State of Wonder

Marina arrives in Brazil, her point of entry into the Amazon River Basin, where she hopes to find Dr. Swenson’s secret research station and to discover the truth about Anders’ death. After passing through customs, Marina discovers that they have misplaced her luggage, which includes the special phone that Mr. Fox gave her. Heading to the airport lobby, she is met by a Vogel employee, Milton, a smart and savvy Brazilian man hired to serve as her guide and interpreter in the dangerous urban landscape of Manaus.

Milton drives Marina through the pot-holed and labyrinthine streets of Manaus to a store run by Rodrigo, Milton’s brother-in-law, where Vogel keeps a corporate account. Arriving at the store, Milton introduces Marina to Rodrigo, and serves as her translator, revealing that Dr. Swenson, “is an excellent customer” (72); the store serves as the chief outfitter and supplier for her Amazon station. Pressing Rodrigo for further intelligence about Dr. Swenson, Marina learns that Dr. Swenson visits Manaus infrequently, and her arrival is never announced. She also discovers that it has been nearly a month since Dr. Swenson was last seen in the city. Inquiring further about the best way to track down Dr. Swenson’s whereabouts, Milton suggests she find the Bovenders, a young expat couple who live in Dr. Swenson’s city apartment, and look after her affairs in her absence.

After buying necessary supplies at Rodrigo’s store, Milton takes Marina to the Hotel Indira, the shabby hotel where she will stay during her time in the city. She calls Mr. Fox, informing him that she has misplaced her luggage and the phone he gave her, making frequent communication extremely difficult. Exhausted, she falls asleep while still on the phone.

The next day, Marina explores Manaus, a city centered on shipping and tourism because of its location at the entry point into the vast Amazon Basin. Because the entire city borders the Amazon River, it is a fairly easy place to navigate. During her wanderings, she is struck by the dense riverboat traffic, the milky and murky waters of the Amazon itself, the overwhelming heat and humidity of the equatorial cityscape, the daily torrential rains, and the pervasive smell of rotting meat. Still without her luggage, Marina enlists the hotel staff to help her track down the Bovenders, who may be her best bet for finding Dr. Swenson.

Seeking refuge from the rains back at the hotel one afternoon, Marina reads an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that offers a historical overview of the research conducted on the Lakashi tribe’s reproductive capacity. She remembers how Anders used to remind her that the Lakashi were a remote Brazilian tribe whose women were able “to give birth to healthy infants well into their seventies” (79). Reading the article, she learns that this uncanny reproductive trait is the only thing that distinguishes the Lakashi from the neighboring tribes. She also learns that Dr. Swenson has been studying and working with the Lakashi for 35 years, which would include the period she was teaching a full load at Johns Hopkins. Marina speculates that she had been making trips from Baltimore to Manaus on weekends, vacations, and breaks, managing both her research and her teaching with her “relentless energy,” the same energy that made her a feared and demanding mentor to her students.

Later, Marina does a Google search of Dr. Swenson, resulting mostly in links to the New England Journal article and tedious complaints posted by former students about her “unfairly difficult” courses. The only intriguing link is to another doctor, the famous Harvard ethnobotanist Dr. Rapp, the first scientist to make contact with the Lakashi tribe as early as 1960. She discovers a picture of Dr. Rapp towering over the Lakashi natives who stand on either side of him; they are all holding mushrooms. Hoping for clues about the Lakashi's and Dr. Swenson’s location, the most specific information she can find is that they are in the “central Amazon basin” (80).

After her unfruitful search, Marina has a tense and unsettling conversation with Mr. Fox, who initially pesters her about the lost luggage and insists that he will buy her a new phone. Marina interrupts him and asks Mr. Fox to reveal the secret to the Lakashi's miraculous reproductive capabilities. While he initially evades her probing questions, claiming “confidentiality” (82) and that it “has nothing to do with [her]” (82), Marina presses him further, reminding him that she has journeyed all the way to Brazil, and she needs to know why this trip is so important. Mr. Fox eventually discloses the fact that the station researchers have traced the source of the fertility to a special tree bark that the women chew while it is “still on the tree” (83).  

Finishing the call, Marina heads back out into the city, buying a white heron carving from a young boy at the market square. Looking around, Marina realizes how well she blends in with the locals, who have dark skin like her. She thinks about Anders, whose height, Nordic looks, and blue-eyes must have made him stand out, and attract a lot of attention from the locals. She remembers how pale his skin was, and how easily it would burn without sunblock, and she wonders how Vogel ever could have sent him to the jungle.

Returning to Rodrigo’s store, Marina encounters the Bovenders for the first time. They are much younger and more attractive than she expected, with a slight accent that she thinks is Australian. Barbara, who claims to be a writer, is tall, thin, tanned, blonde-haired and fashionably dressed with a gold chain around her ankle. Her husband, Jackie, a pro-surfer, is brown haired with a face that is “nearly too pretty” (85). He has a tattoo that wraps around his ankle and is dressed in a t-shirt and baggy shorts. Marina introduces herself to the couple, inquires whether they got the letter she left for them, and learns that the Bovenders have a rather casual relationship with their mail. Most of the mail simply goes into a box that Dr. Swenson sometimes picks up “when she comes to town” (87).

The conversation shifts suddenly to Anders, whom the Bovenders met during his time in Brazil. Barbara speaks about the couples’ devotion to Dr. Swenson and about their admiration for the seriousness and importance of her work. They see themselves as Dr. Swenson’s protectors, shielding her “from the press” (89), “from other doctors” (89), “from other drug companies trying to steal her work” (89) and from Vogel, who Barbara calls “the worst” of them all (89). Barbara refers to Anders as “a huge distraction” (89) during his visit to Brazil, hanging around, following them, and always asking questions. When Barbara suggests that Anders is probably still out there being a nuisance, an indignant Marina reveals that Anders is in fact dead, and that she has come on behalf of his widow, Karen, to learn the details of his death. All the blood drains from Barbara’s face and the Bovenders and Milton express their sincere sympathy for Anders’ untimely death. After collecting her supplies, Marina leaves the store, certain that, “in her rush to be unpleasant” (91), she has probably alienated the Bovenders and broken the only thread that could lead her to Dr. Swenson.

A week after she first meets them, the Bovenders invite Marina to the beach at Ponta Negra. While Milton warns her that they need to leave no later than 6 am to avoid the unbearable afternoon heat, the laid-back Bovenders refuse to rise before 9am. Milton and Marina arrive at 9, but the Bovenders keep them waiting over an hour.

On the drive to the beach, Jackie complains of chronic carsickness and the narrative recaps their conversation the night before. The Bovenders had contacted Marina, offering a list of all the must-see places in Manaus, and wanting to know more about Anders. Marina agrees to meet them for dinner, where she reveals the letter that Dr. Swenson had written informing Mr. Fox of Anders’ death. The Bovenders visibly react at the mention of Mr. Fox, asking Marina: “Is he awful?” While Marina responds with a neutral “no,” her recent conversations with him have caused her to question his true character.

While the Bovenders express sympathy for Marina’s loss, they continue to defend Dr. Swenson, rejecting any suggestion that she could bear any responsibility for Anders’ death. “She’s very focused,” they assert, “she has to be.” When Marina insists that she never suspected Dr. Swenson was at fault, the couple relax, and Barbara, still unaware of the depth of Marina’s personal history with Dr. Swenson launches into a monologue extolling Dr. Swenson’s virtues: “She is a force of nature” (96), “her work is so thrilling” (96), and most importantly, she is a woman who “sees the world without its limitations” (96).

Marina, long ago disillusioned by her own experience with Dr. Swenson, quickly shifts the topic back to Mr. Fox, attempting to discern the reason for the Bovenders’ open hostility towards him. Barbara reveals that Mr. Fox “bothers her” (97), writing her letters, calling her, “asking her what she’s doing” (97), and being generally intrusive. Marina reminds them that Vogel, Mr. Fox’s company, is funding her research, her apartment, this dinner and everything they enjoy, and that Mr. Fox, is ultimately responsible for getting a return on his company’s substantial investment. Barbara, however, dismisses this notion of the patron’s responsibility and asks, “Is the person who commissions Van Gogh responsible for the painting?” Barbara’s question reminds Marina of the sort of philosophy she would have entertained in her early 20s, and the question signals an insurmountable generational and experiential divide between the two women.

The narrative then flashes forward again to the beach at Rio Negra, where Marina begins to wilt in the oppressive heat of the late morning; she seeks shelter and shade under an umbrella that Milton, ever resourceful, has set up. In sharp contrast, the Bovenders seem oblivious to the extreme heat, and are eager exhibitionists, showing off their nearly nude and perfect bodies for all to see. . The whole scene makes Marina and Milton feel like parents, watching their children at play.

Marina’s rising internal temperature mirrors her growing impatience over the Bovenders’ delay tactics, who are clearly the gatekeepers controlling access to Dr. Swenson, a perception that Milton confirms. Just when the heat seems unbearable, Milton guides Marina into the murky water of the Amazon River. While the water is a welcome relief from the heat, Marina is afraid of what lies hidden beneath the surface.

Later, back at the Hotel Indira, Marina checks the new cell phone Mr. Fox has sent her for messages, and takes a nap haunted by the recurring nightmare of her father. Barbara Bovender calls her, checking to see how she is recovering from the heat, and invites her for a drink that evening at the apartment they keep for Dr. Swenson.

Marina is astonished by the elegance of the lavish, high-ceilinged apartment, with its breezy balcony overlooking the river, and walls decorated with Paul Klee paintings; it is far more glamorous than anything else she has seen in Manaus. She is stunned by the views and astounded by the notion that such an opulent apartment could be set amidst such a gritty and squalid city like Manaus. As the Bovenders remind Marina, however, Manaus was once one of the wealthiest cities in the world until the rubber barons no longer made money from boiling the rubber from the trees. After that, the city began its long slide into decay, but the apartment is a reminder of that rich and decadent history.

Marina enjoys a drink while the Bovenders share a joint, and Marina begins to inquire about the nature of their work for Dr. Swenson. She is shocked to find that they don’t really take care of her mail other than to store it for her in a box, nor do they handle any of her bills, which are all paid for by Vogel. When they show her the mail box, Marina leafs through it, finding several of her own letters to the Bovenders. More importantly, she finds stacks and stacks of mail for Anders Eckman from his wife Karen, letters that he never received.

Discovering one of her own letters to Anders, the Bovenders inquire about the nature of Marina’s relationship with him. “Were you in love with him?” (109), they ask. Marina refutes this and reflects upon the nature of her feelings for Anders. She concludes that they were friends, colleagues who did the same research for several years, who ate together; however, somehow this journey to Brazil has clouded her memories of Anders, her waking and sleeping thoughts now haunted by intimate images of him, on the verge of death, with his head on her lap. Marina wonders privately whether she has in fact fallen in love with him, at least “for a minute” (109).

After leaving the Bovenders’ apartment, Marina calls Karen Eckman from her hotel, and is surprised that Karen is awake in the middle of the night. Karen has suffered from insomnia since her husband’s death; she tells Marina that Anders knew and despised them. They had kept him occupied for an entire month before Dr. Swenson finally appeared. When Karen asks what the Bovenders said about her husband, Marina confesses that they didn’t know he was dead. Without revealing that Karen’s letters to her husband had gone unread, Marina does explain that communication between Vogel, Manaus and Dr. Swenson’s station in the Amazon was almost non-existent. On hearing this, Karen begins to cry and there is little Marina can do to comfort her. Later that evening, Marina begins to feel the effects of a fever and experiences a nightmare in which her father drowns after his boat capsizes on a river.

In the subsequent days, Marina is wracked by fever, a condition that recalls the sickness that had killed Anders. In spite of Marina’s protests, Barbara stays in the hotel to look after her. She offers her a foul remedy—a cup of river water boiled down to its essence as prescribed by a local shaman. Marina, a career scientist, if horrified by this superstitious folk-medicine, and initially refuses the shaman’s cure. However, when Barbara insists, she drinks the awful concoction, and the next day, after a bout of vomiting followed by a deep sleep, Marina finds the fever is gone. Barbara is still in her hotel room, reading the New England Journal of Medicine article about the Lakashi, having brought Marina some formal dresses to wear to an engagement the next evening. The chapter ends with Marina shooing Barbara out of her hotel room, and taking the journal with her.

The next evening, the Bovenders take Marina to see Gluck’s opera, Orfeo and Eurydice, at Manaus’s beautiful Teatro Amazonas Opera House, where they sit in Dr. Swenson’s reserved box seating. Like the apartment, it is an opulent and dramatic counterpoint to the relative squalor of the city.

As she enjoys the opera, Marina wishes she could share the beauty of the theater, the pageantry of its wealthy patrons, and the fine performance with Mr. Fox, rather than the Bovenders. The opera makes her forget the difficult journey through the jungle that awaits her, transporting her to an idealized world of romance instead. Creating this idealized world, Marina reflects, is essential for human survival, a necessary refuge from “all the rotting in the unendurable heat” (124).

Later, when Jackie disrupts the performance with a mindless question, a woman, seated behind them, abruptly hushes him. When they turn around, they are shocked to discover the woman seated behind them is none other than Dr. Swenson, who has arrived unannounced. After a brief greeting, Dr. Swenson dismisses their astonishment, and silences them, insisting they listen to the upcoming solo that concludes the show.

After the opera, Dr. Swenson introduces Marina to Easter, a deaf and extremely undersized Amazonian Indian orphan that she has apparently adopted. Easter is sweet, highly intelligent, and charming, easily endearing himself to everyone.

Beyond his affability, Easter is an extremely capable guide, and this skill comes in handy when Dr. Swenson insists they walk from the Opera to dinner, oblivious of the fact that Marina is wearing a formal dress and high heels. Although Marina cannot keep up with Dr. Swenson’s relentless pace, with Easter’s help she manages to find the restaurant.

At dinner, Dr. Swenson is direct, telling Marina she should never have come, and that Mr. Fox’s meddling and “continual monitoring” (136) will not speed up her research or productivity. Marina tells her that she is also in Brazil to learn the details of Anders Eckman’s death.

At the mention of Anders, Dr. Swenson becomes evasive and dismissive, suggesting that there is little more to tell. When Marina continues to probe, Dr. Swenson becomes prickly, but she soon settles into a calm account of Anders time at the station.

“I liked Dr. Eckman” she says, “every aspect of his visit was a great inconvenience to me but there was something ingenious about him” (136). He had, Dr. Swenson reveals, a knack for being sincerely interested in everything, people, birds, and research samples. Anders was the type to ask several questions and take in every word. In spite of his interest, earnestness, and affability, however, Anders Eckman was entirely “ill suited for the jungle” (137). “The heat, the insects, even the trees made him anxious” (137). Though interested in everything, Dr. Eckman lacked the sense to know when to leave.

Dr. Swenson also reveals the special relationship that developed between Easter and Anders. He had taught Easter table manners, the alphabet, and been genuinely kind to him during his stay at the station. We learn that Easter was with Dr. Anders when he died. Other than these details, Dr. Swenson offers very little information about the cause and manner of Anders’ death.

Back at the hotel, Marina calls Mr. Fox, threatening to come home. Mr. Fox cajoles her into continuing the mission, but she is clearly starting to doubt the value of this undertaking.

That night she dreams about her father again, the dream mixed with memories of her father as a Doctoral student at the University of Minnesota. He, like the other Indian students, wore pink shirts that provided a jarring contrast with the stark winter landscape of Minnesota.

The next day, she meets Dr. Swenson at Rodrigo’s, where Dr. Swenson is preparing for her departure back to the station that morning. Marina reveals that she plans to join her on the long boat trip to the station. Later that morning, she boards Dr. Swenson’s boat, and they depart Manaus, heading down the Amazon into the deep jungle. Easter, though just a child, captains the riverboat.