The Dictionary of Animal Languages

Ivory Frame (yes, that's her name) is a young woman estranged from her family and enrolled in an art conservatory in Paris between the world wars. She is also an elderly biologist who has spent her adult life recording the languages of animals with the understanding that their existence is threatened by human encroachment and climate change. We get her story alternating in the present and the past. The Ivory of the present is shaken to receive a letter telling her she has a granddaughter, because she apparently has no child of her own. The book sets out to give us the context and the backstory for this letter, although Ivory's story meanders quite a bit in the process. She has a difficult love affair in her past, and a sympathetic assistant in the present, and the events and emotions seem to take place on an operatic level. I am generally one who appreciates melodrama, but I think it may be a bit overdone in this book. Still, there is a lot going on in The Dictionary of Animal Languages with ideas about the purpose of art, and the difference between art and science, or art and language. This is a rich book and I am glad I read it.

There were points when I was reading this novel that I was so bored I wanted to scream and other times when I was scribbling down quotes. Sopinka writes some dazzling lines.
Ivory Frame is beautiful, intelligent and cold. That is also how I would describe my reading experience. It's difficult to care about Ivory, and at the same time, she's my new hero.
Here is a female living the life she wants in the way she wants in a time dominated by men. Ivory does not seem to feel she has sacrificed to live this way, she seems very content (or at least, completely engrossed in her work). She even succeeds in a male dominated field.
At the same time I found my mind wandering while I was reading because Sopinka shows us this and shows us this and shows us this.
So, while I have mad respect for this book, I didn't really enjoy it. It's not that I need a likeable main character, I most certainly don't. What I need is plot and for it to move along at a decent clip.
Dictionary reminded me of a statue in an art gallery. Is it beautiful? Yes. Is it cold and unmoving? Yes.