Rating: 
Summary: I highly enjoyed this book
Review: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, is a story with something for readers with many different interests. While it begins as a story of a family's overseas missionary adventure, it later becomes an inside look at political struggle in Africa.
The story chronicles the journey of the Price family, led by Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist preacher, who leads his somewhat reluctant family into the Belgian Congo on a mission trip in 1959. Nathan is followed by his wife Orleanna, and his four daughters: Rachel, the twins Adah and Leah, with Ruth May as the youngest. This unfortunate family, however, ends up getting more than they bargain for as their father's decisions on top of political events prolong the family's one year trip.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this novel is the way in which it is told. Readers will hear the story from the perspective of all four daughters, along with occasional blurbs from Orleanna. These four girls are drastically different in their views on life, and their experiences in the Congo. Many readers may find themselves quickly getting to know the girls, and perhaps even identifying with one or more of them.
Early on, The Poisonwood Bible is amusing, as it details the mishaps of the Prices as they are transplanted in Africa. The story carries on at a moderate pace, a great story all the while, until an unfortunate turn of events slows the pace significantly. From this moment on, the book seems to become a series of tragedies until the close of the book.
Despite the double-sided nature of this novel, it is an enthralling and involving story that keeps its readers quickly turning its 543 pages. Kingsolver exquisitely uses beautiful imagery and language throughout, especially when describing the African landscape. Readers also get an in-depth look at some of the history of the Congo in the 1960s from a non-American perspective. In fact, this is one of Kingsolver's main reasons for writing the book. Under the surface, Kingsolver explores a myriad of different themes and issues. Among them are topics such as racism, disabilities, religion, individual worth, leaving home, love, and imperialism. Her bold opinions on these matters are clear and interesting to read about through this novel.
Whether you are looking for an entertaining story, or a political account form the past, The Poisonwood Bible is a quality work with something for nearly everyone.
Rating:
Summary: A masterful novel of life, love, loss, and Africa
Review: The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, embraces the imperialism present in the Belgian Congo in the 1960's and beyond. The novel is based around the missionary experience of the Price family in the Belgian Congo. Rather than use conventional chapters, Kingsolver writes each new chapter in the perspective of either one of the four Price daughters or Orleanna, their mother. Each daughter shares her experiences from completely different points of view, which enables the reader to relate to each individual character more and more as both the plot and the characters develop.
Each aspect of the American dream, as well as lifestyle, is completely distorted when the Prices attempt to integrate it into the African society. They go from outcast missionaries to practically natives of the land in the amount of time (around thirty years) covered in the book. The lives of the daughters are traced from adolescence to adulthood, and as each of their personalities develops, the reader is able to feel proud when they accomplish something, sad when someone or something is lost, and an overall familiarity with the characters that few other novels can offer.
The Poisonwood Bible has earned its place as one of my favorite books. Although I sometimes found it difficult to agree with all of the information, the ideas and issues are thought-provoking and intuitive. Barbara Kingsolver's novel truly depicts the trials and tribulations of missionaries, their struggle to adapt to the African lifestyle, and the impact it has on their futures. Universal themes and controversial issues make this book a must-read for anyone willing to open their mind to it.
Rating: 
Summary: One of my favourite books
Review: "The Poisonwood Bible" chronicals the lives of a family through their innocence entering the Congo on a missionary trip to their lives years later after the family's undoing.This book blends religion, politics and human psychology into one wonderful masterpiece. Though there are some inaccuracies on the side of Baptist theology, the book is otherwise fantastic. The characters are dynamic and the plot is complex and moving. Have tissues handy; this book can be both deeply sad and uplifting.
Rating:
Summary: Five Woman in the Congo Living Together to Survive Five
Review: Five Women in the Congo Living Together to survive Five Voices, One Story The Poison Wood Bible is a novel about a family from Georgia who went to the Congo to live for a year. Nathan Price, the father and a Baptist preacher, took his family to the Congo so he could reform the sinners. His actions determine the choices of the mother and her four daughters, and the novel is about the women. Barbara Kingsolver does an excellent job of letting the reader get to know the four daughters in the book. She also gives the reader a great view of how beautiful and dangerous the Congo is. The only thing that bothers me about the novel is that from page 389 all the way to about 533 the book started to be more about political problems instead of being about the women.
The oldest daughter, Rachel, is a spoiled, self-centered child of sixteen. Her main concern throughout the book is how everything affects her and how she is above the Africans. 'We aren't all that accustomed to the African race to begin with, since back home they keep to their own parts of town' she says; 'I didn't see there was any need for them to be so African about it.' (p. 45)
Then there are the twins, Leah and Adah, who are highly intelligent and down-to-earth children. Leah is excited and intrigued about her new surroundings. She learns as much as possible about the people and learns how to hunt with a bow and arrow. In her eyes this is a positive step to help her family survive, but in the eyes of the men in the village she is a girl and has no business doing the jobs of men. But Leah is determined to hunt with the men. She tells her father, 'I'm going with the men and that's final.' (p. 340) Adah, on the other hand, had been deprived of air in her mother's womb and was unable to use one side of her body. She grows up believing that she was the one left behind. She always feels unneeded and thinks she is a burden to the others in the family. She says, 'I should have been devoured in my bed, for all I seem to be worth,' and 'In one moment alive, and in the next left behind.' (p. 305)
Ruth May is the youngest and is the apple of her mother's eye. She gives us a sweet, innocent, child like view of her experience in the Congo. 'I thought they were all fat, but father said no. They're hungry as can be, and don't get their vitamins. And still God makes them look fat. I reckon that's what they get for being the Tribes of Ham.' (p. 50) In addition to all the different personalities and ages of the girls the author gives a magnificent view of the Congo: 'Sunrise Tantalize, Evil eyes hypnotize: that is the morning, Congo pink. Any morning, every morning. Blossomy rose-color birdsong air streaked sour with breakfast cookfires.'(p. 30)
This is how I saw the Congo after I finished reading the book. The Congo is a place of beauty where people still live together to survive. The people of the village work together to have food for their children, and if one of them receives a blessing of too much, they share what they have. But it is also a very dangerous place. The people in the village have their own beliefs and laws. When the Price family steps on these laws they pay a dear price. Leah says, ' Ruth May, honey, it's all right,' I said. 'The bad snake is gone.' The witch doctor puts a snake in the hen house because the Price family has gone against the laws he feels are important and needed for the people of the village to survive. The Price family just did not understand that these people had a strong belief system that they were willing to protect.
When the women separate to survive, the novel starts to get more political, and that bothered me. It made me feel that the author changed directions on me. I continued to want to know about the girls. But over all I thought the book was a must read. It is well written and gives me a sense of being there.
Rating:
Summary: Much More Than Politics
Review: Let me start by saying that I found The Poisonwood Bible an excellent book. Kingsolver wrote using the voices of five very different female narrators, all plunged into the Belgian Congo, because Nathan Price, and evangelical Baptist, takes his wife and four daughters during a time of war and confusion for the country. Kingsolver does not give Nathan a voice in the book. The voices the reader hears are those of his wife Orleanna, and their four daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. The book takes you through their journey together as a family and also through their own lives as they figure out who they are and what they want.
The book was hard to put down, as with every page something new happens to one of the narrators. Using different voices to tell the story makes it extra rich in detail. Take for example Ruth May, she is the youngest Price, about six to eight. She has a slightly comical approach to bad happenings. "My name is Ruth May and I hate the Devil. For the longest time I thought my name was Sugar..." By using simple sentences, Kingsolver lets the reader see how Ruth May's mind is thinking of several thoughts at once, and Ruth May just says whatever comes first.
The children of the Price family talk more than their mother, who tells her story later on back home in the United States. As she remembers bits and pieces, you get the feeling that her life in the Congo was probably the hardest of all the narrators' lives. "Strange to say, when it [leaving Nathan in the Congo] came I felt as if I'd been waiting for it my whole married life. Waiting for that ax to fall so I could walk away with no forgiveness in my heart." You can hear and feel the hurt in her voice as she tells her story. It is incredible the way Kingsolver uses different voices to get inside the reader so we can feel what the narrator feels and see what she sees.
I noticed that other reviewers saw the book as Kingsolver's way to get her views of politics across, and I would have to disagree. I saw the politics side of the story as necessary to complete the story and impossible not to mention. The Independence of the Congo from Belgian rule and the way it played out had an affect on each narrator and needed to be in the book, because the story took place during this war between differences. For example Leah, one of the twins and the second oldest of the Price family, took the war as confusion. Being the one daughter who practically worshipped her father, she did not seem to understand how the war affected her family and especially her beloved father. As time goes on though, Leah begins to see that her father is not what he seems, and that he is not going to give up his demented view that he can change the villagers into Christians.
The book goes on in wonderful detail in each narrator's voice to finish out the story and to tell some of the after-story. Although I can say that the book does leave you hanging, I find that interesting. Kingsolver leaves the reader on the edge throughout the whole book, and then you get to the end, and you're still on the edge; you never see the other side or what is below that edge. I felt that the book was horrifying yet powerful and incredibly hard to put down. I could see however where one might get lost through the maze of stories and the imagination of each narrator, but that maze and those imaginations are what kept the book going for me. The Poisonwood Bible is a Sunday read, although it is a little long; you will enjoy it and be glad you took time to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A true book of truths
Review: A toughtful,moving epic that drags you down into the heart and wonder of life in Congo. Sent to Africa on a spiritual mission to bring Christianity to the Congolese this family finds a life where people see life as somthing totally different then we do, giving worth to those who most Americans would discard as unworthy of a normal life. In Congo Orleanna Price, her husband ,Nathan Price, and there four children learn about true spiritual love and acceptance and how to actually do a good days work(some take the lesson better then others). And so the "Bible" tells of what they lost in the Congo, what they gained, and what will always haunt them about what they did there. This masterfully written book still manages to have a certain degree of humor while teaching life lessons. I am not a grat follower of the Christian religion and therefor cannot totally relate with what it might be like to realize that your religion wouldn't help Congolese one bit, as the Price family learns in this novel, but I can still say with utmost truthfullness...that this book is one of the best I have ever read(I have read quite a few)and you will definately be missing out if you do not read it...YOU WILL CRY WHEN READING THIS BOOK
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: I thought this was an absolutely brilliant book, and it touched me on many different levels. In the first place it touched me as a reader. I loved Ms Kingsolver's style. I think she is a brilliantly, creative, intelligent and witty author. I was amazed at how believable she managed to narrate the story from so many perspectives.
Secondly the novel spoke to me as a mother. I enjoyed the little parental truths that she slipped into the novel like
"It was brief, I can promise that much, for although it's been many years now since my children ruled my life, am mother recalls the measure of the silences." [p 7]
and
"But the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender though your life when there will be no more coming after - oh, that's love by a different name. She is the babe you hold in your arms for an hour after she's gone to sleep. If you put her down in the crib, she might wake up changed and fly away. So instead you rock by the window, drinking the light from her skin, breathing her exhaled dreams. Your heart bays to the double crescent moons of closed lashes on her new cheeks. She's the one you can't put down. "[p 434]
The book touched me as a sister. I loved discovering the relationships from the different perspectives and I enjoyed to see how different they all experienced the same life. I thought the character development was executed brilliantly. Of all four daughters Leah seemed to have changed most. In some ways I was surprised with where she ended.
Lastly it spoke to me as an African. I found her views on Africa fascinating and enlightening.
"I look at my four boys, who are the colours of silt, loam, dust, and clay, an infinite palette for children of their own, and I understand that time erases whiteness altogether" [p 595]
"He meant to save every child, thinking Africa would then learn how to have fewer children. But when families have spent a million years making nine in the hope of saving one, they cannot stop making nine." [p597]
"I thought you said the Congolese don't believe in keeping the riches to themselves," I told Anatole once, inclined towards an argument.
But he just laughed. "Who, Mobutu? He is not even African now." [p515]
Anatole continues to explain how the Congo had more riches than what were good for her.
This is a common trend in Africa. The rulers of the country living in extreme wealth, while the rest of the country are starving. But even though the poor have nothing, they will look after each other.
I have to wonder, does wealth grow greed. It certainly seems that way in Africa.
Rating:
Summary: Shannon's Review
Review: The Poisonwood Bible is an enthralling tale of a family in Africa. Nathan Price, a man filled with with remorse and a passion for religion, is quite the character. The whole time I really questioned him for moving his wife and four daughters to Africa, but it makes for a good story. Rachel is the eldest daughter and feels being in Africa is the worst thing that could ever happen to anybody. Leah and Adah are twins who seem very alike but as the book goes on the author thoughtfully gives them personalities of their own. Ruth May is just your classic sweet little sister. The book is all about these characters, and some others, who are very interesting but sometimes focusing just on them makes the plot very slow. Kingsolver writes the book wonderfully, though and it is definitely recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: There is poison in this book also
Review: I think Barbara Kingsolver spoiled her otherwise well-written novel by allowing her political views to turn her novel into a political soapbox. I'm sure that Kingsolver had a reason for writing this novel, some point she wants to get across. I wonder what the point is. Her story of the Price family is, as Kingsolver says "a work of fiction." The main characters are products of Kingsolver's imagination. One would wonder why Kingsolver portrays Nathan Price as such a total failure, but, since he is a fictional character, he is entirely what Kingsolver wants him to be: a failure. Kingsolver must have a reason to characterize Price as she did. Kingsolver claims that the historical setting of her novel, the Congo of the 1960's, is real. She cites historical events and has her characters draw conclusions from the events. She criticizes American involvement in the Congo, Belgium's colonization of the Congo, and Christianity's nonrelevance for the Congolese people. The Congo of the 1960's is the real world. I have checked other books to see how her "facts" compare with those who write history. I see that Kingsolver does not portray the real world honestly and fairly. She emphasized some facts and omitted others. In doing this, she has presented a distorted view that, coupled with her deliberate characterization of Nathan Price, makes me wonder even more: what is the point she wants to get across? Kingsolver states that Khrushchev wanted to take over the Belgian Congo and that Eisenhower ordered Lumumba's death and that Secretary Dulles wanted the Congolese government replaced at the earliest convenience. Kingsolver's readers would wonder why was the United States in the 1960's so involved in the Congo. Kingsolver has one of her characters opine that when Lumumba asked Khrushchev to come to the Congo's aid, Lumumba was bluffing. Kingsolver never mentions that in 1959, Khrushchev brought Castro's Cuba into the Soviet circle. We all should remember the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960's because Khrushchev's attempt to place nuclear weapons in Cuba almost took us to nuclear war. I don't applaud what the United States did in the Congo, but knowing about Cuba, I can realize the seriousness of Lumumba's bluff. Kingsolver said that the Congo was exploited for gold, diamonds, copper, ivory, and slaves. She didn't mention uranium. Other history books mention uranium. Uranium is of such strategic importance in the cold war that it far outweighs all the other resources combined. It' presence in the Congo doesn't excuse the West, but mention of it would make the West's panic more understandable. Kingsolver must have known about it. Why did she omit it? When civil unrest erupted in the Congo, Kingsolver states that "People are angry with the Europeans. They are even hurting women and little children." She then condemns Belgium for sending troops back into the Congo. Other history books say that when the Congolese army revolted against the white officers commanding the army, gangs of Congolese soldiers raped the officers wives and daughters in front of the officers. Lumumba did not condone this, but he could not stop it. Belgium sent troops to protect its officers and their families from the violence. Kingsolver's deliberate understatement of the violence makes her readers think Belgium had other motives for sending troops. Kingsolver divided her book into seven sections, named "Genesis," "Revelation," "The Judges," "Bel and the Serpents," "Song of Three Children," and "The Eyes in the Trees." These references to Scripture and Nathan Price being a Christian missionary make one think Kingsolver is sympathetic to Scripture. However, she writes these grossly prejudicial statements: "Poor Congo, beautiful bride of men who took her jewels and promised her the kingdom." Later she writes: "Priests held mass baptisms on the shore and marched their converts onto ships bound for sugar plantations in Brazil, slaves to the higher god of commodity agriculture." She then has Leah say: "Jesus is poisonwood." (Poisonwood is a tree that causes irritation to anyone coming in contact with it). I wonder why she titled her book "The Poisonwood Bible." She makes her rejection of Scripture clear when she writes: "This is the story I believe in: when God was a child, the Rift Valley cradled a caldron of bare necessities, and out of it walked the first humans, upright on two legs . . . They made the Voodoo, the Earth's oldest religion . . ." None of this is supported by Scripture. God was never a child. Voodoo is not the Earth's oldest religion. The Earth's oldest religion is the relationship the first humans in the garden of Eden had with God. When you look deeper into Kingsolver's book, you see that the point she wants to make is also poison.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read.
Review: I highly recommend this book to both casual and serious readers. As an avid reader with a degree in literature, I could not get over how good this book was!!!! It is serious and humorous and sarcastic all at the same time. This book manages to be enjoyable, employ some excellent literary techniques, AND provide a timeless social commentary. Absolutely amazing!
|
