The Lacuna fails. The vividly described imagery of the natural world, so present in her previous novels, is counterpointed with an urban landscape. It does not work. The story line is disjointed and does not flow. The dialogue is a messy stew of dialect and English and while this is meant to make the setting authentic, all it does is confuse the reader. It will be the first Kingsolver book I will not buy in hardcover. Very glad to have borrowed it from the library. Kingsolver was obviously trying something different. It is a no go for me.