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Summary: A beautiful piece of literature with a moral.
Review: Barbara Kingsolver tells a dramatic tale of a family deep in the Congo who try to not only understand the people they have come to "save", but each other.
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Summary: Perhaps my favorite book of all time.
Review: When I finished reading this book, some three weeks ago, I felt like I had lost some very close friends. I still miss the characters. They are so real and so fully fleshed out. I know I will go back and read it again - and probably fairly soon. Excellent book.
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Summary: Beautiful yet brilliantly complex tale of human frailty
Review: Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible is a stunning story of the clash of beliefs and tradition that results in tragedy. The women from a family of a self-righteous Baptist missionary find themselves in the Congo at the start of that country's struggle to release itself from Belgium's control. The struggle of a mother and her 4 daughters parallels that of the country to which they will become inexorably bound. Each female narrates her own story and the voices, each distinctive and revealing, ultimately blend harmoniously to create a classic apology. The writing is sheer poetry and the narrative, while dark and complex, is compelling. A book which blends the historic with the personal in a marvelous way. It is a story that will stay with the reader for a very long time.
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Summary: I could not wait till the end but yet could not put it down
Review: It was a very difficult book for me to get into but yet i did find myself completing the book. I found myself discussing the book with others and telling them how much i disliked nathan Price. I think it was a bit too wordy. the end was more in my opinion Ms. Kingsolver's oipinion instead of the characters it was as if she had to make her point as well as here politics.
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Summary: Hard to get "into" but when Adah starts, can't put it down.
Review: I'm a big fan of the author, loved her previous books. When I started this one, didn't know what to do with a baptist preacher going to save the 'savage' souls of Africa. But I kept reading and finally couldn't get enough. I appreciate her new influence and am grateful to learn of her knowledge of the Congo.
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Summary: The Poisonwood Bible confirmed my beliefs.
Review: I took The Poisonwood Bible on vacation with me to Belize, the former British Honduras. Each day we ventured into the jungle to try to capture some of the original glory of Belizean nature and culture, and at night I read about the incidious influence of missionaries in destroying the diversity that was once existed in humanity and nature. I despise missionaries of every stripe (except medical ones without agendas) and thank Barbara Kingsolver for her rendition of this particular family's experiences. Fortunately, the Congo won in Nathan Price's case. Unfortunately, that is infrequently the case. It was gratifying to see each daughter grow into a life of her own, and to swab the lesions left by Christianity's poisonwood.
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Summary: A parable about the encounter of two different cultures
Review: This was the first book of Barbara Kingsolver I ever read thanks to amazon.com's recomendations and its slightly controversial reader's comments. People either loved it dearly or found it horrible according to the evaluation stars. I am joining the group of readers who loved it mainly because I am thinking that it is a superb piece of literature and not just a pageturner. The author's trick of telling the story using five different voices gives you the ability to evaluate the things that happen from different angles. Many readers critize that one main character, Nathan Prize, hasn't been given the opportunity to express his own point of view. I found that not so disturbing as to my understanding of the novel he is the only member of the family who does not want to understand or is not capable of it what is really going on among the people he fervently wants to baptize. For me, each of the characters stands for a posible alternative of western people to deal with such a different culture as of the native people living in a remote village in the Congo. Therefore I think that the third part of the novel which counts the further lives of the characters after their two dramatic years in the jungle is really important as is fans out various choices about how to deal with such events, either ignoring them (as Rachel does who adopts a more or less colonial way of life, only remembering with horrors the ordeals they went though in the jungle) or being overwhelmed by the richness of African life (as Leah does who marries the native teacher who gets deeply involved in politics). An other thing I loved about the book was its construction. Each part of the novel is framed by a biblical quotation that contains the essence of the events to happen next. As a conclusion, I highly recommend this novel as one of the books that really gives you a lot to think about.
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Summary: A rare and consumming glimpse into the heart of Africa..
Review: This novel is sylistically light years beyond her previous "Arizona" novels. If Kingsolver wears her politics on her sleeve a little too prominenetly, one is inclined to forgive her given the depth of her characters and the revelation of the wonderful/terrible world of the Congo in the 1960s. The prose was perfect. I simply could not put this book down. Although the ending seemed a little too neat and complascent, I was so emotionally exhausted when I got there that I really did not mind.
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Summary: Can't put it down!
Review: As a huge fan of Kingsolver, I eagerly anticipated this novel. It did not disappoint. It is very different from her previous books, and the writing style (moving from character to character) does take some getting used to. Once you adjust, however, you can't wait to hear from the next character.As someone who does not have a great deal of knoweldge about the history of the Congo, I found the book fascinating from a puesdo-historical perspective too. Highly recommended!
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Summary: An extraordinay book of suspense, humor, and history.
Review: Kingsolver has surpassed her previous excellence in this extraordinay historical novel of suspense, spirituality, death, redemption, and love. With good humor but acerbic wit and searing honesty, she explores the misguided missionary zeal that disregards the spirituality, culture, and family units of the Congo in the 1960's. Her writing is exquisite. The first paragraph grabbed me and I was on my way. She weaves the history of Africa, the Price family, and the people of Kilinga into a masterful story. The big question of how we all might be responsible in the conquest and destruction of an entire way of life lingers on. It also explores the arrogance of Christian missionaries in their misguided attempts to coerce and bully people with their own beliefs. I loved this book.
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