, miscarriage, Native American heritage, Nicaragua and US politics, sisters, how plants & humans interact, how animals & humans interact, mines, aquatic life, sex.
A beautifully woven story - you'll love it!

Kingsolver has really outdone herself this time! She has indeed created for her readers a book bursting with flashbacks, dreams, and half-remembered images that lay before you the course of the story. It is even enhanced along the way by letter-format correspondances from the main character's sister, Hallie. The main character in Animal Dreams is a young woman named Codi on a quest for her true home. Among literary fanatics, this is what is known as a "coming of age" story. She IS on a quest, although she doesn't realize it; although she actually stays put in one little town after all her years of tromping all over the country (or rather, all over the world). And throughout her quest, Codi (who narrates her own tale) pulls us along on her pyschological travels, along the rough road she follows, with all its dips and turns and steep inclines.

You know you've got the work of a superior writer in your hands when you're reading and you are suddenly depressed in the midst of a depressing scene, or elated at the onset of a joyous occasion. Yes, Barbara Kingsolver is certainly a literary mastermind. Her descriptions sometimes boarder on being "Steinbeck-ish", but when you're talking about fiery Southwestern sunsets and gorgeous desert mountains, then elaboration like that gets a thumbs up from enthralled readers (readers like me, anyway).

I would recommend Animal Dreams to no one under say, 13. Only because someone younger than that might not understand it (it does have a rather complicated plot), and there are a few, let's say, VERY romantic scenes. Another really great thing about Animal Dreams is that it highlights several really important morals of society: Big corporation's pollution of small-town rivers, refugee rights (i.e. Nicaraguan rebels vs. U.S. contras), Teen Pregnancy, and even high school apathy. So if you ask if there's anything more to learn from Animal Dreams than new vocabulary, yes! Kingsolver throws a bunch of social justice and relationship based struggles at you. Justice fought for in one's own mind, justice fought politically: group against group, and justice fought for the environment. Barbara Kingsolver is the kind of author that does not hesitate to promote justice of all kinds!

Animal Dreams is an engaging novel. Not quite the type that'll have you on the edge of your seat, but I'll attest to the fact that it certainly does keep you reading on: eyes consuming page by page, while your mind looks to coming chapters and wonders: what could happen next?

This is a book to savor. Animal Dreams was the second Kingsolver book I read -- the first being the Bean Trees -- and it was so good that I forced myself to only read one chapter per day so I could enjoy it for a greater length of time. Kingsolver is so adept at getting inside the heads of her characters that you feel you know them like family. I miss Codi and Loyd very much.

There are many kinds of love. Codi Noline, who can barely remember her girlhood in tiny Grace, Arizona, allows herself to feel one kind only. She and younger sister Hallie have been inseparable since their mother's death, three decades ago when Hallie was a newborn baby and Codi a three-year-old. But now agricultural specialist Hallie decides to drive herself to Nicaragua, to help the people there with their crops - just as Grace's only physician, "Doc Homer" Noline, reaches a stage of Alzheimer's at which it's obvious someone must go home and keep an eye on him.

So Codi, who finished medical school but discovered during residency that she wasn't cut out to follow in her father's footsteps, leaves her job clerking in a 7-11 and her liaison with a man about whom she has no strong feelings to hold her. She takes a one-year job teaching science at the local high school, and re-connects with her girlhood best friend (who rents Codi a small house next to her own family). Codi never felt at home in Grace before, and she feels totally alien to it now. But staying aloof, maintaining the emotional distance on which she depends for her sense of safety, doesn't work in this place where people she fails to remember insist on recognizing and acknowledging her. Memories she can barely touch pique her curiosity, and so does the slow death of Grace's great treasure, its magnificent orchards. Slowly, the woman who needs no one and doesn't want that to change finds herself connecting with those around her anyway.

Family. Community. The environment. The author's usual themes are all here, along with - to my surprise - one of the most touching yet realistic romantic love stories I've ever read. "Animal Dreams" is Kingsolver at her best!