The Poisonwood Bible

Incredible in all the ways that lesser books promise and to which they never live up.

I would never have picked this up of my own accord. I vaguely recall reading The Bean Trees, also by Kingsolver in freshman English in high school, and I recall virtually nothing else about it and until now had not returned to the author. I asked on Goodreads for a recommendation and this is one of the ones I received. It turns out to have been a tremendous recommendation that occupies a rare five-star spot on my ratings list.

Written long after its setting, this is a fictional account of a missionary family in the Eisenhower era, on mission in a remote village in the Congo. The center of the family is preacher Nathan Price, who brings with him a take-no-prisoners brand of religion to a village that has little use for it. But the story is told from five perspectives, and Nathan is not among them – the voices are those of his wife, Orleanna, and his four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. Each has a distinct voice that reads very differently from the others. The book covers their time in the village, for which the family is woefully unprepared, and eventually traces the aftermath for each member of the family. Along the way the local politics of the time are covered from an inside perspective.

It's just under 600 pages, and every one of them is worth it. It took me a while to get through, but it was very much worth doing. I asked for a “book for consequence” with good prose and it delivered in spades. The writing floored me from the first pages. Can't recommend this one enough.