The Poisonwood Bible
Ratings235
Average rating4.1
This is a long book, but I liked the multiple endings. It did not have a ‘tie-it-up-with-a-bow' typical fiction ending, but continued for another 100 pages or so. Barbara Kingsolver really outdid herself with this one.
One sentence synopsis... The transformation of the wife and four daughters of an evangelical preacher who brings his mission to the Belgian Congo during the period of colonial upheaval in 1959. .
Read it if you like... “The Kite Runner”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, historical fiction with a deeply personal plot. .
Dream casting... is currently in development with Amy Adams. Pure Best Actress Oscar gold.
The writing made the characters so real to me that I just wanted to shout at them and shake them into seeing what the hell was really going on. This book made me furious, and I highly recommend it to all.
The main narrative of this book is absolutely stunning. I was on the edge of my seat wondering how they would survive, would they ever get out of the Congo, would the father kill them all, etc. I enjoyed the technique of telling the story through the four daughters' viewpoints, though it did after a while feel like a bit of a gimmick and Ruth May's sections were completely unrealistic for her age. There was some humor at times, mostly from Rachel's self involvement and Adah's sense of irony.
After the climactic incident and the aftermath, which happens about three quarters of the way in, the last fourth of the book feels endless. It is a very long epilogue and it didn't add anything to my understanding of the story. Kingslover's points about imperialism, colonialism, sexism, ableism–all your favorite isms had been well made. One character that never felt right is the father. His desire to convert the village is what drove the plot but he got no point of view. He is mainly an abusive and sexist menace to his wife and daughters and then later he becomes a figure so tragic it's nearly funny. It's not a particularly complex characterization.
The viewpoint cycles chapter-by-chapter through the sisters, punctuated by reflections from the mother. There are a couple of really interesting characters, especially Adah, the hemiplegic girl and her twin.
I could pick a few grumbles, but not enough to tip it off five stars - exceptionally readable, probably the best book I've read all year.
You know, sometimes Oprah is right. In fact, a lot of the time. Beautiful, dense, complex, and a surprising mix of African history with traditional Southern narrative.
This is a hard review for me to write. I can see many (many) people loved this book, and I absolutely see what they see. The writing is stunning, no question. The story, told from the points of view of each of the female members of the Price family as if in journal entries, really drove home to me how isolated and out of their element they all were. Each member was written differently, each with their own separate, distinct personalities, and it really all went together beautifully.
My hangup with the whole thing was twofold. First, the buildup to the actual climax of the story was excruciatingly slow. The author does her due diligence in making sure we're right there with the Price family, I just failed to really connect with their day-to-day problems. Even when the major events start happening (and really you could argue that there's only two or three of those), once the rubber hits the road so to speak, the story is basically over and you're left with a sizeable chunk of the book left as an epilogue of sorts.
I also expected more inter-family drama. Spoilers ahoy: The author spends a large chunk of time setting up Mr. Price as the villain of sorts, and I surely expected more drama set up between him and the family. Ultimately, though, I'm left waiting for a shoe to drop that never quite hits the ground. The events that unfold are ultimately man vs. nature I'd argue, and Mr. Price is left as an afterthought. I felt sorely unfulfilled at the abrupt end to the Congo saga, and found the last 140 pages or so uninteresting as the Price family separates almost entirely.
Maybe this book just isn't for me. I accept that. It wasn't bad (3 stars is my meh-I-finished) rating, but I also wouldn't read it again, I don't think. Another review here stated at the end, “too much table dressing and not enough meal for me”, which I wholeheartedly agree with.
This book is easily one of my favorites. It's the story of a family that moves to the Congo to be missionaries to the Congolese people, and is told from the point of view of the mother and her four daughters. Even though the narration voice alternates between five people, the flow of the writing isn't choppy at all.
I was wrong. Years ago I gave up on this book, despising the evil priest, unable to concentrate on anything except the fantasy of him getting eaten by crocodiles in slow motion. This month, at the urging of a friend, I gave it another go. And, as the book progressed, I found my thoughts changing. Becoming more nuanced. I now wanted him to be engulfed alive by driver ants, swarming all over him, entering every orifice, stripping his flesh from the inside and outside. In slow motion. (Unfortunately—spoiler—this does not happen).
Anyhow. This is a difficult and painful book, and I am not its target audience, but I persevered and am glad to have. It's more than just one book, but it took me too long to see that: there's the evil priest, sure, but there's also the women: his conflicted wife, the oh-so-memorable daughters, and the women who keep the village alive despite unimaginable hardships. There's Kingsolver's commentary on white saviorism, on religion, on willful ignorance and on the inability of some people to see or listen. The second half is an uncomfortable in-your-face reminder of the suffering that the U.S. and Europe have inflicted on their colonies. Kingsolver's tone is harsh, angry, but also compassionate; an unexpected complex balance.
Who, though, is her target audience? I still can't figure that out.
Incredible skill/talent on writing different voices for each of the viewpoint characters; as vivid, real, and raw as anything I've read in a long time; tremendous interaction with Biblical imagery and imagination; a window into a very dark chapter of European colonial relations with the Congo. Highly recommended.
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.
Summary: This novel is a fictional story set against the true historical backdrop of great political change in the Belgian Congo. It follows and is narrated in turns by the women of the Price family (a mother and four daughters) as they follow the patriarch of the family on his missionary journey to the Congo. It raises deals with issues like cultural ignorance and prejudice, faith and doubt, family turmoil, and finding one's own identity.
I wish I could give half stars, so I could put this at a solid 3.5.
I liked several things about this book:
-It was told from the four girls point of view, primarily. Each chapter switched between the girls, with a few guest chapters from their mother. The girls' voices were well developed, with interesting little details, like misspelled/misunderstood words in the oldest daughter's chapters.
-The accelerated pace at the end of the book was really compelling, as you went through the girls' adult lives.
-African culture was shown as rational and important, more so as the story evolved. The setting was almost its own character.
I didn't like:
-The length. About page 250, I felt like I should be done with the book-but it felt like we hadn't really gotten past the first plot point.
-The parents' stories were underdeveloped. While we got some glimpses into the mother's mind, the father never got his own chance to speak. I may be okay with representing the father as a villain, but I'm not okay with the short shrift the mother got.
-Some of the leaps the story took seemed unreasonable.
Overall it was a good story, but not one that I'd recommend with abandon. You have to be in a good state of mind and be ready for a reading marathon. I will, however, be reading more of Barbara Kingsolver's fiction, because it was excellently written.
Amazing. I was already a big Barbara Kingsolver fan but somehow had never read this one, which I think is my new favorite of hers. Such wonderful, believable characters with such a compelling backdrop (revolutionary Congo)... ohh, I loved it.
Don't miss this. Especially if you read it, don't miss it.
All I can say is this was magnificent, in the end.
Remember that time you read “Life of Pi”? The laborious feelings of confusion and a beleagred obligation to learn what the fuss was about...only to be brought into understanding the way a cat of ninetails bites into the meaty part of your soul...remember that? This book does just that.
The writing was superb and nuanced. The characters were dense and relatable. The storyline both lulled you to sleep and moved you to near weeping in cycles.
I don't know what else to say. It's a journey not to be taken lightly. It's a pathway not to be walked by the shallow and nearsighted. Rather this story should be taken by those who will unravel its complexity and bathe in its subtleties. Certainly, this does not describe me. I was merely able to witness the limits of my depth through this brilliant tale.
Short Review: A 1960s Southern Baptist family moves to the Congo to be missionaries. Their lives are forever changed. This is a great book to look at cross cultural difficulties. It gives some context to the ways that the US have been inappropriately involved in Africa, but that is not the focus of the book. Lots of rich lyrical language. It started a bit slow and felt like it was going to be almost caricature of a bad missionary family. But the book picked up and really was richer than I had expected. A book I highly recommend.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/poisonwood-bible/
Forte, intenso, um drama úmido de chuva torrencial e seco de terra vermelha. Ao começar a jornada da família, não dá pra imaginar onde vai o destino de cada uma das irmãs ou dos pais.
This book really had no interest in it. The only time I was intrigued was the fire ants seen, other than that, it's whiny, slow-paced and really uninteresting. Would not recommend.
Absolutely brilliant. What a moving and incredibly articulate novel recounting the lives of a deeply disfunctional missionary family and the congolese people around them all set during the turbulent years of the independence of the Republic of Congo and the several nations ejected from that malstrom. The novel recounts the history of the family throughout this period with deep injections of introspection into the nature of man, environment, wealth, poverty, health, politics and culture. Just... wow.