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Summary: I loved it!
Review: I'll admit, I did not really expect to enjoy this book, but much to my surprise I loved it! I enjoyed hearing the girls different interpretations of what they were experiencing. I think it gave me a better understanding of what was really happening. I also find this book really interesting because not only is it a story of an American family trying to survive in the Congo, but it also describes the politics that were governing the Congo. I think that by the end of the book I had a better understanding of how some places are intrinsically different. Neither the government nor the religion of the USA is necessarily the best solution for other countries, even if it works great in the US. The geographical and climatic differences make it impossible for their cultures to ever be similar. Overall, this book was wonderfully crafted to show life in the Congo.
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Summary: "The truest truth" about missionaries and the Congo
Review: The Poisonwood Bible is about a Southern Baptist, Nathan Price, who moves his family to the Congo to work as a missionary. Kingsolver creates a clear view of the Congo through narration by Nathan's four daughters (Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May), who each have unique experiences. While Nathan struggles to convert the community of Kilanga, his daughters grow into strong, opinionated young women. The Congo has a truly lasting effect on the family. The book is very riveting and suspenseful. The family is trapped in the revolutionary atmosphere of the 1960's Congo. It is only after tragedy that the family finally disobeys Nathan and attempts to exit the Congo.I truly enjoyed this book and highly suggest that you read it!
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Summary: A Fight to Stay Awake
Review: "The Poisonwood Bible," is an educational book describing life in the Congo through the eyes of five fictional women. At times you may find yourself dozing off wondering when you will finally reach page 543! The life of a stubborn missionary and his family is not always exciting. You better bake yourself a batch cookies to snack on with a pot of coffee to stay awake. While you are reading about Ruth May's battle with malaria, Leah's hunting escapades, Adah's cynical views of the world, and ignorant Rachel's love affairs be sure to keep taking sips from your coffee mug. All you men out there if you want action this book is not for you, but if you want to know how life in the Congo in 1959 affected people then be prepared to spend hours and hours reading what truly is a Bible!!
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Summary: The Things I Felt
Review: I enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible very much, although the story would have been more effective, in my opinion, if it had ended earlier. The last 150 pages, while interesting and informative about the Congo's history, detracted impact from the story. I began to care less about the girls because much of the drama had gone out of the story. After a climax, a story should tie up lose ends, not continue for 200 more pages!!! It is hard to conecntrate on deep meanings when all that you want if to be done with the book. However, I might be biased because I was reading for a school deadline. Also, near the end, I felt that Kingsolver was trying so hard to be "profound" that she lost some of the truth that was so evident earlier in the story.
The best part of the book was the way that Kingsolver made her characters come alive. Each person had a distinct personality, including the Congo, and this made the story seem real. Like a documentary that really happened, yet still interesting. I could identify with each of the girls, imagining how I would react if I were put in their place. Also, the story really made me think about values and life in general. While Adah did not value human life or really care much about others, Leah felt too deeply the hurt that humans can perpetrate upon one another. The Poisonwood Bible made me think, even if I felt at times that it was trying too hard.
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Summary: The Price of Dysfunction
Review: In her novel The Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver presents a profound look into a dysfunctional family. Kingsolver follows the family's story by using a multiple female narrator presentation. This form of presentation allows the reader to more thoroughly understand each character. This thorough character development is one of Kingsolver's strengths. While Kingsolver tends to wax prolix, the power of the novel is not lost. That Kingsolver has lived in Africa as part of a missionary family lends credibility to the novel. Also, the political situtation is accurately portrayed and incorporated into the family's struggle to survive.
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Summary: In Response to Joseph Pennie's Review
Review: Being a Christian as well, I think you have completely misunderstood Kingsolver's intentions for this book. I agree that this book presents religion and politics in the Congo accurately. However, I would disagree with you claim that there are no respectable characters. Although Nathan, an over-zealous missionary, may be detremental to the Christian Evangelical, there are others that can be redeeming to the Christian faith. Brother Fowels, another missionary, found a way to relate to the Congolese and be succesful. Never does Kingsolver make me feel bad about being a Christian or feel the need to apoligize for my faith. All the women leave their experience with a new-found spirituality, although not over-zealous Christians. I enjoyed this book, including its Biblical format. This book brings people to see how hard a missionaries life really is, and just how trying an experience it can be.
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Summary: Oppression to Independence
Review: A heartful story of the maturation of five girls during their stay in the Congo, Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible demonstrates the plight of missionaries in Africa at the time of Congo's independence. The novel chronicles the lives of five daughters and their mother Orleanna as they strive to survive in a country where they are considers outsiders to both the language and customs of the Congolese where the father, Nathan Price, a religious zealot, is striving to save the souls of the locals. It is the story of personal evolution, for both the characters and the Congo. Orleanna's decision to free herself from the oppression that she has been subject to for most of her life parallels Congo's desire for inependence from its father country of Belgium. Although the novel gets off to a slow start, it slowly picks up pace and Kingsolver's ability to write from each character's point of view allows the reader to feel empathy for the mother and sympathy for the daughters while demonstrating how their experiences in the Congo had a significant impact on the rest of their lives.
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Summary: Read this review, because I'm Oprah.
Review: Four stars to this story of a baptist families struggle deep in Congo. Kingsolver creates very in depth and real portraits of each of the seven main characters, and really cuts to the heart of the struggles that missionaries of Africa went through in the middle of the 20th century (and perhaps still do). Although the book could have ended one hundred pages before, the extra pages provide an insight and conclusion to the life after the Congo. Kingsolver has created a classic work incorporating politics and emotions in a well wound story.
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Summary: "Oprah is Bangala" says Cincy Country Day School
Review: Popular American 50s culture clashes violently and fatally with an upheaving Belgian Congo in this masterful work by Kingsolver. While using a Baptist missionary family to display how lives are changed by a radically new environment, the underlying author's messages about colonialism, religion, and family values are indelibly impressed upon the reader's soul. The rape of a virgin African wilderness by a consciousless, impersonal European power is blatantly shown and condemned. The effect upon each individual of the country, from the inhabitants of the European-named cities to the subsistence farmers in the remote villages, each is drastically changed by faceless, rich, white, foreign governments who selfishly steal the resources of a country still searching for its own identity. Read this novel for a deeper insight into how the other half lives. Two enthusiastic thumbs up, fun for the whole family.
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Summary: A trek of five heroines
Review: The Poisonwood Bible, unlike most current literature, follows the points of view of five unique women's (all of the same blood) congolese experiences. What intrigues the common reader about this highly detailed novel is that the story is not told by a single narrator, but by five (all of which are females). While reading this intellectual novel, one is overwhelmed and taken aback as Kingsolver uses this unique writing technique to further immerse the reader in the Congo. Kingsolver also manages to add a slew of themes (such as, mental suffering) which create a strong foreground for classroom or personal argument.
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