Rating: 
Summary: a multi-layered book for an curious and intelligent reader
Review: This book manages to open the door to a new world - a painful, fascinating, different, colored, multifaceted one. While I cannot tell if Kingsolver is historically accurate, I realize that the Poisonwood bible create its own world and its own history. You will want to keep this book, and read it again.Amazingly, each of the five voices evocated by the book become as real as your own family members - how did one person, the author, manage this tour de force? being one and five at the same time? All the while depicting a sixth person, Nathan Price, central figure and yet so shallow and voiceless.
Rating:
Summary: Memorable and haunting
Review: A review from the author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF: A PERSONAL APPROACH TO DREAM INTERPRETATION; and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DREAMS, DAYDREAMS, AND FANTASIES. I read a lot, but very little fiction. Because so many people who know me well recommended this book, I decided to give it a shot. Once I started it, I didn't want to stop reading. The voices of these characters, their individual development, and the human tragedies brought about by human arrogance haunt me. I find myself thinking about this book and its structure repeatedly. Since my first reading, I've read through all of Kingsolver's other books and this one is her masterpiece (so far). Encompassing environmental and social issues as well as the lives of her individual characters, this book forces us to confront our own defects of character and the consequences blind choices. Having read this book once for story, I plan to read it again for craft. One of the few novels I would call "a must read." Multi-layered and challenging.
Rating:
Summary: best book I've read in years
Review: Most excellent--you will not be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Long but worth it
Review: Gritty and exhausting, this was a beautifully written book. Included tragedy, despair, but also humor and even some victory over pain and suffering. The fact that my book club members had so many different opinions and interpretations proves that the book is complex and compelling on many dimensions.
Rating:
Summary: An Unlikely Masterpiece: dazzles and puzzles
Review: Kingsolver, after the successful Bean Trees, shifts gear to conquer a little piece of the unknown in this 1998 best seller, set in a Congo struggling for, then with its new identity. Caught in the dramatic events such as Kantaga's secession, mysterious death of Congo's first prime minister, and CIA entanglement, is a disillusioned Georgia family, tyrannized by a devout evangelical Baptist father against the backdrop of a dazed Black Africa. The first half of Poisonwood Bible dedicates itself to description of a serene village called Kilanga, where Nathan Price rooted his family, which remains superficially unchanged as the world around it changes faces. Despite the banality of fanatical preachers we have had in this half of the century, Kingsolver approaches the racist, supremacist, chauvinistic Father Price with an uneasy tenderness revealed in narration by his pessimistic and neurotic wife Oreleanna as well as their four daughters, who come to represent the different extremities that are to ail and be ailed by Congo. As Nathan becomes possessed with the religious fervor that pushes his family closer to the pit of ignorance and death, the natives prove themselves true kindred spirits and save the family despite Nathan's attempt to force Kilanga into marriage with Christianity. The first half ends in an exodus, which is only one of many vivid biblical allusions pervading this bible. The soothing tone of voice takes a sudden turn as readers are forced to draw attention away from the life and the people; the main weakness of this novel is indeed Kingsolver's intense intellectual storm in the second half that forces the reader to swallow history. There is an awkwardness in the transition that provides no continuity in the natural progress of the four sisters and the mother: frank but shallow Rachel, competitive but dogmatic Leah, philosophical but morbid Adah, and young but so very young Ruth May, and an ailing mother too scarred by the devastation of Congo's burgeoning aberration as a young independent country under Western shadow still. Almost similar to War and Peace except, Tolstoy was brilliant at picking up the thread, Kingsolver devotes the second half to reflections of her own political views through voices of different characters, that the magnitude of ideas and opinions come as an astounding force to push the unique intimacy established previously between the readers and characters completely away. But despite its faults as an almost propagandized political novel, The Poisonwood Bible is a great read for what it evokes in you. Arrays of characters come fusing into the grand panaroma of Congo, to help shape a fragile yet stern frame of the human resilience. Do overlook Kingsolver's effort to "re-educate", Leah's defense of communism may seem tiresome at the end but one thing is certain that lurks behind every single line: Kingsolver's great love for a country, whose birth and growth are hindered by what Westerners continue to regard as phenomena. Her clear focus never did become hazy despite the verbose offence her latter half hastes to thrash upon Western Imperialism and expansionism. Perhaps Africa is a matter that demands far more folds, then Kingsolver does achieve an impressive balance to capture the very essence of struggle at least. Just like disabled twin Adah says in the book, "The Congo is only a long path that takes you from one hidden place to another," yield to the beautiful language and rhythm to be guided and questioned. History wise, read an encyclopedia for more accurate details.
Rating:
Summary: Central character one-dimensional
Review: I thought this book was lovely, truthful, and ambiguous enough to be great literature; it's just that we are so used to hearing the propaganda of the "other side" (white, Christian, male) that any fragrance of dark, pagan, female knowledge is extremely threatening (to many writers on this list, anyway). It is true that the character that draws all of the women together, and all of them to Africa --Nathan --is a one-dimensional character (and as one reader noted, Rachel also threatens to become one-dimensional in the latter half of the book). But Nathan is purposefully one- dimensional. Compare him to the central character, Singer, in Carson McCullers' _The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter_. This novel is structured similarly to _Poisonwood Bible_ in that it alternates among several characters' perspectives, there is no omniscient narrator. Also, Singer, a deaf visitor in town, is the one who draws them all together and influences all of their lives. This is an example of a central character that is relatively silent, yet who strongly influences all the other characters. You could argue that _Poisonwood_ might be a more perfect book if it had drawn Nathan more sympathetically --my own rageful father is also capable of great love --but this does not take away from the truth of the fact that his rage, his dominance, his control damaged some lives, including his own.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, but
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book by Barbara Kingsolver. It was much, much better than her Animal Dreams book. The first 200 pages went by REALLY fast, but after Ruth May's disaster, it got boring. I couldn't put the book down for the firtst half, but then I couldn't finish the book either because it was boring. But I finished it! She writes with great passion and it feels like we are there!
Rating:
Summary: An Eye-Opening Experience
Review: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a book that is guaranteed to become a classic. I really connected with this book and the reason I did so is the characters. The narratives of all four women draw you in and do not let go of you until the final words~ and even then, there is still a connection while you sit back and ponder. The reader feels firsthand the despair, pain, and the small triumphs these four feel as they learn to cope in a strange new world. The fanatical preoccupation of Nathan Price is enough to make the reader want to reach out and strangle him~ in this way, Kingsolver achieves something that is hard to do: she makes the characters real. It is incredibly easy for the reader to believe that these characters were once alive. The other thing I enjoyed about this book was it's historical information. Instead of glorifying the USA and other European powers, Kingsolver points out the bitter cold truth about what really happened in the Belgian Congo after they achieved independence. In short, this book is one to be savored~ and not just once, but over and over again...
Rating:
Summary: Kingsolver's best novel
Review: I waited a while before I read this book, because I thought it might not be as personal and character-driven as Kingsolver's other novels and short stories. However, I was in for a happy surprise when I did read it. Kingsolver writes a meticulously researched account of Congo history and creates a number of believable and compelling characters as well. I liked how she told the novel from multiple perspectives; she switched points of view frequently but not in a disorienting way. This approach provides the reader with a number of different voices to listen to, and presents a fuller picture of conditions in the Congo and in the Price family. The only problem with the book is its length, but the bulk of the book is really a blessing in disguise. By the time you finish, you'll have the feeling that Kingsolver has written a great epic and left no (or few) stones unturned in her account. Many readers may disagree with her politics, but the book is still educational, insightful and beautifully written.
Rating:
Summary: The Congo Remembered
Review: When a book is equally riveting the second time it is read, that's a good book. The range of voices, plain and mysterious, captivated me. I have been to the sad state of the former Zaire as a peace corp mother. Because of Kingsolver's descriptions, I could see the heat, the soil, the indigenous people so very different from us in the states. I remembered again how powerful the influence of the natural world was on the way we moved thru the time (several weeks) as we moved thru the jungle, then the savannah land. But it was the people's forbearance at that time that the author of Poisonwood Bible put into words for me. Kingsolver's knowledge of the culture and political situations indicated some serious research; I was glad that Mobutu was labeled correctly in her writing and that the U.S. collusion was identified. Quite brave of her. We were not allowed to discuss politics during our visit although it was quite obvious the nation's infrastructure was disintegrating.
|
