Rating: 
Summary: Overtly Political
Review: I was really expecting this to be a great book. I'd first come across Ms. Kingsolver when I read her Prodigal Summer about five months ago, and absolutely loved it. It was a great, well-written story, and despite the fact that I came out of it feeling a little bit used, I could not wait to sink my teeth into this one. The subject matter made it even more attractive. Like Paul Theroux's "Mosquito Coast," this one has an atypical American father taking his wife and family into a jungly, tropical wilderness to carve out a new life. Perhaps more exciting was the idea of getting a glimpse of an utterly foreign land, seen through the eyes of people with whom we can relate. It is told in the first person in alternating chapters by the mother and her four daughters, and although it takes a bit of getting used to, it works. Each of the five has an identifiable personality and a distinctive voice. It gets off to a flying start: within the first twenty pages the family is dumped into a steaming, isolated part of the Congo; a ramshackle group of hovels right smack-dab on the equator. They get off the rickety plane and are immediately surrounded by a mob of sweating, chanting natives, pushed and pulled to the church where a large animal is roasting, then handed chunks of it and other horrible-looking gruel on tin plates. Nobody even has a chance to change their clothes. This is just the beginning, and things don't get much easier. Father, a zealous, bible-thumping preacher, proves woefully incapable of relating to anybody, and his efforts to convert the Africans are ineffective and ridiculous. In fact, every idea he has, from planting crops to baptizing converts, is disastrous. The family tries to cope in a myriad of ways, but the African continent is almost too daunting. There are days and days of unbearable, steaming heat, causing drought; followed by days and days of pouring rain, causing flood. There is the brown, dirty-looking river infested with crocodiles. There are snakes and wild beasts in the jungle. There are insects everywhere, mosquitoes and flies and beetles and even a wild, scary ant invasion. There are the diseases: sleeping sickness, and elephantiasis, and malaria. And then there are the people, whose customs and language are almost incomprehensible, and who occasionally exhibit hostility to the white strangers. (All are fascinating, though. In the skilled hands of Ms. Kingsolver they come across as unusual, three-dimensional, individual, and completely believable.) In the middle of this Belgium announces that the Congo will become independent. Everyone expects chaos, and the family is told in no uncertain terms that they must leave. It will be too dangerous to stay. But Preacher Dad isn't going to go, by God. He has a job to do. So they stay, things get even worse, and the family begins to disintegrate. If you think this sounds interesting, you are right. It is great stuff, culminating in a disaster that even the all-suffering mother can't take, and the family decides to get out, with or without father. Their escape, through mud, mosquitoes and jungle, also makes for a fascinating story. But at this point, with about 150 pages or so to go, the book pretty much runs out of gas. The plot dies, the characterizations end, and a long series of thinly-disguised lectures begin, apparently in an effort to enlighten the pampered, overfed, rich and ignorant Americans most likely to be reading this thing. You see, we overthrew the noble and democratic Lumumba in 1961 and installed the horrid, greedy, and despotic Mobutu, all because we were afraid of a little communism (small C). The communists, don't you know, feel that all people deserve to live in their own house. Everybody! What's wrong with that? And if that wasn't bad enough, we then stupidly backed the opposition group in Angola against its wonderful democratic leader, but at least the brave and noble Cubans came over to help him. How TERRIBLE it is to be an American, and how ashamed we all should be. And look at the shelves in American grocery stores! Filled with useless things, like shampoo, and carpet cleaner, and shaving cream. Why should anybody need these things? People in Africa have NOTHING! What a bunch of arrogant, overfed, ignorant morons we all are! Okay, I get it. In fact, I'm even willing to admit that there's bound to be a little truth in what Ms. Kingsolver says about our incessant political meddling. And yes, okay, coming back from Africa after two years to the plenty of America had to have been a disorienting experience. But for goodness sake, can't she try to make it a little more even-handed? Is it too much to ask that we get even a tiny little glimpse of what the other side of the story might be? Even worse, she sacrifices one of her characters to overbalance the political argument in her favor. Rachel, clearly the most superficial of the sisters, is nevertheless an interesting, fully-developed character early on. But in the later chapters she is distorted to become selfish, ignorant and racist in order to prove the author's point about ugly Americans, and furthermore to set her against her nobler, more Africanized and therefore oh-so-progressive sisters. It is too much. Much too much, and really a shame. The book is a flop. And it didn't have to be. If the talented Ms. Kingsolver had simply and quietly illustrated the fascinating differences between Western and African cultures, the reader would have been allowed to draw his own conclusions. Instead, we are spoon-fed a bowl of ill-tasting and indigestible propaganda, and told in no uncertain terms that the world will be a much better place when white people are no longer left in it. Please excuse me if I choose not to jump on this bandwagon.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW
Review: This book was on my AP English summer reading list, and I have to admit that at first, the idea of reading a 500+ page book during my vacation wasn't very appealing. However, if I had known that this book was going to be as remarkable as it is, I would have read it a long time ago. As a student who tends to stay within the realm of the classics when choosing books to read, I enjoyed this more recent book immensely, and while I had never read one of Kingsolver's books previous to this one, I found her writing style to be quite intriguing. While it is a work of fiction, The Poisonwood Bible is so well grounded with a historical setting that the plot itself was very believable. The characters are so well developed that by the end of the book, I felt that I knew them personally, and since the book takes place over a period of more than forty years, I enjoyed getting to know them and seeing how they changed throughout the story. This book is amazing in every aspect and has a very poignant message about our ability to impact those around us and our inability to let go of our past. I couldn't put it down and you won't be able to either. Prepare to be haunted by a future literary classic!
Rating:
Summary: A Book To Compare All Others To
Review: This book is my standard: the book by which all other books are compared. You feel as if you've gone to the Congo and could describe it to someone as if you've lived there. And the characters. . . be ready to see someone in the street with light blond hair and think "she has hair like Rachel's". When you finish the book, it will be as if you're leaving your friends behind. I've never read a book with such great character development! Buy 2 copies of this book: one to keep and re-read and one to lend out (hoping that you'll get it back again).
Rating: 
Summary: almost a 5, but a few really bad errors...
Review: Nathan Price, the father in the book, knows his Bible extremely well, being able to recite hundreds of verses from memory. There is this one scene where he is teaching Leah and he proclaims that the Lord helps those who help themselves. Hogwash... this is never mentioned in the Bible and to hear Nathan, the "knowledgeable" (at least legalistically) say it disheartened me because it showed the author's agenda. Christianity is pretty much given from only the author's perspective, subtlely different enough to think that the daughters and Orleanna think on their own, but not really. Or course, hardly anything good is said of Nathan Price, and it would've been interesting if 1 or 2 chapters were from his perspective. Another flaw, perhaps minute, is when one of the daughters goes to Emory, she studies agricultural engineering. I went to Emory and when I read that, I immediately knew that was impossible as Emory has no engineering program and a very weak math program. Nevertheless, the author is surely gifted and allowed me to go through the full range of emotions in reading this novel. She has a way with words, especially when speaking through Adah, which just stunned me at times with her wit... and then shifting over to Ruth May and reading it from a toddler's perspective was refreshing as well (although I wished there were more chapters from her point of view). Definitely an engaging read.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This is not a book one can read in a day (atleast for most readers). But, the story is the greatest I have read in a long time.The scenery was discribed so vividly that I could see it in my mind's eye very clearly. I thought at times that I could feel the rough conditions in which the characters were living.
Rating:
Summary: Kingsolver fan forever...
Review: I absolutely loved this book...I don't know why I hesitated so long before buying it...also I just recently learned it was one of Hillary Clinton's favorite novels & that it reminded her ''that every women faces unique challenges & choices, and that all too often women find themselves trapped by their circumstances.'' I agree, this epic novel, narrated by four sisters and their mother dissects three decades of a family's life starting in 1959. It is filled with tender & tragic love, evil patriarchal tyranny and strong religious & political conflicts.
I was moved by each fictional narrator's profound insight...I had to remind myself that this was not a true story, even though the story within the story was based on real historical figures and actual political struggles in the Congo.
Expertly crafted, the author renders a passionate, touching and even at times sinister tale.
Kingsolver has written such a complex, powerful yet utterly warm and unforgettable novel, for a couple of days it captivated my time, my thoughts and my whole life...Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: The Poisonwood Bible is REMARKABLE
Review: I TOTALLY WAS ENTHRAWED by this book! I could not wait to read the entire book. It was well written and although she claims this to be fiction ... it could not be any closer to the TRUTH! My 3 daughters and myself lived a life nearly IDENTICAL to what she had written. ...My daughters read this book as well and they were able to interject their own feelings about a situation such as the book described. Thus they were able to have an open conversation about having such UNCARING overly pompous father in their life. I felt like Barbara Kingsolver had seen my life and wrote it word for word. Her ability to see and describe the FEELINGS of the characters was REMARKABLE! Not to mention how INCREDABLY accurate the psychological aspects were illustrated. I highly encourage anyone that is battling religious or social abuse to read this. Sometimes it is just better to see a possible outcome of a situation (such as the one this book offers) to be able to see where you don't have to go. GOOD JOB BARBARA!
Rating:
Summary: Ranks right up there with all "classic novels"...
Review: People who say this book is awful need to read it again. I am a picky person and I don't read many novels although I do enjoy reading, but the first sentence grabbed me. I must say I am quite anti-religion and being the granddaughter of an Episcopal bishop felt "put upon" when my mother's friend, an extreme Christian, put this book in my face and said, "Read it." I opened it and there was the first sentence: "Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened." I had to go on, trudge through this thing that I thought I would hate, yet I must say now this is one of my favorite books I have ever read in my short sixteen years of life and I've read quite a few (although this coming from someone who thorougly thinks War and Peace is great and people look at me oddly for that one). My father told me his stories of being the child of a missionary in the same era in Africa and thus I was compelled to read on. Nathan Price's views are not offered here, yet they need not be, for the characteristics of this novel are the voices of the women. I would NOT say this is a feminist novel. I would say that it's a book of self exploration and degredation, of what has happened these past years, the cruelty and the intrigue and corruption all over the world. Life isn't perfect and it sure as hell wasn't in the Belgian Congo in the 50s, believe you me! But this book is great. It drags a bit at the end and people whine about how Rachel says "jeez oh man" at age fifty, but, Rachel's the "stupid one out" of the characters. They age yet in ways no one would expect due to their trials in life, especially poor Leah and Adah. Kingsolver has yet again created an epic out of a story out of reality and man I feel like reading this again.
Rating:
Summary: A book not to miss!
Review: I found "The Poisonwood Bible" to be a captivating book that lead me to consider many things about the human spirit. The way in which the book is written, each section being from a different narrative, makes it all that more interesting to have so many perspectives. You are able to be inside each of their heads and empathize with their beliefs. Each of their journey's brings them to a conclusion that will stay in your thoughts for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: This is Barbara Kingsolver's Best Work -- by far.
Review: I actually cried real tears during parts of this book & I've never done that before. I'm not going to go into the plot of the book because so many other reviewers have already done that, but I'll tell you this book is worth all the time you can muster to read & read & read until your eyes can no longer focus. I was so engrossed I could hardly put it down - especially the first 2/3 of the book. I thought the subtle way the author changed the voices of the girls with time was perfectly tuned. I had no problem keeping up with the 25 or 30 year time span, as other reviewers have mentioned was a problem. By the end of the novel I felt extremely comfortable with each of the characters, like I'd personally known them since children. I found the mother, Orleanna, and one of the daughters, Adah, to be some of Barbara Kingsolver's most compelling characters, and Our Father, Nathan Price, is quite odious as the judgmental "hypoChristian." I also love some the foreshadowing, but I won't ruin it for everybody who hasn't read the book! Barbara Kingsolver can be a politically-minded individual and I had no illusions that a book about post-colonial Belgian Congo/Zaire/Rep. of Congo would have anything less than a few references to politics. It seems naive to imagine otherwise.
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