The Poisonwood Bible

published	May 31st 2005 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
first published	1998
binding	Paperback
isbn	0060786507 (isbn13: 9780060786502)
pages	576
description	Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in purs...more [close] Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse? In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years. The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and daughters tell their stories in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenage Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo. Despite these weaknesses, Kingsolver's fully realized, three-dimensional characters make The Poisonwood Bible compelling, especially in the first half, when Nathan Price is still at the center of the action. And in her treatment of Africa and the Africans she is at her best, exhibiting the acute perception, moral engagement, and lyrical prose that have made her previous novels so successful. --Alix Wilber Essays on life, the world, and a snail transported to Tucson. Although ''The Poisonwood Bible'' takes place in the former Belgian Congo and begins in 1959 and ends in the 1990's, Barbara Kingsolver's powerful new book is actually an old-fashioned 19th-century novel, a Hawthornian tale of sin and redemption and the ''dark necessity'' of history. The novel's central character, a fiery evangelical missionary named Nathan Price, is part Roger Chillingworth, the coldhearted, judgmental villain of Hawthorne's ''Scarlet Letter,'' and part Ahab, Melville's monomaniacal captain who risks his life and the lives of those closest to him in pursuit of his obsessive vision. Narrated in alternating chapters by Nathan's wife, Orleanna, and their four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May, ''The Poisonwood Bible'' begins with the arrival of the Price family in the remote Congolese village of Kilanga, a tiny cluster of mud houses devoid of all the ordinary amenities of life back home in ''the easy land of ice cream cones and new Keds sneakers and We Like Ike.'' Moving fluently from one point of view to another, Ms. Kingsolver does a nimble job of delineating the Price girls' responses to Africa and their father's decision to uproot them. [close]
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Lisa rated it:

02/29/08

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: anyone with a heart for Africa, anyone thinking about becoming a missionary

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I think I will start with my thoughts about Africa and then go from there.

This quote particularly stood out to me:

"No other continent has endured such an unspeakably bizarre combination of foreign thievery and foreign goodwill."
- Adah Price

I have long had a heart for this continent. Before I ever thought about marriage I always kind of imagined going there and trying to do something to help the people. Even before I became a Christian. It just doesn't seem fair that so ma...more

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Mimi rated it:

01/11/08

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: Ashley

My official review "Tata Jesus is Bängala":

I finished the last 300 pages in 2 days (which is very fast for me - English books). I felt every emotion under the sky with this book. I hated Nathan Price, I hated injustice, I hated my uselessness, I hated the fact that there are no good prospects for Africa in the future. As a Geographic major I strongly believe that the closer you are to the Equator, the longer it will remain a 3rd world country. Of course the country itself is full ...more My official review "Tata Jesus is Bängala":

I finished the last 300 pages in 2 days (which is very fast for me - English books). I felt every emotion under the sky with this book. I hated Nathan Price, I hated injustice, I hated my uselessness, I hated the fact that there are no good prospects for Africa in the future. As a Geographic major I strongly believe that the closer you are to the Equator, the longer it will remain a 3rd world country. Of course the country itself is full of resources (in non-foods) that could make them rich, but nothing can feed the overpopulated cities. Politics obstruct any way of turning diamonds into food. Anyway,
I loved the fact the author talked so much about how they processed their lives and experiences in the Congo. To some degree that's how I am. I grew up poor and desolate and now live in this insane country where everything is available. I feel restless and unsettles at times. Like Orleanna who can't wear shoes in Atlanta because she needs to feel dirt between her feet I prefer to walk to church (with stroller and kids) in Minus degree weather because that's my connection to my family and culture in Germany. Nobody gets it when we arrive at church with red noses, fully aware that we have a functional car.
I love and miss Ruth May. I cried a lot about dead animal. I laughed at her timely wittiness in describing the culture clashes.

I learned one important point about African culture. The author lingered on the fact that Africans (especially villagers) can't grasp the fact of a family owning or keeping more than they need or consume at any point. When a fisherman caught a full net he immediately shares with his village. People don't ask for fish or thank for the fish. They just take. Because that's how it is. When the Prices arrived there with storage the kids came to beg at their door. Not because they were greedy or rude but that's how the village functions.

We have many African immigrants in our ward and neighborhood (sometimes I am the only white person in a store on any given day). For example when the Relief Society announces a committee meeting "With refreshments" some African women just show up. They go straight to the refreshment table (in the middle of the meeting, untouched foods and all) eat, and then go home. None has a calling but hears the call to eat the offered food. There is an abundance and they have no money for food. It's all logical to them to eat when it's available if they were invited or not. There are also many problems with African can't getting off welfare. Honorable families don't understand the reason not to take when it's for everyone to take and use. There is no thinking about the future, just filling the belly now.

One of our Book Club books this year is "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Ruby K Payne to help us interact better.

I loved it. It was a good book. A few flaws but easily forgivable for the beautiful philosophical writing. It was the best epic I read so far....less

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Anna rated it:

07/29/07

The Poisonwood Bible is incredibly good for many reasons. Advancing through the lives of a family of Georgian missionaries surviving in the Congo, Kingsolver twines her story with the thoughts and perspectives of each of the women. Rachel, the oldest daughter, a princess no matter her setting. Leah, middle child and twin, who is intelligent and level headed. Adah (Hada), the other twin, lopsided and backwards reading, she is far more intelligent than anyone would guess. Ruth May, youngest at 5, ...more The Poisonwood Bible is incredibly good for many reasons. Advancing through the lives of a family of Georgian missionaries surviving in the Congo, Kingsolver twines her story with the thoughts and perspectives of each of the women. Rachel, the oldest daughter, a princess no matter her setting. Leah, middle child and twin, who is intelligent and level headed. Adah (Hada), the other twin, lopsided and backwards reading, she is far more intelligent than anyone would guess. Ruth May, youngest at 5, with abundant energy and golden ringlets. And last but not least, Orleana, victim in the way women have always been victims. Through their eyes we see the pain we know all to well. The pain of being the outsider. The pain of adaptation. The pain of being an American abroad.
Though the family goes through innumerable hardships, it is the simple things that stuck me most. The peace between the violence, the realization that children’s play is practice for survival, the acceptance and joy at not being included as one of “them,” the beauty of the natural surroundings, are what make this sad novel oddly joyous. It quickly turns from being about a self righteous man, so unwilling to bend that he breaks, to coming of age and disillusionment with the “peace makers of the west.”
America likes to intervene. As the women of this story grow and separate, a political reality is playing out in the background. America decides the new president is a communist, and for the good of its people has him taken out. The new leader put in his place is friendly to the U.S. government, ensuring lucrative mining deals and easy trade. All too quickly the people of the Congo begin to suffer the harshness of a tyrant; all too quickly they begin to starve.
“There is nothing about the United States I can really explain to this child of another world” (pg 441). That we should have so much and deny others what little they could hope for, is a horror for which I have not the words. A little African boy is brought to an American grocery store and is stunned by the selection. Why would you need so many different toothpastes? It’s unfathomable.
I finished this book in a bout of frustrated tears. It seems like every year I learn of another country our government has destroyed, another culture we never took the time to understand. Kingsolver does an amazing job and winding through her story overwhelming feelings of shame and displacement. She takes global politics and makes them painfully intimate, while at the same time recognizing the absurdity in that.
But then that is just one of the stories told. It is the viewpoint of just one of the daughters. Through the others you can see innocence, ignorance, and self discovery. She shows that the world is as complicated as a single family and that there is never only one perspective.
...less

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Meghan rated it:

04/25/08

Read in January, 2008

This book really made me think about why we adopt certain beliefs: what comes from the environment we are immersed in vs. what comes from within. I loved how Kingsolver shows the world view of an entire family who is experiencing the same basic situations in the Congo, but each member deals with these things very differently. It also brings up issues with culture differences and the obstacles in trying to persuade a culture to change. It poses the question of should they change, is the American ...more This book really made me think about why we adopt certain beliefs: what comes from the environment we are immersed in vs. what comes from within. I loved how Kingsolver shows the world view of an entire family who is experiencing the same basic situations in the Congo, but each member deals with these things very differently. It also brings up issues with culture differences and the obstacles in trying to persuade a culture to change. It poses the question of should they change, is the American culture superior, is Christianity superior, is democracy superior, is wealth superior to poverty? Each character answers these questions differently. How our actions or inactions affect other people is another commentary this novel addresses. The story brings up ethical issues that arise in getting involved with other countries: do we do it because we believe we are superior or to exploit their resources or to sincerely try to help other people have a better life? Lots of interesting things to think about in this book.
Here is they synopsis from Amazon.com: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years....less

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Steve rated it:

(review of isbn 0060512822)

07/22/08

Read in December, 2007

I came to this book with The Bean Trees still fresh in my mind, confident that I would enjoy it thoroughly. I found it a very different kind of novel, in many respects (e.g., the alternating voices of multiple narrators, the very different locale (the Belgian Congo instead of the American Southwest), and the author's increasingly intrusive political message). While I adapted to the changes and got through to the end, it was not the enjoyable experience I'd hoped for. I understand that for...more I came to this book with The Bean Trees still fresh in my mind, confident that I would enjoy it thoroughly. I found it a very different kind of novel, in many respects (e.g., the alternating voices of multiple narrators, the very different locale (the Belgian Congo instead of the American Southwest), and the author's increasingly intrusive political message). While I adapted to the changes and got through to the end, it was not the enjoyable experience I'd hoped for. I understand that for the author it was a more ambitious undertaking and acknowledge that pushing the limits on one's craft is the right thing to do. However, in such cases there's the risk of attempting more than can be successfully done.

Like The Bean Trees, this one celebrates the virtue of personal loyalty. That aspect of it comes through loud and clear. Drawing characters like Anatole, who are more than plausible, is one of Kingsolver's strengths. Another is her ability to get the most out of our language in telling a story. After reading this, I think Kingsolver should stick with what she does best.

In trying to get my arms around what I dislike about this book, I'll just say it began with mounting frustration over the helplessness of the mother and her daughters in the unspeakable situation created by Rev Price (who, we eventually learn, suffered from an untreated mental illness/brain injury).

On top of this was laid a very biased explanation of African history. Both the UN and the French government concur that the Eisenhower administration did NOT have a hand in the assassination of The Congo's first elected leader, as Kingsolver charges. On the contrary, Lumumba was deposed by a political rival, Kasa-Vubu, and he suffered what likely would have been the other guy's fate had the coup not succeeded. I'm sorry it suits Kingsolver's purposes to imply a parallel between her deranged character Rev. Price and the country he came from as the common source of the turmoil described here, because this fictional work is likely the only input many readers will ever have on the subject. Then, at the end of the book, two of the grown daughters are leading peaceful lives across the borders of Angola and the Republic of Congo, two countries with equally atrocious Marxist rule that the author completely ignores. This is no way for anyone to get their history.

Ok, one other gripe, now that I've gotten myself worked up: One of the Price daughters is nonverbal and presumably suffers from CP or something similar (i.e., congenital brain injury). Once she's grown she gets a little advice from a friend and performs some therapy upon herself and -- voila! -- she's cured. And not only cured but in short order a graduate of medical school. As the parent of an adult with a congenital brain injury, I truly hate to see anyone pretend that such things work out that easily.

In short, I liked Barbara Kingsolver a lot more before I picked up this book....less

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Caroline rated it:

11/14/07

bookshelves: fiction, read-in-2007

Read in November, 2007

This book was fascinating for a variety of reasons for me. Not only is it set in the jungles of Congo, but the structure really sucked me in so much more than a lot of books. Barbara Kingsolver obviously spent a lot of time researching this book (according to the P.S. text, a couple of decades)--there's a huge list of references used, and the details within the text made me feel almost as if I'd actually been to a little town deep within the jungles of Congo.

Kingsolver had a very nice variet...more This book was fascinating for a variety of reasons for me. Not only is it set in the jungles of Congo, but the structure really sucked me in so much more than a lot of books. Barbara Kingsolver obviously spent a lot of time researching this book (according to the P.S. text, a couple of decades)--there's a huge list of references used, and the details within the text made me feel almost as if I'd actually been to a little town deep within the jungles of Congo.

Kingsolver had a very nice variety of character perspectives, rather than telling the story all from one person's point-of-view. All of the daughters have very different voices, as well as the mother. Leah is the most trusting of her father's preaching, and for a good chunk of the novel spends her time doting on her father and not really realizing how wrong he was on a lot of things. Rachel gets fairly annoying at times, with how stuck-up she can be, but in the end I did like her for her honesty. Adah, the "twisted child," is very poetic and I found myself looking forward to her passages the most, with her play-on-words and general pessimistic take on the whole situation. Ruth May felt a lot like a filler character at times, although in the end I did appreciate her innocent take on everything.

I actually learned a few things about the Congo by reading this--it's not an area I knew much about (just generals that are commonly known, like the diamond trade), so it was a bit of a history lesson mixed in with a very interesting story.

I was a bit iffy of the final 150-ish pages, where it seemed like the story was over...but it kept going. In the end, I was really glad Kingsolver decided to do the rest of the story in the way she did--in those 150 pages, she covers about 30 years of the after-effects on the family. You never get the full story of what happened to certain characters, but in a time of turmoil like that you wouldn't in reality...so it works. It's pretty interesting to see how much some of the daughters changed after the horrible failure of their father's mission, and how very little one daughter changed. It turned into more than a story of a failed Baptist preacher attempting to convert the members of a little Congolese town, but a story of the long-reaching effects of one man.

Definitely a powerful book, and I'm so glad I picked it up on a whim! It was slow-going most of the time (it took me much longer to read this than I expected--more out of savoring it than it being a difficult read, because it was definitely easy yet poetic language), but it was definitely worth the effort....less

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Mikejencostanzo rated it:

01/25/08

Read in June, 2006

I began reading this book with hesitancy and a good portion of discernment. It had been recommended by a non-Christian co-worker as a good book for me to read since "you want to become a missionary." I'm really glad I read it though. There are a number of things I really appreciated about the book.

I really liked how the author, Barbara Kingsolver, told the story through the eyes of each of the characters. She was able t...more I began reading this book with hesitancy and a good portion of discernment. It had been recommended by a non-Christian co-worker as a good book for me to read since "you want to become a missionary." I'm really glad I read it though. There are a number of things I really appreciated about the book.

I really liked how the author, Barbara Kingsolver, told the story through the eyes of each of the characters. She was able to pull off a consistent and believable use of a different storytelling voice for each individual. This is something that, if done poorly, could result in a book that is a total nuisance to read. But when done well, as in this case, it sweeps the reader along into the hearts and minds of the characters.

I felt like Kingsolver captivatingly addressed the concept of mission effort gone awry. I'm glad I had the chance to read Kingsolver's work, because I think it captures the misgivings that many of my non-Christian friends have when they think of "Christian missions." As an example of this, my husband Mike can recount the conversation he had with a co-worker where the guy he was working with got kind of offended at hearing Mike's interest in missions: "What gives you the impression that you can just go over and tell the Japanese people to believe in your God?"

Kingsolver captures some of the concerns & misunderstandings of modern missions that our friends may feel as they hear our interest in missions.

Kingsolver's descriptions also ring true with some of the crazy foibles that have been recounted in true missions history. When I took a missions course called Perspectives <www.perspectives.org> the unit on "The History of Missions" was particularly eye-opening. Kingsolver is not just pulling these ideas out of thin air. There have definitely been some crazy abuses of people and culture -- some gross insensitivities displayed by some missionaries of the past.

One more thing I enjoyed about this book was the sometimes humorous, sometimes sobering pictures and impressions that it left in my mind. Archetypes of sorts, that I will carry with me in the future. Whenever I pack to go overseas, I will probably always think about piling on 15 layers of clothing, stuffing small kitchen appliances in my bosom, and boxes of cake mix in my coat pockets as I board the airplane.

-Jen...less

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Rebecca rated it:

05/29/08

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: People interested in Congolese history

I read "The Poisonwood Bible" for two reasons: Because I've always wanted to read a Barbara Kingsolver book and I am intrigued by secular takes on Christianity in modern-day writings.

I just finished it today. It is the story of a missionary family's trek to the Congo, told through the eyes of the four daughters and their mother. The father is a misguided preacher who is trying to escape past demons by force-feeding Christ to a culture that he has neither researched nor desires to u...more I read "The Poisonwood Bible" for two reasons: Because I've always wanted to read a Barbara Kingsolver book and I am intrigued by secular takes on Christianity in modern-day writings.

I just finished it today. It is the story of a missionary family's trek to the Congo, told through the eyes of the four daughters and their mother. The father is a misguided preacher who is trying to escape past demons by force-feeding Christ to a culture that he has neither researched nor desires to understand (the name of the book is a reference to his misuse of the native language -- so instead of calling the Bible something holy, he's referring to it as a poisonous tree).

All in all, I am glad I read the book -- the discussion of the Congo's tumultuous history and the commentary on how the United States and various European nations have tried and failed to control something so wild and free was very interesting. It is a theme I saw repeatedly play out in this book -- when people/nations are unwilling to take the time to understand where others are coming from (be it individuals or people groups), the result is long-running anguish, regret and the destruction of lives and families. The writing can be very good -- the death of one of the daughters (which is disclosed early in the novel, although she is not identified) had me literally weeping over this book.

That all said. There were parts of the book that dragged for me -- and the whole catalyst for why these four girls and their mother were transplanted to Africa (a highly controlling husband/father) was never completely resolved to my satisfaction (he sort of disappears in to the jungle halfway through the book, never to return).

From a Christian standpoint, I was also disappointed in how missionaries were generally portrayed -- self-seeking, greedy and Bible-thumping morons who were either frothing at the mouth or couldn't get out of the country fast enough when the going got tough. There were also doctrinal errors (I spent several years as a Baptist and I never attended a church that believed baptism was a necessary ticket in to heaven -- quite the contrary, actually).

It would have been a fascinating foil to have a truly Christ-focused, God-seeking missionary family in these people's midsts ... while I appreciate how the only "good" missionary in this book didn't completely reject God, his buffet-style approach to what he accepted/discarded about the Bible was disturbing. Yet it was clearly held up as the preferred example for the rest of characters in the book....less

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Alana rated it:

03/05/08

bookshelves: fiction, historical

Read in March, 2008

Missionary Nathan Price takes his wife and four daughters into the heart of the Congo in the late 60s. Despite political upheaval and resistance from the native population, his fierce determination to save souls in the jungle never wavers once, even when his unbending ways alienate all those around him. The novel is told by the daughters in alternating chapters with an occasional chapter narrated by the mother. Each of the voices is distinct and recognizable, but the characters bothered me. Rach...more Missionary Nathan Price takes his wife and four daughters into the heart of the Congo in the late 60s. Despite political upheaval and resistance from the native population, his fierce determination to save souls in the jungle never wavers once, even when his unbending ways alienate all those around him. The novel is told by the daughters in alternating chapters with an occasional chapter narrated by the mother. Each of the voices is distinct and recognizable, but the characters bothered me. Rachel, the eldest, is whiny and given to old-fashioned slang and misinterpreted words in true Amy from Little Women fashion, but without the endearing qualities. Leah follows her father around like a kicked puppy and has no use for anyone she perceives as weak - which is everyone else. Adah has taken her twisted body and used it as an excuse for an equally warped mind and to allow herself to be misunderstood and martyred. And Ruth May is five - there's just not much we get to see from her.

The story is undeniably interesting. A bunch of Americans immersed in the depths of the culture of the jungle and in the mess their government and the Belgians have made of a country as they exploit it. But the politics are very obvious - particularly once Leah gets involved, and I don't much care for guilting over what the Western world did to Africa before my lifetime. The author takes several jabs at people trying to export their own culture, ideas, and religion to places that operate completely differently without even trying to assimilate, but I feel like the time covered was too long to pack as much of a punch as it should have. Particularly the last few 'books' seem to be too removed from the entire rest of the story. Shorter would have suited me better.

All told, I just didn't get sucked into the tragedy of the Price family. What I truly wanted to know more about - the tragedy of Congo - wasn't really brought home since everything was centered around the American girls. This takes its place with more of those 'literary' novels that just don't quite work for me. Not exactly a waste of time, but nothing I'll pick up again.
...less

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Rebekah rated it:

04/26/07

Read in June, 2004

recommends it for: amateur historians, women, anyone with an interest in Africa or political science

This is my favorite book. Hands down. There is something about this book that strongly affects me every single time I read it. I have read it maybe 8 times. The first time I read it, it was while working in a coffee shop. It was supposed to be my "break time" reading, but I am sure I nearly got fired that week, because I couldn't put it down.

The book is told from the point of view of the Price women, four sisters and their mother, who have all been brought to the Belgian Congo...more This is my favorite book. Hands down. There is something about this book that strongly affects me every single time I read it. I have read it maybe 8 times. The first time I read it, it was while working in a coffee shop. It was supposed to be my "break time" reading, but I am sure I nearly got fired that week, because I couldn't put it down.

The book is told from the point of view of the Price women, four sisters and their mother, who have all been brought to the Belgian Congo by Rev. Price, an Evengelical Baptist minister, determined to bring the word of God to the African savages, no matter what the cost. The family and their mission begin to dissolve as the Belgians pull out of Africa, leaving severe political unrest in their wake, unrest driven by the CIA and the US government. We see the family struggle to survive and cope with their faith; faith in God, in each other, in their country and in justice.

Kingsolver's strength in this novel is her point of view narration and the way each of the five female voices sound completely different, yet enough similarities exist to believe they are all related. As the daughter of a minister myself, I strongly identified with Leah, but I also enjoyed Adah's, her twin sister, point of view. The counterpoints of Leah's positive, hopefulness is juxtoposed nicely by her sister, who was crippled at birth, who speaks in rhymes and palindromes and sees the dark side of everything.

The relationship between mothers and daughters, and between sisters is strongly explored. We also see each of the girls chasing after their father's approval, which is nearly impossibe to gain. Each of the Price's learn something valuable from the dark continent, though some learn it more grudgingly than others. The book definetly increased my interest in the parts of African history that no one teaches you in high school, mostly how Western nations used the contient like a giant chess board, moving pawns and unseating democratically elected socialists in favor of capitalists willing to sell them raw materials cheap.

Five stars. All the way. ...less

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T.J. rated it:

(review of isbn 0060175400)

05/13/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in February, 2000

This still is in my top five books of all time. It, along with Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, began my interest in Africa and colonialism, and put me on teh path I've followed up to this day with my PhD focus in British colonial history in South Africa. That being said, this is a top-notch novel. In 2000, at the age of fifteen, this is what I had to say right after reading ...more This still is in my top five books of all time. It, along with Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, began my interest in Africa and colonialism, and put me on teh path I've followed up to this day with my PhD focus in British colonial history in South Africa. That being said, this is a top-notch novel. In 2000, at the age of fifteen, this is what I had to say right after reading it:

"Barbara Kingsolver has eloquently crafted a marvel here. In the Poisonwood Bible, she relates the story of fiery, self-righteous Baptist minister Nathan Price, who drags his wife and four daughters into the Congo in 1959 for missionary work. Settling in the village Kilanga, on the Kwilu River, adventure soon unfolds.Told from the point of view of all five female characters, the story is related very differently. Rachel, the teenager, the adolescent twins Adah and Leah, the child Ruth May, and the mother, Orleanna make up this tale.While this delivery in tale is unorthodox and rewarding, the characters all have their flaws. Rachel's self-centeredness and misplaced priorities are frustrating--she genuinely cries over a hole in her favorite dress while children starve outside--as well as her inability to use correct phrasing (a "tapestry of justice"). Ruth May is childly simplistic in her delivery (look for her speech on segregation in the first part of the book), and Orleanna's Earth Mother, wandering style grows tedious in the lengthy middle section.Leah and Adah are the most interesting, and I gravitated to Adah, with her disability and scorn for mankind. She is clearly brilliant, but ignored by all, especially by her smugly self-righteous (to the point of being insufferable) father.The Poisonwood Bible is at first a slow read, for the first 150 pages, but it soon picks up as the tension rises and falls...characters like Tata Ndu, Brother Fowles, and Anatole only add to the excitement, as does the revelation of what became of each of the wayward sisters as the book ends around 1998. A fiction that dips into politics, the Poisonwood Bible is an enjoyable read."

I've re-read it twice since then, and while my enthusiasm has died a slight bit, it is still one of the most arresting and powerful things I've written. Great job, Barbara....less

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Daniel rated it:

05/08/07

Read in May, 2007

I liked this book but I cannot give it more than three stars. The ending of the book is extremely well executed. The basic story is that an evangelical minister from Georgia goes to Africa with is wife and four daughters to "preach to the heathens" and thereby save their souls. The book tracks their lives in Africa, their exodus from it, and their lives after it. The book progresses by way of the daughters point of view of what is happening (and ever so rarely the mother's, whose p...more I liked this book but I cannot give it more than three stars. The ending of the book is extremely well executed. The basic story is that an evangelical minister from Georgia goes to Africa with is wife and four daughters to "preach to the heathens" and thereby save their souls. The book tracks their lives in Africa, their exodus from it, and their lives after it. The book progresses by way of the daughters point of view of what is happening (and ever so rarely the mother's, whose portions are the best written of all).

I won't say much about the daughters, because the book was mostly enjoyable and I don't want to spoil anything. Adah is the easiest to read of the sisters, with Ruth May a close second. Leah starts out simplistic and ends complex, while Rachel stays Rachel. Rachel's become the hardest to read because they jump out at you. It really feels like the author just stuck in the Rachel chapters to keep you from getting too involved in the novel. The writing style and attitude is so different from everything else in the book it always gives you a jolt when you switch to it.

The very beginning of the book I enjoyed, but the whole beginning of the book I found to be...arduous at times. The author starts out with a tendency to too much detail at first. When the path the book is going to take starts to be set she really hits her stride and you just want to keep reading. If only Rachel wasn't so poorly entered as to make you just, well, stop. Ruth May does it too, but to a smaller extent. Very well done ending.

My biggest gripe in this book is that after all that reading I really wanted it to stick with me, and it just didn't. There were definitely points where I kept reading only because I'd come so far that I wanted to just finish it. I'll remember what happened, and that's about it. The messages of the book (Don't meddle with what you don't know, leave what isn't yours alone, and Don't think poorly or ill of someone because they are different are good summations) are just so generic and poorly gotten across in this book that it doesn't pop into my mind when I think of those things. ...less

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Maca rated it:

02/27/08

Read in February, 2008

This is an excellent book.
I feel I could relate so much to so many of the feelings described in it. For example, feeling an outsider in a foreign country, and also even in your own country when you came back changed forever; the scars left by a dictatorial government; and also Africa.
Africa has been deeply damaged by corruption and poor management of resources for generations. The legendary Lumumba and Motubu are so much like Allende and Pinochet. History repeats itself in places where cor...more This is an excellent book.
I feel I could relate so much to so many of the feelings described in it. For example, feeling an outsider in a foreign country, and also even in your own country when you came back changed forever; the scars left by a dictatorial government; and also Africa.
Africa has been deeply damaged by corruption and poor management of resources for generations. The legendary Lumumba and Motubu are so much like Allende and Pinochet. History repeats itself in places where corruption exists and hidden interests are involved.
The diamond trading is still a problem even when the Kimberley Process has succeeded by providing certification of diamond origin for transparency, but in Sierra Leone, Cote D'ivore, Angola and Congo, people are still being mistreated and put to work the mines and these diamonds are still used to finance wars and weapons.
Violations to human rights are also a strong theme in the book.
I'm glad Kingsolver wrote such a philosophical book that make you think about these things while you got to know such interesting characters:
Orleanna was the victim of Nathan Price and her daughter's death. I felt sorry for her the entire book.
Nathan Price was selfish, fanatical, and just wrong all over. I'm glad he disappeared in the middle of the book because he made me feel upset.
Rachael was self-centered, vain, materialistic, unable to love and so selfish; but she was funny sometimes. She spelled "take for granted" "take for granite."
Adah was smart and reflective. She had such a rich view of life. Her voice is depressive throughout the book and she never learned to love the new Adah.
Leah was the only one who was able to love after all, the only daughter who really had a family. Anatole is the antithesis of Nathan Price, and both men happened to be the most important men in Leah's life.
I loved Ruth May, and I liked it that the book ends with her, talking to her mother while she is with her sisters trying to find her grave. She says that being dead is the same as being alive, just a bit different, and it's because she is part of the African soil where death and life collide where no one can see the difference and only the soul matters.

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Jessica added it

12/21/07

Read in January, 2006

recommends it for: my friends

This book was probably one of my favorite books of all time. It's funny how I got a copy in my hands. My friend insisted I take hers, so she didn't have it around her apartment anymore (some of the story themes were too close for comfort based on extended family history). Consequently, I was very curious to read it. Otherwise, I don't know that I would have ever heard about it or picked it up. I'm so glad I did -- I couldn't put it down. In fact, my paperback copy is in poor condition, b/c I rea...more This book was probably one of my favorite books of all time. It's funny how I got a copy in my hands. My friend insisted I take hers, so she didn't have it around her apartment anymore (some of the story themes were too close for comfort based on extended family history). Consequently, I was very curious to read it. Otherwise, I don't know that I would have ever heard about it or picked it up. I'm so glad I did -- I couldn't put it down. In fact, my paperback copy is in poor condition, b/c I read it in the bathtub!

This is contemporary literature at its best. A very unique aspect of Kingsolver's approach was to write in first-person, through different characters who are all profoundly impacted by the family's experience as missionaries in the Congo. It is fascinating to find out how each character is changed, or in some cases, remains unchanged by the experience. By seeing the events in the book through multiple, very intimate perspectives, you get such a complete and multi-dimensional look at a very interesting story with MANY layers. I could definitely read this book more than once and experience new things each time.

There is one character I suspect projects Kingsolver's own feelings and judgements -- which tended to resonate with my own as well. I read that Kingsolver's own experience in the Congo shaped this book -- I don't know how you could write a book like this without manifesting your feelings and judgements in some way. I think most readers, like myself, will relate to all the characters at some point, no matter how difficult it is to admit. The only character that is not written with empathy is the father, but you can understand why, as you continue to read.

The female characters in this book all seem to represent different pieces of ourselves and different stages of our development. Together, they almost make the whole. The end of the book read like an incomplete, suspended chord of music that could not resolve itself. Kingsolver's writing made me feel as though these women still exist somewhere, even after the novel ended -- and there was a great deal of satisfaction in that feeling even if the book did not offer the happiest of endings....less

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Heidi rated it:

06/24/08

bookshelves: library-book

Read in June, 2008

I had a hard time choosing between 2 and 3 stars -- really, it should be 2.5. I thought the prose was quite lovely; Kingsolver has a nice voice. I enjoyed reading about a part of the world of which I have no experience. The description of the clash of cultures was well done.

However. The author had an agenda and she really didn't mind continually slapping us in the face with it. Now, I don't pretend the US hasn't made mistakes and won't continue on making mistakes. But to equate one gr...more