In some ways, Flight Behavior is familiar territory for Kingsolver -- a spunky, intelligent, undereducated young woman from the Appalachias; an environmental and/or social justice crisis; a knowledgeable, attractive, yet unavailable and unattainable man who opens up said young woman's view of the world. Much as I loved The Bean Trees (which is a lot), parts of this book felt like a retread. That said, the concept of the novel, being one of the first to deal directly with global warming and the devastating effects that happen, is striking in its (pardon) novelty. Kingsolver manages to achieve a delicate balance -- it's clear she wants to educate the reader, but coming off as preachy would doom the book. She does a careful job of illustrating the reasons that people would refuse to believe what is, in this case, right in front of their eyes, as well as sharply critiquing those who would write off the undereducated and disadvantaged populace. She doesn't offer easy answers, because there are none. Much as Dellarobia is a wonderful character, I found it tough to believe that she would somehow end up so much more progressive than her counterparts -- she may be intelligent, but she's not better educated or more experienced than anyone else she knows, and so her comparative progressiveness comes off a bit jarring. Some humbling scenes give her a bit more realistic humanity. On the whole, while I don't think this is one of her strongest works (The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible are still tops), it's a solid read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.