Rating: 
Summary: Which sister are you?
Review: There are some books that you read and you say to yourself, "My, that was good." And then there are some books that you read and say to yourself, "A world of souls wrote this, and I will miss them all for the rest of my life." The voices of this book are so real, and so naturally developing, that you get the feeling that the characters actually wrote the book. They go from talking in their own voices to talking in each other's voices to finally talking in the voices of their parents. If you flip through the book you will see chapter titles taking you into the points of view of the sisters and their mother, but the father never seems to have a say (the reader might say that he doesn't need one, but then, according to Africa, none of them need one. According to the world we are blessed that they all get a say). By the end of the novel, however, you realize that the father has had his say the whole time, and not just by sheer force but by the presence of heredity of trait. A lyrical novel of growth, Kingsolver's greatest accomplishment is showing maturing through voice alone. It was difficult for this reader to picture the sisters getting older because I didn't want to happen, but happen it does, even for the oldest and least grown-up of the bunch. Change is not only good in this book, it is a wonder that is fought and embraced and fought and embraced so often that a person has to cry out in ecstasy or irony after a while. I hope that I cried out for the right reasons, but, as sister Leah Price says (in a paraphrasing), rights and wrongs in this book take a whole new turn. If you have not yet read this book you'd best be doing it, for all of the right and wrong reasons.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful...and flawed
Review: This book is a moving and beautiful tapestry of words. I finished it a month or so ago, but Kingsolver's imagery remains in my mind. The problem I have, however, is the portrayal of Nathan Price. The women of the book are so multifaceted, and poor Nathan is a one-dimentional "Bible Thumper." Kingsolver shows her lack of familiarity with Baptis thought and practice (Nathan Price is a Baptist missionary) again and again. No Baptist minister would quote apochriphal books as scripture, for example. If he did, he wouldn't be Baptist for long. There are other problems like this. While trivial, they made me question other things the writer asserts. I also confess to being a bit tired of "missionary-as-evil-bigot" themes. Most missionaries are hard-working, loving people who give up much. That said, I still enjoyed the book for its rich imagery of Africa (sights, sounds, smells and all) and its vivid character development.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with this book and you won't be disappointed!!
Review: I found this book hard to get into at first, and needed to go back and re-read to get the feel for each of the characters who tell this story. But once it got going, I couldn't put it down - and it is a big book to get through in one sitting!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible and inept
Review: This book is being reviewed from my Evangelical Christian beliefs. The heathen really are lost and Jesus Christ is "The Way, The Truth and The Life . . . noone comes to the Father unless it is through Him." John 14:6 Two stars were granted simply because Kingsolver is able to describe the harshness and severity of Congolese life. Her explanation of the topsy turvy world they live in politically, socially, and religiously was enlightening. The corrupt way that our United States of America interferred and meddled in their affairs is shocking. These parts are well written . . . However . . . . There is not one single respectable person/character. Beginning with the heinous "Christian" Nathan Price who didn't "kill a single deer to feed his family" to any other character this book was extremely depressing. When I finished I asked myself is that all there is??? What's the point??? Don't waste your time reading it. If you are a genuine Christian this book will anger you because Kingsolver paints missionaries (the Price's) as fanatical bigots. No true follower of Jesus is fanatical or bigoted. A Christian strives to live and love others just as Jesus did. This author tries to get me to feel apologetic for my faith and what this mis-led family brought to the Congolese people. The non-Christian is left with the feeling that, perhaps, these people aren't really lost spiritually afterall. This is NOT good for anyone. There are missionaries this very minute dying to serve and love and present the precious gospel message to those suffering folks---to bring the gift of eternal life. Finally, if Jesus Christ be not raised from the dead as the only begotten Son of God then the true Christian is to be most pitied . . . let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die as Paul spoke. But Jesus is the incarnation of the one true God and through His blood a person may be saved. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation???
Rating:
Summary: Majestic prose to envelop you and sweep you to the Congo...
Review: The Poisonwood Bible begins with the Price family, a missionary family headed to Congo in the 1960s during a time of great upheaval in that country. The family is unsure of what to expect but they set off to the country with hope and life.The character development of the fascinating group of people in this book, from the determined mother, and the strange father, to the spoiled Rachel is so well-executed you feel like you are experiencing this adventure first hand with them. The book is so engrossing that you sometimes forget where you are... You can hear the sounds of the Congo, feel the itch of the mosquitos, smell the food. The book weaves a heartbreaking tale that will leave you flipping the pages furiously in order to find out what happens next. You will be surprised at the metamorphosis of this family and the transition each one of them makes on the Congo. This is one you can pick up in hardcover, because it is one that you will want to keep forever.
Rating: 
Summary: A page turner, at first.
Review: To describe the utter frustration over the way this book was put together is very difficult. The first part is enticing, full of rich, sensuous images and well defined characters. The second part of the book in no way matches the storytelling power of the first. Homer's Odyssey works the same way, telling first the story of Telemakos and Penelope, then the actual journey of Odysseus and then the tale of Odysseus' return to Ithica. Throughout the Odyssey the reader is treated to a feast of sensuous detail and a list of characters which could almost step off the page. While I am not juxtaposing the two books, I am trying to illustrate that when a work involves the telling of a story which has already completed itself, the detail and emotional level must be the same throughout. There is a loss of the cumpulsion to want to turn the page in the second half of the book. I think the second almost reads as if it were meant to be a sequal, meant to have it's own thematic climax. Read the book knowing that it will slow and become a labour to read at the end, but it does tell the complete story of each character by the end.
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Summary: An All-Time Favorite
Review: This is an excellent book. A stunning achievement of character development, plot, theme, description & all things related to writing & fiction. It is a huge book, but the long read is something to savor ... I was actually sad when the book ended. I completely disagree with reviewers who said the second half seemed slower than the first half (What can I say? Perhaps those readers were anxious to get to bed?) or that the character of Rachel isn't as strong as the others. Rachel is the least likeable character, by design; not a flaw of the writer but a flawed narrator (Come on, folks, that's the point!) And the characters age in this book, so the slightly changed perspectives of the characters in the second half are appropriate and revealing. This is an exceptional book, one you definitely want to own rather than check out from the library, as you'll want to read it again and again.
Rating:
Summary: A great read but...
Review: I loved the first half of this book, but the second half seemed stuck on to me, like it was development work she did to understand her characters, that grew so large she didn't want to toss it. I felt it dragged on. Maybe if it was shorter, it would have read better, but I felt it needed a second climax, if she was going to devote so much of the book to that part of the story. The first part of the book is very absorbing. The other reviews articulate what is great about this book so well, no reason to say anything more about it. BTW, I took anthropology from Barbra Kingsolver's sister, Ann, in college!
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Summary: What is salvation?
Review: And at what price? These are some of the questions raised as a fiery Baptist preacher drives his family to the ground in his valiant (in his mind) attempt to convert the people of Congo to the ways and love of Christ. As told by the four women of his family -- wife Orleanna, oldest daughter Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and youngest Ruth May -- the book chronicles their lives as a missionary family in Congo, amidst the political upheavals that shaped the continent politically and socially, and even tragically. Nathan the preacher, behind the take-no-prisoners style of mission, is actually a frail man. Tormented by his war past, he is driven to settle the score between cowardice and bravery. Behind the wall, he is unable to even provide basic foods and needs for his family -- a "higher calling," as one of his daughters states. His tyranny is unbearable to his family, until one day, with just the clothes on their backs, the women escape from the clutches of Nathan the husband and father, Nathan the preacher man whom the village regarded as dangerous. Rachel never wanted to come to Africa, Leah strived to be father's favorite, Adah was crippled from birth and had a twisted, but sensible, view on life, and Ruth May was like the little mongoose. The narration, from each women, are multidimensional, although I thought sometimes Kingsoler's political agenda got in the way through Leah's narrations. Yet their lives are intertwined like vines with Africa. As their fortunes (so to speak) change, as they age, their lives always revolve around the continent they hated. The book is full of foreshadowing. From the moment they step off the plane in Congo, the night when the army ants attack, to the entire village fighting over the game hunted in desperation -- desperate need of sustenance as the drought dried everything left to eat -- I couldn't help feeling dread as the family, and the entire village, slowly disintegrated. As an atheist, I asked myself, what would be proper in God's eyes? Answering the call of higher being and neglecting and abusing -- the inability to provide -- your own family? Or should the basic needs of family should be met in balance? Perhaps in Nathan's eyes, what he did was in balance, or that there never could be such a thing when God's calling is involved. Even as a former Christian, it's a question that I, nor anyone in church could really answer. I always believed salvation starts from within. Within one's self, withing one's family. If Nathan's own family despised him, and ultimately rejects God (which he wouldn't have known, but for the sake of the argument...) how could he have expected to bring salvation to strangers? If I have to find a fault in this book, it's the lack of dimension with Nathan. I wished for his own perspective, not tainted perspectives from his family. It's the lack of understanding I felt, perhaps the entire family felt, that left me a little frustrated, and yet a little sympathetic for Nathan. Each of the women close their chapters with Nathan a little differently, and each of them remind us, one must save himself in order to save others.
Rating:
Summary: Great book - but watch out for the Zeitgeist!
Review: I loved this book, cleverly-written with a very clear message about colonialism of the mind and the spirit. The last couple of pages made me cry, made me feel about the people I've known and who have died - sisters, parents, friends. But I wonder about this book and some others I've read recently - Chocolat by Joanne Harris, The English Passengers. All rightly criticising colonialism and 19th C evangelcism (religious and scientific). Alan Garner's "Strandloper" picks up on the same zeitgeist. Problem for me is that the Christian characters are depicted as so thick, feeble, insensitive - basically one-dimensional. Unwitting servants of Western Imperialism. What doesn't come over is the joy of Spanish Fiestas, the loyalty to local deities ("Virgins"), the sense that people could live with the Catholic Church's nonsense if their local worship was acknowledged. These books are about problems of Calvinism, Methodism - the protestant version of The Enlightenment. And the rightful questioning of Western exploitation/justification. So my take on all this is this - some heartfelt and beautiful books about colonialism and how bad it was, but missing out on home-grown beauty and mystery (see Strandloper) (The British Isles is a colonised location, after all!)
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