Author Ann Patchett channels darkness in 'State of Wonder'

By Jocelyn Mcclurg, USA TODAY

In its best moments, Ann Patchett's new novel, State of Wonder (** 1/2), is an entertaining beach read masquerading as serious fiction.

Call it Heart of Darkness-lite, as Patchett updates Joseph Conrad's 1902 classic about the evils of colonialism in the Congo for the 21st century.

State of Wonder veers between silliness and brilliance, mixing lowbrow cinematic moments (think Avatar) with highbrow literary aspirations.

Quick refresher course: In Heart of Darkness, the seafarer Marlow recounts his tortuous journey up river to find the ivory trader Kurtz, who has infamously "gone native." Who can forget such classic lines as "the horror! the horror!" and "Mistah Kurtz ? he dead"?

Patchett has certainly studied her Conrad. In Wonder, the part of Marlow is played by a woman, Marina Singh (it's 2011!), and Kurtz, too, has been transposed to a female role (Dr. Swenson).

Title: State of Wonder (Harper, 353 pp., $26.99)

Author: Ann Patchett

In chilly Minnesota, the news arrives at Vogel Pharmaceutical that researcher Anders Eckman is dead, felled by a fever in the jungles of Brazil.

Vogel's CEO dispatches Marina, Anders' friend and fellow researcher, to complete Anders' mission: to find the rogue Annick Swenson and goose her to deliver a promised fertility drug. Swenson has discovered that women in the jungle's Lakashi tribe can have babies well into their 70s.

Adding to the intrigue: Dr. Swenson was once Marina's terrifying teacher at Johns Hopkins and holds the key to why the wimpy Marina quit her gynecology residency.

It takes Patchett almost half the novel to get Marina into the jungle. Annoying distractions like lost luggage and bad dreams hold up the action.

The impatient reader should stick with it, because once Marina's dangerous journey into the Amazon begins, the novel becomes feverishly exciting and surprising. Hold on tight and forget old Conrad ? now it feels like James Cameron is at the controls of this riverboat, full throttle.

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