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Summary: Didn't live up to the hype, in my estimation
Review: A friend of mine told me that this was the best book she had ever read, so I began it with very high expectations. I was very disappointed and frustrated by the end of this reading experience. I think the author missed some opportunities to tie things together at the end of the book. Why the abrupt shift of setting, for instance, after making the Congo the focus throughout the entire book? Why wasn't the father's fate more clearly defined? He is such a strong presence in the novel, yet me know so little about him. Most of all, I found the daughter's wordplay just plain annoying by the time I got to the end.
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Summary: Male Bashing 101
Review: Despite universal acclaim, I found the characters cartoonish and predictable. The world of men are bad and women endure and prevail does not represent a fictional world I'd like to enter nor the real world where I live. Dear old crazy dad, we made it despite him or because of him, but we couldn't, didn't, don't love him.
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Summary: Kingsolver can write!
Review: This book was so good, I've had a hard time enjoying any other book since I read it. The writing is fantastic!This story is about a missionary family that travels to the Congo during the late 50s and early 60s, to spread the word of God to the natives. The narrative alternates between the mother and four daughters, which keeps it very interesting. How does Kingsolver manage to write in 5 voices that are so very different? The family arrives in Africa with all of their 'worldly' possessions--Betty Crocker cake mixes and all, and immediately set about showing the natives the proper way to get things done. As the story progresses towards an overthrow of the government, a powershift within the American family takes place as well. The Congo, as well as the missionary family, will be forever changed. If you enjoy writing that contains an excellent narrative, lots of historical research, and layers of symbolic meaning, you will really appreciate this book.
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Summary: Worty of all 5 stars!
Review: Barbara Kingsolver immediately grabs the reader through her use of imagery and style of writing. Throughout the "Poisonwood Bible", I found myself experiencing the feelings and trials of each of the characters! Truly a book that makes one reflect on all that life gives and takes.
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Summary: Poisonwood Bible: Five Stars
Review: Beautifully, beautifully written; Kingsolver's crisp, poetic imagery and fluid language create a lush and present enviornment for a complex, deeply disturbing story. I was fascinated by how well Kingsolver navigated layers of psychological/family dynamics in this book-- narrating from several differing perspectives. An incredibly realistic account, psychologically speaking, of the haunting emotional devastation wreaked upon a family given a father's narcissistic investment in his own views --and a mother's passivity. Kingsolver brings beautiful and desolate Africa to the reader, both in landscape and politics, and strengthens awareness of political and sociological issues present in patriarchal culture, social class, and religion. This book had me turning one page after another, unable to set it down. When finished, I spent a long time discussing it over coffee; I was so moved by the book, as well as energized by Kingsolver's creative ability and insight. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: The Poisonwood Bible is an intersting book. You must read the entire book to get the true actual meaning f the book. The book reminds me of "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," by: Julia Alvarez. The only difference is the book goes forward in time. Each of the 4 girls and their mother,Orleanna, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May have different perspective on how life is in the Belgian Congo. This creative formula makes the book even better. The only downfall of the book is the mother has a boring perspective.
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Summary: A Brilliant Writer
Review: This is the first Barbara Kingsolver novel I read, based on some good reviews. I discovered a new voice, one that is unique to me, and I have read thousands of books--from Tolstoy to Tan. Kingsolver's writing is delicious. She is blessed with tremendous talent and insight. Other Amazon reviews will tell you the plot of this book, but I won't, because I was so enthralled by the absolute beauty and power of her writing that the story--as great as it was--was not my main focus while reading. Of course, I have since read The Bean Trees, Pigs In Heaven and Animal Dreams, and I have received the same treat each time I read one of her books...I get to revel in splendid writing.
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Summary: An Oprah-style journey into "The Heart of Darkness"
Review: In "The Poisonwood Bible," Barbara Kingsolver executes satisfactorily the essential elements of a provocative story: satisfying character development, suspense, and attention to detail. The four daughters in her story, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, have distinct voices and successfully serve as foils and mirrors against each other. All of them reflect pieces that can be found in many of us. Rachel is the unabashed American, representative of American culture at its worst and most self-absorbed. Because Kingsolver portrays her with such compassionate humor, Rachel allows us to see ourselves in her, without the need to put up our defenses and shun that aspect of ourselves that resides in many of us. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her autobiography, "The Wheel of Life," writes of her realization at the end of World War II that "there is a Hitler in all of us." So, too, is there the potential for a Rachel in all of us, as Kingsolver illustrates in her contemporary journey into Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." In contrast, it is pure joy and discovery to watch Leah develop over the course of the novel. Indeed, all of the daughters develop, deepen, and mature over time. Their experience in Africa changes their lives, as it hopefully will yours, too, when you read this novel. "Love changes everything," says the voice of Leah. Indeed, it does; her love for Africa lost, as well as Kingsolver's, changes everything. You cannot escape this novel without having gained a greater compassion for the tragedy that is Africa, the richness that has been exploited. Yet this is not a sentimental, naïve, or simplistic, knee-jerk-liberal perspective of Africa. Kingsolver's portrait is rich in complexity and depth. It is through the different characters' eyes that the complexity of Africa and its history are revealed. In particular, Leah's return to America, when she stands inside a supermarket and experiences wonderment, anger, and shame, should resonate with anyone who has lived outside the US, as it certainly did with me. Adah, too, develops in a surprisingly revealing way. Adah, physically injured at birth and emotionally injured growing up in the United States, illustrates with perfect clarity our culture's discomfort with differences. In Africa, however, her physical "abnormality" fits right in, and it is her "perfect" sisters who stand in stark contrast to the maimed natives for whom no modern medical care is available. How Adah resolves and makes peace with her physical and emotional situations is one of the most satisfying discoveries revealed in the novel. Adah is tempted with the opportunity for romance, once she discovers that she is healed. When she discovers, however, that it is only her healed, perfect self that is acceptable to her potential lover, rather than her imperfect self, she rejects the opportunity to thus deny this very real part of herself. So, too, will Africa be acceptable and righted to us, only when it "cleans up its act" and behaves in a "civilized" manner? Or can we accept Africa in its blackness, its stark contrast to our blonde whiteness, with its warts and all, and what it mirrors to us about our own warts? Adah's poetic voice is pure joy and beauty to read. Her poetry reveals the language that resides inside of all of us, if only we listen to it and refuse to be distracted by the sounds of our own voices. By not being able to talk as a child, Adah is permitted to develop a rich, though dark, inner voice. The darkness of her poetry also reveals the deep necessity of relationship among us. Because Adah, like many of us, has no one to discuss with and thereby work through her disturbing inner thoughts-her dark side, like Africa's, is shunned in the "Land of General Electric"-she does not begin to find resolution until "the Exodus," when she is forced to make a positive choice for herself. "The Exodus" is Adah's turning point, when she ceases to see herself as baggage heaped upon her family, and begins to take responsibility for her own life. So, too, at the time of the Exodus--the Congo's independence--the Congo ceases to be the "white man's burden" and begins to come into its own. But "The Poisonwood Bible" is not merely a story of compassion for Africa. Expect to be angered when you read this story. Readers familiar with Kingsolver's earlier works will recognize her anger at having been betrayed in her benevolent trust of this country's elected public officials and the arrogance of their actions. This anger over betrayal, as well as the poetic voice revealed in Adah, can be found also in her collection of poetry, "Another America." Reading "The Poisonwood Bible" reawakened my curiosity surrounding the circumstances of the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary General who died while assisting independence negotiations in the Congo. I have since begun reading Brian Urquhart's biography, "Hammarskjold," as well as Michael Wrong's new book, "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz." Both have added more dimension to the continuing story of the Congo.
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Summary: Book club reactions were mixed, but I was mesmerized.
Review: While the reactions of other book club members were mixed, I found this book difficult to put down. The jungle was real and the power of its presence overwhelming. I would have given a rating of 5 stars, but for two things. First, the narration is split between the voices of the mother and 4 daughters of a missionary zealot. While the missionary's character comes through fairly strongly through the voices of his children, his wife's character does not come through much at all, through her own voice or her children's. Perhaps this is intentional to convey her own blandness in the wake of her husband's overwhelming character, but she remains a non-entity to me. Second, there is a transition about 3/4 of the way through the book (I won't give it away) which is disturbing, in that the narrators' characters in the following segments seem to show changes too abrupt to have been precipitated by a single incident. I did find the characters' voices unique and clear throughout the book, and I was fascinated by the missionary father's inability to understand or be moved or changed by the jungle, the Congo or its people, even as his whole family is transformed.
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Summary: Kingsolver is GREAT!
Review: I truly enjoyed this book! I was lost for days and had to consciously pull myself back to reality after a reading session. The book was informative, educational and a wonderful story. Thank you Barabar Kinsolver.
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