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Summary: I am awed by Kingsolver's humanity.
Review: She writes with beauty and grace. Of all the characters, daughter Adah moved me the most. Her lyrical and profound insights rang true at every turn. I was pleasantly surprised to find history woven so seamlessly with fiction. I never felt lectured to, nor castigated. I am enriched by the reading.
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Summary: a definite change - but brilliantly executed
Review: I, like many other Kingsolver fans, was a little surprised and unsure what to think of this new style that she was testing out. but once I started reading, the poetry and depth of her words as well as the trapping interest of her story won me over. I could not get over how well researched and complete her story was. And I will agree that while this was the first of her books where some of the main characters are genuinely unsympathetic, a writer can not just write the same type of stories for her entire career. everyone loves taylor, turtle, loyd and kodi but the price family tells a different and very urgent story. i did not love everyone in the book as i did with all her others but i loved the story itself every bit as much. this goes right on my bookshelf of MUST-READS after i pass it on to everyone i know.
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Summary: Real Africa and Real People
Review: I read the other customer reviews and noticed that none of them mentioned that this book is based on fact. The people in the Belgian Congo are described so realistically, I felt I was there; their customs and occurrences in the village are factual. In fact, at the end of the book, a comprehensive list of reference materials used to write the book is listed.The story of the American family there and what happened to them was very realistic also. As a child, I've been an American in another country and I could relate to how the story was told and how the family dealt with their situation. The book was wonderful. My only problem with it now is that I don't want to lend my friends my first edition and will have to buy more copies!
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Summary: Challenging but a necessary and thought-provoking read
Review: Barbara Kingsolver take on the central question in understanding the history of the U.S. and its imperialist foreign policy. The heart of the matter is the ideology of white (and male) supremacy and how this "poison" has brutalized people of color in this country and around the world. Starting with the basis of a fundamentalist, authoritarian, racist patriarch she examines the affect of this man and his ideology on his wife, his family and the people they encounter. The "personal and political" truly cannot be separated. She is to be commended for dealing so forthrightly with an issue that all of us who are white in this country should examine. Doing it through fiction in a way we can experience the emotions and personal development of the characters is challenging and ultimately rewarding.
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Summary: I feel guilty not liking this book
Review: I'm a big Kingsolver fan and will read whatever she writes next. The Poisonwood Bible was a disappointment. An ambitious but failed effort. You could tell that she was trying very hard, had her heart in the right place, and was very well meaning. But for me, using the different voices as "books" of this bible didn't work because they didn't seem real and the book was disjointed. I liked her descriptions of the Congo, but actually expected more politics, especially after reading some of the reviews. Unlike her other books, this one felt forced, like she knew it wasn't working and just kept writing and writing hoping it would get better. I kept reading and reading, feeling the same way.
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Summary: A book of darkness and light
Review: I am a big Kingsolver fan, so as soon as I heard she had a new book out I ran right out and bought it. It was a shock to discover that, unlike her previous books, Kingsolver had tackled missionary life in the Congo. I found it fascinating reading, despite the author's tendency to do almost as much preaching as the tyrannical Nathan Price himself. Kingsolver's strong point is her characters, and the Price women, Nathan Price, who has no voice, but whom we still get to know very well, and the Congolese who surround them are all brilliantly painted. The reader is drawn into the heart of darkness via the eyes of mother Orleanna and her daughters: blonde, vacuuous Rachel, "gifted" Leah and her dyslexic and birth defective twin Adah, and toddler Ruth May. Together they are thrust into a whirlpool from which they will never entirely escape. As they spiral towards the point of no return, they are reborn, but not at all as their Baptist father had envisioned when they left Bethlehem, Georgia. It is a bit disappointing that Kingsolver has her characters speak a message that might have been revealed to her readers through actions and events. Perhaps to do so would have added another couple of hundred pages to an already voluminous work, but I think it would have been worth it. Certainly readers who know her well are intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions about the sinister side of U.S. and European foreign policy. However, the book's redeeming qualities far outweigh this minor consideration; I found it moving, delightful, informative and above all, provocative.
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Summary: Took me to a place I'd never been
Review: I enjoyed this novel a lot, but I don't think it holds up to careful consideration. The descriptions of Congo village life are excellent, and, I assume, accurate. But the relationships among the characters are never fully developed and the father remains a mystery. All the characters are just described and remain the same throughout. The last 100 pages or so are boring, especially Leah's political viewpoint. Yet the book made me laugh and cry and kept my interest. I don't think it's a great book, but it is one of the best of the less-than-great, popular books.
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Summary: So Satisfying
Review: What a richly shared tale of love and dysfunction, politics and spirit. At night I savored each character's "journal" entry, getting to know them, becoming familiar with an unfamiliar world until I was traveling alongside. In the end, I'm left with plenty to ponder, and better for the trip.
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Summary: Author's social agenda takes over
Review: I found this book exhausting, irritating and preachy. I slogged through it as I felt compelled to learn about the fates of these four women. Kingsolver is a talented author but this work is burdened by her obsession with a social justice agenda.
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Summary: "defintely a five"
Review: This book is so fascinating I can't put it down. It's been well researched as one can see from the bibliography at the end, and I feel I'm learning so much about one African country's tragic history, something they never told us about in school. I like one reader's comparison to the Mosquito Coast; the family power structure is very similar, as well as the white Americans' naivete and total unpreparedness for what they find.I'm almost at the end and find I dont want to let it go either. The characters (except for the father) have done so much growing throughout, and the plot never lacks for action. On a scale of 1-5, I'd give this a 6.
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