Rating: 
Summary: Novel of the Year
Review: Powerful characters and an enthralling text make up for a slow start in what might be the novel of the year! Once you get into it you'll find it hard to put down. The story may appear dull at first blush, but it will run you through the gamut of emotions. It's a great book for Kingsolver's fans, or someone who'd like to be one. You'll see how the world-view of these Americans gets completely changed in their brand new situation in the Congo. It's completely gripping.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: I was very leary of picking this book up. I knew little of the author, and was afraid that the hoopla surrounding this book was just that - hoopla, and that this was just a simplistic treatment of complex issues such as - colonialism, proselytism, the politics of development, The Congo, Africa, etc.Boy, was I surprised! I was seized by this book and could not put it down without counting the minutes until I could swim in it again. This book is nothing short of brilliant! This is a work of historical fiction of the highest calibre. Ms. Kongsolver has done her historical, sociological, botanical, zoological, and political homework in ways authors of other historical-fictional works can only dream of. I won't go into what the book is about - you can read that from more professional reviews. I will say this however, to paraphrase "The Nation" - here is Africa's OWN voice: loud, clear, powerful, compassionate, angry, gentle, and brutally honest. Buy it or borrow it, and then read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Tata Jesus is Bangala!
Review: The only problem is the way that Reverend Price pronounces the Kikongo word "bangala" it means "poisonwood" rather than "loved and cherished". THE POISONWOOD BIBLE is a heartfelt story of a missionary family in the small Congolese village of Kilanga during the 60's... the time of the dispute over independence, the time when their first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was killed. This book must've been a ton of hard work for Ms. Kingsolver. She uses words of the Kikongo, Lingala, and French languages. The History is exact and her style of writing is superb. Although it took me quite a while to truly get into, i loved it in the end. i would reccomend this lterary masterpiece to anyone who's interested in cultures of the world and to anyone who could care less. This book is worth your time! trust me.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed
Review: The first two-thirds of this book is beautifully written. I love the way Kingsolver created unique voices for each of the characters and told the story through their eyes. However, the book takes a disappointing turn during the last third. Rachel's character turns into a parody of herself, and Leah's self-righteous and predictably PC diatribe becomes tiresome at best. It struck me that Kingsolver was projecting a fantasy of middle-class, baby-boomer-style radicalization onto both Leah and Orleanna. Toward the end of the book, Leah's voice started sounding like the author was preaching at the reader about first world imperialism in Africa--not that she doesn't have a good point, but preaching about politics is a great way to ruin a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book, but be critical
Review: A novel about incredible endurance, with Reverend Price as a tragic figure who dominates the first half. Kingsolver is a gifted writer and the different voices are believable and compelling. I agree with others who thought the novel ran out of steam when Rev. Price disappeared from the narrative, and I had to plow through the last third. Also, I wish the character of Rachel were less of a stereotype and had shown some capacity for depth and change. It was disappointing that there was no confrontation between the two most interesting characters: the Reverend and Orleanna. An interesting book, but flawed.
Rating:
Summary: LOVED EVERY WORD OF IT
Review: It's an incredible combination of politics, history, opression, travel, poetry, religion taken to an excess and, of course, ( given the Oprah recommendation) a mother and daughters' triumph over it all. I do not usually go for the Oprah books but I read each chapter more than one, just to relish every word. I was concerned that it would end in the typical " I have reached my quota of words and now let's solve all of life's mysteries in 2 pages". Instead it was good to the last drop.
Rating:
Summary: Best novel I have read in years
Review: The book is about Nathan a damaged man. During the war Nathan was a marine and he suffered an injury during the Philippines campaign. His injury meant that he was hospitalised and thus saved from the Bataan Death March something he irrationally blames himself for. To overcome his guilt he becomes a missionary to the Belgian Congo, not for the Baptist Church of which he is a member but as part of the Belgian missionary structure. The coming independence for the Congo has made it hard for the Belgians to find missionaries. Nathan's inner demons prevent him understanding or coming to grips with the world and the village in which he preaches. His predecessor was a Catholic Priest who unlike Nathan studied the people in the village and got to know the villagers as friends. One of the unforgettable scenes in the novel is when this former priest returns and talks to Nathan's wife and daughters. He reveals the village head not as a caricature sitting in front of his house wearing glass frames without lenses, a figure of fun, but as a responsible man who tries to run the village in a fair way and to deal with the issues faced by its people. The local witch doctor is a compassionate wise man who listens to the woes of the villagers and tries to help them by giving sensible advice. In fact the witch doctor feels sorry for Nathan and has a far greater understanding of him as a man than Nathan has of any of the villagers. The Catholic priest unlike Nathan tried to work out the way of the village and to develop a bond with each member. Because he was able to reduce the incidence of wife beating he became popular with the women of the village and made converts. To Nathan the natives are savages not humans and he can only rave at them. A few people come to his services they are the people who are shunned by the village such as lepers. Nathan has no idea of why even these people come. He just has a sense of failure, something he can't understand as his faith suggests that he should be successfully. The mechanics of the book are to have the narrative carried by the wife and daughters of Nathan. The interlocking narrative gradually gives us a picture of the village and the reason for Nathan's failure and his growing madness. As he descends further into his own selfish world his family are left behind to suffer more and more as they are left in a world that is disintegrating. The only possible critism of this book is that the stories of the daughters is perhaps a little unrealistic as they are so perceptive. This however is the most minor of critisms. I have never read anything by this writer before but the writing seems effortless and the intelligence and grasp of the real world is amazing. It is also pleasing to see a novel written about something important rather than the sensibilities of the middle class.
Rating:
Summary: Cultures collide
Review: If you wish to escape for a few days -- mentally -- climb into the minds of five different women and visit the jungles of the Congo. This book will consume you. Fire, flood, pestilence... and throughout the scenarios the five voices keep speaking loud and clear. Each distinctive. The daughter Ada thinks in anagrams. Disconcerting at first, until you realize Ada's (and Kingsolver's) brilliance. A five year old, Ruth May sees the new world and new friends with a child's eyes. Rachel's voice is almost Shakespearean in its comic relief -- her most prized possession is a mirror. Orleanna the mother -- with pain, we watch as she realizes her family is starving, but husband cannot come down from the pulpit long enough to help gather firewood. And Leah is calm, rational, the family's rock -- but still just a child too. And the unspoken voices -- the Congolese neighbors, market traders, bush pilots, school teachers, and the unknown force of political unrest boiling like the heat in summer. Parts of it reminded me of Jewel in the Crown -- but I found Poisonwood Bible more personable -- more readable. Several people have mentioned the last part of the book is not as colorful as the first 4/5ths -- I was glad for the relief. A good non-fiction book with a similar "cultures collide" theme is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. I have enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's other books, and this is the best yet. I doubly recommend it if you are a wordsmith and admirer of fine prose.
Rating:
Summary: Adding My Voice
Review: Here I am, adding my thoughts to those of currently 713 other people who have already reviewed this book. What can I add that has not already been said? Probably nothing. I will start by saying this is probably the best new book that I have read this year. From the outset I was captivated by the use of multiple voices as the storytellers; the constantly shifting tone and viewpoint fascinated, as did the unique insights each provided. The story, taken as a whole, reads almost like an epic. My sole criticism is that it seems to lose steam towards the end. I felt myself pushing through the last couple of chapters solely to finish them, rather than savor them. However, this is not enough, in my opinion, to take away from the five-star rating.
Rating:
Summary: "Jesus is poisonwood!"
Review: I was really impressed with this book. It was my first experience with Kingsolver, and I was riveted. 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 made them all go there, had no voice at all! It was like he was the eye of the hurricane: empty promises, zero understanding of the situation around him (whether of his own family or of the Congo), and an all-consuming, petty fury about his inability to be anything other than human. That his very presence (but not his impact) evaporates in the middle of the novel reveals things about his continuing ability to affect his family regardless of whether he is there to abuse them or not. I loved Kingsolver's discussion of local languages (and the way the father kept saying "Jesus is poisonwood" instead of what he really intended), and the way certain phrases leaped right off the page ("I stir in bed and the memories rise out of me like a buzz of flies from a carcass"). It was great reading -- I'd recommend it to all my friends except that they've all already read it and told me I shouldn't pick up another book until I've read this one.
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