Rating: 
Summary: Fact and Fiction in the Heart of Africa
Review: Kingsolver's book, "The Poisonwood Bible" is worth reading. However, the books suffers from the style that she uses to tell the story. The story is primarily told by three fictional daughters of a missionary to Africa. At times, the accounts of the daughters are disjointed, rambling, and even a bit tedious. Kingsolver deliberately makes some statements of the daughters hard to understand, to emphasize their age and worldview, I believe. But its a chore for the reader to try and interpret what is being said. The second major criticism I have of the book is that Kingsolver paints a very simplistic view of the politics and turmoil in the Congo from its independence in 1960 until present. She seems to believe that the inhabitants of the Congo were victims of Belgian and than, later, American "imperialists" following independence. It seems clear from the way the characters tell the story that Kingsolver believes that if the Congolese people had simply been allowed to decide their own fate--without foreign intervention--than events in the Congo would have taken a much more favorable course. This is part of the tired argument that all of Africa's problems can be traced to foreigners, colonialism, and slavery. Surely, these factors have caused problems, but foreigners and colonialism left behind an economic infrastructure including roads, schools, ports, airports, and farms when the countries became independent. Those who seek an explanation for Africa's backwardness must also look to tribalism, geographic isolation from much of the world, disease, and a harsh climate. Having said that, the story does introduce readers to the tragic history of a nation deep in the heart of the jungles. It gives us interesting characters, such as the crazy missionary, Nathan Price, and the nationalistic school teacher, Anatole, to ponder. It gives a good description of how the Congo passed from the Belgians through its first elected government and into the hands of a military dictator, Mobutu. It also sets the stage and helps explain the recent turmoil there involved Laurent Kabila who was recently assassinated. It describes the interactions of three daughters who pursue very different pathways in life and what becomes of them. Its a mixed bag, but on the whole it was worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: I suppose there is potential to be disappointed by any of Oprah's recommendations because there is so much hype around each book, but this one was so tedious I gave up half way through. As hard as I tried I just couldn't get into it. I am never without a book and will read just about anything I can get my hands on, so I'm surprised that so many people gave this book rave reviews - I just can't see the appeal! In defence of Oprah's book club, the best book I have ever read is "I know this much is true" by Wally Lamb. If you read one book this year, make it this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling? That's an understatement.
Review: An enormous story that grabs you by the collar and won't leave you alone - regardless if you favor the politics of the author or know zip about missionaries or the Belgian Congo. Kingsolver offers 5 distinct female characters who build and drive this tale of spiritual and cultural purgatory. Unfortunately, the evangelical father (he drags the Georgia family to a primitive village mission) remains a bit of a mystery. Like the wind, you see his damage, but you don't entirely understand where he's coming from.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantabulous!
Review: I had to invent a new word for this one. This may be one of the best books I have read in ten years. The father in this story is a zealot missionary who runs to the jungle, really to confront things that happened to him before and loses his entire family there. The history of Congo/Zaire from a different perspective is eye-opening and fabulous, and the things found in this book are enough to make any American, Black, White, blue or green, question what the news told us about 1960-80's Africa and the US, the slave trade, and race relations in general. Barbara Kingsolver also poignantly illustrates that sometimes, a person has to be stripped of all they take for granted to learn to appreciate what is true, real and necessary in life. At the end of the book, I was speechless, and up all night.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Good Book
Review: How interesting that when a critic disagrees with an author's point of view, the author is "wearing her politics on her sleeve," and this is considered to be a "weakness" of the book! Perhaps because I agree with the political ideas of Barbara Kingsolver, I found the book to be insightful, fascinating, and a thoroughly great read.
Rating:
Summary: Simply incredible...fascinating...GRRREAT!
Review: Reading this book was an unbelievable experience. Nathan Price is the most self-righteous, most pitiful self-appointed reformer I've ever met in my many literary travels. His wife, Orleanna, is his exact opposite - and more than a match for him, though he never realizes it, and you won't believe it for at least half the book. But it's their daughters that are the heart and soul of this book. Yes, the book deals with all the Price family, their internal conflicts and their interaction with the local populace (and Reverend Price's inability to acclimate himself to Congolese culture), but Rachel, Ruth May, and especially Leah and Adah, will be raised in this environment - and the friendships they make and the things they learn will shape their lives, the lives of their families, and to some extent the lives of the people of the emerging nation-state called at various times Congo and Zaire. There are some vague similarites to Paul Theroux' "The Mosquito Coast", but don't pick up this book expecting a clone of Theroux' work. That book was great, but this is much better.
Rating:
Summary: Poisonwood Review
Review: This book is an excellent read. The imagery is fantastic. I felt as though I was in the Congo with the Price family as I was reading this book. Barbara Kingsolver also did a lot of reasearch on the history of the Congo.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating!!!!
Review: I gave this book a great deal of time and effort,but it was all in vain. After hearing all the gushing from Oprah and her audience members, I thought it was a book I would enjoy. It has to be the most frustrating and confusing book I've ever read. I was constantly confused about which character was speaking at the time. I had to give up less than a quarter of the way through. If you have to work that hard at reading a book, it looses it's enjoyment. I'm never without a book, and I'm always buying new ones, so I consider myself well read. But this one never lived up to the hype. More power to you if you enjoyed it. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but after reading some of the other reviews, I tend to doubt it.
Rating:
Summary: "Will salvation be the death of me?"
Review: http://www.watershed.winnipeg.mb.ca/bookcafe/bcpoisonwood.html "IMAGINE A RUIN so strange it must never have happened." So begins Barbara Kingsolver's epic novel The Poisonwood Bible. In its 550 pages Kingsolver explains the ruin and the redemption that occur within a family that travels to Africa as missionaries in 1959. Amidst carpenter ant invasions, bouts of malaria, and political uprisings we are given a glimpse of the cultural, agricultural and economic turmoil of the Congo from 1960 to the present. Kingsolver chooses to write her narrative from the vantage point of the family's five women, who each explore their own journey back from Africa. In a sense, collectively these women ask: What did we do to Africa and how do we respond to that? At one point one of the daughters, Adah, asks: "Will salvation be the death of me? " This is a key question of the novel. Will salvation cause the death of our normal way of seeing things, or our normal way of being in the world? Each one of the women has to decide whether they are willing to open themselves to the possibilities of salvation and the freedom it entails.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant litterature which gives insight
Review: I enjoyed the reading of this book so much, and also the feeling it gave that now I could understand more about the people of Congo. How the book made the peple there more real and how recent happenings in Congo suddenly made sense. I also enjoy the way Kingsolver manage to make 6 very different people come alive trough this story and how she manage to let each of them help forward the story and at the same time give faces to different ways we humans handle hardship and challenges. The technique of allowing each of the five women to have chapters of their own was wonderful, especially since the father, who as the driving force of the family and whom made them all go there, had no voice at all! I agree with the reviewer that said it was like he was the eye of the hurricane: full of his empty promises, with zero understanding of the situation around him and his all-consuming, petty inability to be anything other than such a self sentered and diapointing person. I loved Kingsolver's discussion of local languages and how she played with words and sentences: evil live. devil lived. Not only have I a feeling of having enjoyed myself and laughed and felt for the people of Congo and the american family, but I also meet Elie, my old teacher of Christianity trough this pages. I remember vividly her showing us photoes of her as a missionair (as was both her brothers) bringing the white mans god into darkest Africa, as she put it. Suddenly I could remember the photoes she used to send around in class of X-mas dinners, where only those who went regulary to church could enjoy the heaps of food. I also remember her talk about her dear chocolate children, and the photoes of them with their big unhealthy bellys. But my strongest memmory is the smiles of the same people and the happiness they often radiated. So unlike Elie. A lot of reviewers of this book has split into two camps. The ones who feel this is a angry attack on christianity and those who like the book whatsoever. I have one message to those of you who trash this book as an attack on christianity because it tells a story about such a egosentric and miserable missonair as Nathan. If you see this as an attack on your religion, you obviosly do not accept that anyone who calls themself christian can be a bad person. That is very interesting in itself. I am really impressed with this book, which is my first experience with Kingsolver. I advice all readers (whatever belief) to read the book yourself and to enjoy Kingsolvers great storytelling. She is a great writer and this is a great book.
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