The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel

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Summary: one of best
Review: a combination of recent history and facinating story. a hard book to understand completely but i think her best so far.

Rating:
Summary: not to be missed!
Review: barbara kingsolver's previous works were thought provoking and good reads but the Poisonwood Bible outshines them all. What isn't in this novel: politics, philosophy, religion, racism, family dynamics, travel, adventure and drama. well structured and well written, the characters and their observations of the world and its interconnectedness will leave you thinking about your own place in the universe for a long time after you finish this book. if i had a top ten list this would be on it.

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Summary: It is a remarkable character study.
Review: Barbara Kingsolver introduces us to the Congo, teaches us language which the family must learn to exist there. This missionary family, who has no concept of what they are about to encounter, goes from being powerless to powerful. We experience disintegration, heartbreak, rebuilding. Never can they or we be the same again.

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Summary: A beautifully written story that I will savor forever.
Review: I love Barbara Kingsolver's work. I have read everything she's got available. The Poisonwood Bible has now become my favorite. As I read it, I knew this was an important book. Her characters became friends, their travels and troubles became my own. I truly felt like I had experienced the rough lives that were, and still are lived in the Congo. I worry that the next novel I read, no matter how good, can not possibly measure up to this one. Many many thanks to Barbara Kingsolver for another wonderful novel.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I first discovered Barabra Kingsolver when hearing her interviewed over a local PBS radio station. Her musical, Appalachian manner of speaking lead me to buying three of her previous books; Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, and High Tide in Tucson. However, reading The Poisonwood Bible was a experience unlike any of the others. Telling her story in the voice of several different characters gave me the fun of enjoying daughter Rachel's naive simplicity as well as the serious contemplation of witnessing Congo history through the mouth's of twins, Leah and Adah. The Reverend and Mrs. Price are memorable works of art. This novel met all my criteria for a great read; compelling, suspenseful, emotionally moving, educational, entertaining and generated the feeling of friendship with the novel's wonderful characters. I've encouraged at least ten good friends to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully-woven, poetic, passionate novel.
Review: This is the first time I have felt compelled to write a review - I want everyone to know what a brilliant and well-crafted book this is. Kingsolver has managed to capture several distinct voices and stories and weave them into a book that grips both heart and mind. I have enjoyed all her work, but to my thinking, this is by far her best and most complicated. My only critique is that, toward the end, she might have edited a little more stringently: wonderful sayings and metaphors lose their magic after being used a few times too many, and Rachel's malaprops wear a little thin over time. While the story goes on longer than I might have considered necessary, every chapter was worth diving into, and I was truly sad when I reached the last page. I closed the book feeling I had learned a great deal, both about Zaire's political history, and the history of a complex and compelling family.

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Summary: This is an excellent book with wonderful phrasing.
Review: This book will tear at your heart. It will make you question beliefs and ideals. It has wonderful turns of phrase and thoughts out of the ordinary. I have been completely caught up in it and will re-read it when it is returned to me from the many friends to whom I will loan it; I NEVER read anything twice, so you can imagine how much I am moved by this book.

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Summary: A book that seems out of focus much of the time.
Review: This is a book that suffers from the journalist's predicament, flat emotions in emotional situations. There seem to be a couple of reasons why that is so. One of them is the question, what is Barbara Kingsolver attempting to do in this novel? Is she telling a missionary story? Is she telling the story of the CIA's involvement in the overthrow of the newly independent Congo? Or what? It is hard to answer this question. Secondly, her method seemed appealing at first, telling the story of a family unprepared for mission work yet driven by an unsympathetic father, Nathan Price, to the Congo in 1959 when the Congo is being exploited by Belgium, telling that story from the perspective of his four daughters. Each of them has her own peculiar take on their situation; yet each increasing comes to seem disembodied, floating above the people and emotions and reality of their own lives.

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Summary: A compelling story of family dynamics and fanaticism.
Review: Without belaboring the points already made by others (the last section is a disappointment), I am surprised that so many critical readers object to Leah's political viewpoint. She is fanatic and a zealot, but is this unreasonable as the child most attached to and devoted to her father? It seems to me his unreasoning zeal is mirrored, not exactly, but recognizably, in Leah's ardent politics. I cannot hear Leah's voice as "the truth" or as Ms. Kingsolver's voice, but as the voice of a unique person, raised to be one kind of a believer, whose life converts her into another type of believer! Also, I was amused and gratified by Rachel from beginning to end. To me, she remained true to her original self. Perhaps many "literary types" who read and write reviews do not recognize her, but the world (our world!) is populated in great part by those practical, unquestioning people. And I love them! This is a great book, full of thinking and arguing to last many a spirited conversation!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Stunning.
Review: This is Barbara Kingsolving's best book to date; I found it to be one of the best books I have read this year. I strongly disagree with the reviewer who found Rachel's malaprop-laden sections "tedious and annoying. I thought they provided comic relief from the telling of the tragic and bloody history of the Congo.