Rating: 
Summary: This book made me not trust Oprah
Review: First, I will gladly concede that Ms. Kingsolver is a talented writer. Although a little too bent on man- and Christianity-bashing for my taste (and I am female and barely Christian myself, for the record), I found the first two-thirds of the book an engaging read. It also really made me think, as any good book should. If Ms. Kingsolver had stopped there, I would probably have given the book 4 stars. However, the last third was terrible. The characters behave unbelievably in the context of how they had been portrayed up until that point. The book becomes preachy and one-sided. The man/Christianity bashing gets out of control. I find it infuriating that women feel they have to have "bad men" as foils for their "strong women."
In short, what began as an interesting, thought-provoking, enjoyable read, ended leaving a terrible taste in my mouth.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Structure, Great Story, But Drags in Some Areas
Review: For the most part, The Poisonwood Bible is an incredible piece of literature. The voices of each narrator give thorough descriptions of their personalities and the biblical allusions are utilized incredibly well. The plot is moving and tragic, and the characters are very realistic. The book accurately portrays the way imperialist nations destroyed the Congo and demonstrates the dangers of religious fundamentalism. However, the book was about 150-200 pages too long. Some of the sections definitely could have been shortened slightly, and after Bel and the Serpent the book really started to drag. The positives do vastly outweigh the negatives, so I would definitely recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Dishonest tripe
Review: What a waste of time. If you enjoy a simple-minded book bent on bashing Christianity, particularly Christian men and missionaries, this is the book for you. Nathan Price is the ultimate scarecrow -- a wildl inaccurate character created by a woman who probably does not know a single Christian husband. It is polemical and blatantly unfair. The background to the story, with the Congolese playing your typical band of "noble savages", is equally offensive. This is political correctness at its worst. The white Christian man is a wife-beater who makes his family miserable and attempts to corrupt the noble African tribes. Heard this line before? It is the inverted Hollywood view of the world, and is itself curiously imperialistic. Those Americans who do not hop on board of an elitist rejection of Christian family values and a romanticized notion of non-western cultures will be characterized as villains in every possible context. In short, this is a simplistic read from a mean-spirited woman with a very narrow, and inaccurate, view of the world. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best in the world
Review: This book was definatly interesting to read, but it does not deserve to be in Oprah's Book Club. It's long and drawn out and is kind of a hard read, especially if you have a short attention span, but I do not regret picking it up. I wouldn't highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: So Awesome!
Review: Poisonwood is one of my all-time favorite books. I enjoyed Kingsolver's other novels, but this surpasses most everything else I've read. I love the symbolism used and the particular voices of the 5 women involved.
Rating:
Summary: Rated 4.5 by XX Libris, Philippines
Review: Our book club of 7 high school and college classmates (hence our name, XX Libris) liked this book a lot and lament that it was missed by the major award-giving bodies. Ms. Kingswood's style of differentiated viewpoints and moving from the current to retrospect worked. There was also lots of humor despite its complex themes. Some of us didn't even expect to like this book, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it compelling and rich in insight. It's not easy to find the book here though, so we actually lent our copies to our friends from another book club in the Philippines
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: This is simply a wonderful book. I could not put this down while I was reading it and found myself carrying it everywhere with me. I was entirely engrossed in the beautiful writing, the interaction and realness of the characters, and the historical events in the Congo. Just read it!
Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE
Review: I love this book, I liked it so much I used it to write a very important paper in a college english communications class that resulted in an A!@!!!! Barbara Kingsolver is so brilliant, this book really makes you think about your life in general. It really touched me since I grew up in a christian family and have always heard about missionaries, everyone should read this book. I want to go to Africa because of this book.. . I would love to personally thank Ms. Kingsolver for writing this book. My personal copy is well loved, highlighted and has even been to the beaches of mexico, I love this book!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A masterfully wrought epic of growth and the human spirit!
Review: This is truly one of the best books I have ever read. It's long, yes, but it's worth it. Really. I stayed up through the wee hours of the morning to finish it, I was that enraptured. It also takes some thought and reflection to tap into the deeper elements and themes of the book, but to me that's always what makes a piece of literature great. The story begins in 1959 when southern Baptist preacher Nathan Price, filled with missionary zeal, drags his family off to the Belgian-controlled Congo. The book is narrated in turns by Nathan's wife and four daughters. Orleanna is a passive, quiet woman who lives her life by doing as her husband demands. Her own youngest daughter describes her as wearing "the flag of 'We Give Up!'" (page 23). She does not find her own strength until Nathan has already all but destroyed their family. Rachel Price, the eldest daughter, is quite possibly the most exasperating character I've yet to come across. She represents the majority of American thought at the time, viewing the Congolese as completely ignorant savages that can't even be equated with humanity. In reality SHE is the one who is hopelessly ignorant, repeatedly messing up words and phrases - i.e. "Give up the goat" rather than "Give up the ghost," "More Scold" rather than "Morse Code," and "Episcopotamians" rather than "Episcopalians." Rachel's mind, what little of it there is, is consumed entirely by two thoughts: her hair, and how much she wants to go back home. She is entirely predictible and almost pitiable by the end of the book. As her sister Leah says, she has "the emotional complexities of a salt shaker" (page 474). Adah and Leah are twins, the middle children of the family. In the beginning of the book, they couldn't be more different. Leah is a daddy's girl that tries her best to walk in her father's footsteps. Of course she is never good enough. Adah has a birth defect that causes her to drag one side of her body. She is bitter and reclusive, but highly intelligent and has a tendency to write and even speak backwards. Both girls change dramatically as the story progresses. Leah turns into the most amazing and spiritually beautiful woman I have ever come across in a work of fiction. Marrying one of the Congolese, she gives herself over to a life of poverty for the sake of her humanitarian aims. Adah returns to the United States where she finds a therapist that ultimately brings her to overcome her disability. She attends college and goes on to enter the field of disease research, specializing in African maladies. Both women set out to heal the scarred Congo, but they go about it in very different ways. Ruth May is the youngest child, and represents the innocence that cannot survive in the vicious political world of the 1960s Congo. In the beginning I found her terribly irritating, with her blind faith in authority, but as her narrative progresses I found myself feeling more and more sorry for her and enraged at the world that refused to let her blossom. Nathan Price himself is, to put it plainly, an egocentric, misogynistic prig. His opinion on education for women is that "Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes. . . . It's hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in and wreck the shoes" (page 56). By the time he and his family get to the Congo, the rest of the missionary movement and the Belgian-controlled government have pretty much already done all the damage, so he just bumbles around like the baffoon he is, but not without tearing his own family apart. He also represents the more widespread damaging influence of the occupying Europeans as a whole, and what they have done to the Congolese people. Nathan's almost comical ignorance is brought to the forefront in the sequence that gives the book it's title. In the Kikongo language, "bangala" means "precious." But inflections of the voice cary great weight in the language, and the same word also refers to the poisonwood tree, a plant that will leave anyone who comes into contact with its sap with a very nasty rash. During one of his sermons, Nathan proclaims, "Jesus is bangala!" Without knowing it, he has just told all the locals that Jesus will make them very miserable indeed. He's not so off the mark. The Poisonwood Bible recounts the trials and tribulations of the Price family throughout their time in the Congo, and follows the thirty-year healing process they must go through after their lives are torn assunder by their arrogant father's actions. It is a beautiful narrative of destruction, survival, recovery, and hope. I generally never make marks in the books I read, but my copy of this novel is very liberally highlighted; it holds an astounding wealth of meaningful quotations. Barbara Kingsolver's writing is magnificent. Her ability to create five very different voices and alternate between them throughout the work is superb. She manages to wring emotion from the reader with her imagery. There were times I laughed, cried, or felt like hurling the book across the room in disgust at something a character had said or done. I read this for a women's studies course at my local community college, but it is such a significant work in so many areas that it could easily be worked into many curricula. It brings up issues of gender, race, religion, politics, culture, and love. If I could give The Poisonwood Bible more than five stars, I would. I'll definitely be re-reading it for many years to come!
Rating:
Summary: Great Story
Review: Originally Reviewed on October 31, 2003
This book was hard to get into, but once hooked on the story of this family in Africa in the 50's & 60's I couldn't put it down. Beautiful writing and interesting perspectives to have the story told from. Bravo!! Michael Duranko, Bootism: a shoe religion
www.bootism.com
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