Rating: 
Summary: Voices were wonderful, but story lacked structure
Review: I have read and absolutely loved all of Kingsolver's previous works, especially The Bean Trees, and I must admit I expected something more out of the Poisonwood Bible. I did enjoy the multiple points of view and the vivid voices on the daughters in the family. Adah is a masterpiece in character development. But, other characters were disappointing. I was not raised by a baptist missionary nor was a child of the 50-60's, but I found the father hard to believe as a character. He never showed a speck of compassion for his wife or children, and I thought that was a grave mistake in character development. Most disappointing, however, was the story structure. The climax occurs approx 350 pages in, but I was forced to sit through an additional 200 pages of what seemed to be a prolonged "wrapup." And to top it all off, the last line of the book is a stale cliche.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious novel with narrative problems.
Review: Yes, I agree that The Poisonwood Bible is a much richer read than Kingsolver's previous works. However, when one utilizes the first person narrative form, one should aim for realistic and age appropriate narration. Pre-adolescent children do not tell their stories out of their frame of reference and gender. In short, the daughters' tales were unreliable due to the maturity and vocabulary bestowed upon them. I think it would be very interesting if Kingsolver attempted the third person narrative. She is a wonderful writer, although the constant self-importance of her political line tends to grate after 200 or so pages. There are many politics, many cultures, many people, many points of view. It would be interesting if other ideas and ideals were allowed to crop up in her work.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't put it down.
Review: I loved the way she created such a vivid Africa in this book. I also appreciated the humor and the different perspectives of the narrators. Few people had mentioned Brother Fowles. I thought he and his part in the story were very clever and interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, Tedious and Very Dry.
Review: We read this book for July Group and I am shocked and amazed that it has been so popular. Being a person who is not that interested in the Congo and it's historical happenings, I was incredibly disappointed that that was what Kingsolver focused on most. I wanted more character developement, dialogue and interactions between the Price women and Nathan!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have read all of Barbara Kingsolver's novel and loved every one of them-except for this one. Wordy, boring, unfeeling. For a good Kingsolver novel, try Pigs in Heaven or The Bean Trees.
Rating:
Summary: A good way to access the history of Zaire
Review: I have loved all of Kingsolver's previous books and bought TPB on the strength of it. However, while there are moments of brilliance in the book, I struggled to finish it. You can almost visualise Kingsolver's learning curve if you read her books in chronological order, but TPB is almost too big a project for her to have undertaken (yet). I didn't mind the essayist approach to the Congo's history as Kingsolver's politics are to be admired and if nothing else, it was educational. I couldn't stand any of the characters in this book but maybe that's what Kingsolver intended.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read with rich philosophical underpinnings
Review: I've enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's earlier novels, but in comparison to The Poisonwood Bible, they are enjoyable but slight, a pleasure to read, but hardly the stuff of the best American literature. The Poisonwood Bible is different. Here, we experience the life of a river village in what was the Belgian Congo and then the larger "independent" Zaire in the 60s, 70s, and 80s through the senses of the wife and four daughters of one Nathan Price, missionary preacher from Georgia. Arriving in the Congo in 1959, the family is not so different from other white Southerners of their time. Yet while Kingsolver could easily have made them static stereotypes, each of the female narrators moves with the course of the historical, social, and political events they encounter, growing and differentiating as individuals. In the process of telling their stories, they make it clear that we all have choices, and that these choices have both roots in the choices others have made before us and consequences for those choices we will make later. Kingsolver's characters help us reflect on the ethics of our choices and the threat that if we do not respond to and change with the conditions of our human community, we will stagnate. The Poisonwood Bible is grounded in the realities of history, including United States policies that supported the brutal Mobutu dictatorship andt further plundered the country beyond the point of European exploitation of the early part of the century. With this historical backdrop, the novel and its main characters leave us asking, "How do the advantaged of the world live with a history that has not lived up to our own ideals?" and "How can we, as individuals, lead moral lives when our governments do evil with our money and in our name?" The Poisonwood Bible does not answer these questions, but they are woven into the fabric of the high-drama plot. This is not a perfect novel - whatever that is - but it is the kind of novel we need more of - thoughtful and thought-provoking, with the capacity to introduce readers to a time, place, and public-policy context that most white, middle-class, educated Americans know little about.
Rating:
Summary: I love a novel that teaches me real history!
Review: Although some of my best friends are Baptists, I appreciated Kingsolver's portrayal of the preacher/father. I also saw a bit of myself in each of the daughters, as well as the longsuffering mother. The title was a bit offputting, but after getting through the first few chapters, I was glad I came! Not just a summer read, but a winter one as well.
Rating:
Summary: Half as enjoyable as her previous novels
Review: A story that is profound in detail on the history of the Congo, and an interesting exercise in voice as the story is told in alternating chapters by a mother and her 4 very different daughters. The underlying premise and the abdication of paternal care by the father is rather difficult and uncomfortable to swallow. A decent yarn, but a long read and nowhere near as pleasant and humorous as her previous works.
Rating:
Summary: Best Barbara Kingsolver read yet
Review: After having read Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, High Tide in Tucson, and Homeland and Other Stories, I loved The Poisonwood Bible. Granted, Kingsolver might not have portrayed a Baptist preacher very accurately (as one review suggests), she gave a very good picture of a religious fanantic, someone who would defy common sense and relocate his entire family to a world he knows nothing about. Especially a world which does not welcome him. And the descriptions of the girls were wonderful. They had individual voices, which changed and matured with age. This is clearly seen in Leah, who started out as a child who would do anything to please her father, and ended up the most rebellious of the four girls. This is a wonderful read, I can not stress that any further. I read it on my vacation to Europe, and I wanted to go home to read this book, instead of wondering the streets of Florence. I recommend it highly to anyone looking for an adventure full of love, life, and everything in between.
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