Barbara Kingsolver’s 1990 novel, Animal Dreams, presents a poignant and intricate narrative centred on Cosima “Codi” Noline’s reluctant return to her diminutive, isolated hometown of Grace, Arizona. Trained as a doctor but lacking the confidence to practice, Codi arrives adrift, seeking refuge after a failed relationship and a sense of pervasive aimlessness. She ostensibly returns to care for her father, Homer, a respected local physician grappling with the progressive stages of Alzheimer’s disease, though their relationship is marked by years of emotional distance and unspoken complexities.
Set against the starkly beautiful backdrop of the Arizona desert, the narrative unfolds primarily through Codi’s first-person perspective, charting her journey from profound alienation towards a gradual, tentative integration into the community she fled years prior. Taking up a position as a high school biology teacher, Codi initially feels disconnected from both her students and the subject matter, mirroring her broader estrangement from her own past and sense of self. Grace, however, proves to be a crucible for Codi. She reconnects with her childhood friend, Emelina Domingos, now a mother deeply rooted in the town’s life, offering Codi a glimpse into the stability she lacks. More significantly, she begins a relationship with Loyd Peregrina, a Native American man of Apache heritage with whom she shares a complicated history. Loyd embodies a deep, intuitive connection to the land, its history, and its creatures, representing a worldview starkly contrasting Codi’s detached, scientific rationality. His quiet wisdom and grounding presence become instrumental in Codi’s transformation.
A parallel narrative thread runs through the novel via letters from Codi’s younger sister, Hallie. An ardent activist, Hallie works with agricultural communities in Nicaragua during the tumultuous period of the Contra War. Her passionate engagement with political struggle and her unwavering commitment to social justice serve as both an inspiration and a reproach to Codi’s perceived passivity and indecision. Hallie’s voice, filled with purpose, underscores the themes of activism and global interconnectedness, while her eventual capture by the Contras and presumed death precipitate a crisis point for Codi, forcing her to confront profound loss and the nature of commitment.
The town of Grace itself faces an existential threat from the Black Mountain Mining Company, whose operations have poisoned the local river with pollutants, endangering the orchards that form the basis of the town’s agricultural economy and identity. This environmental crisis galvanizes the community, particularly the elder women, affectionately known as the “Stitch and Bitch Club.” Initially dismissive, Codi finds herself drawn into their efforts to investigate the pollution and challenge the mining company. Her involvement marks a significant shift, moving her from observer to participant and compelling her to utilize her scientific knowledge for the community’s benefit. This struggle highlights themes of environmental justice, corporate exploitation, grassroots activism, and the resilience of community bonds, particularly foregrounding the agency of women in safeguarding their heritage and environment.
Integral to Codi’s journey is the unravelling of deeply buried family secrets. Through her father’s fragmented memories and her own investigations, Codi discovers the truth about her mother’s death and, more shockingly, that she and Hallie were adopted. This revelation fundamentally reshapes Codi’s understanding of her identity, her parentage, and her connection to Grace, forcing her to reconstruct her personal history and her place within it. The theme of memory – its fallibility, its persistence, and its power to shape the present – is central, explored through Homer’s Alzheimer’s, Codi’s fragmented recollections, and the collective memory held by the Grace community.
The narrative structure, alternating between Codi’s introspective narration, Homer’s third-person perspective filtered through his declining cognitive state, and Hallie’s letters, creates a polyphonic exploration of differing realities, commitments, and ways of knowing. The title, Animal Dreams, evokes multiple resonances: the literal dreams Codi experiences, Loyd’s connection with animals (particularly his peacocks), the instinctive aspects of human behaviour, and the deep, perhaps pre-rational, ties to place and kin that Codi ultimately rediscovers.
In the end, Animal Dreams traces Codi’s profound transformation. She confronts the ghosts of her past, accepts the ambiguities of her family history, finds love and belonging with Loyd, and embraces her role within the Grace community. The novel concludes not with simple resolution, but with Codi’s commitment to stay in Grace, accepting its vulnerabilities and her own, finding purpose not in grand gestures like her sister’s, but in the vital, ongoing work of sustaining community, preserving heritage, and tending to the interconnected web of human and natural life. It stands as a significant work exploring themes of identity formation, the complexities of family, environmental consciousness, the power of community, the nature of activism, and the enduring search for a place to call home, rendered through Kingsolver’s characteristic blend of lyrical prose, ecological awareness, and deep empathy for her characters.
Literary Latitude 