Rating: 
Summary: Poison to the brain
Review: Plot- The plot of this book was a family of a mother, a father, and four girls go into the Congo to convert the tribe's people to Christianity. The mother and four daughters tell the story. The father is a stuck in his ways Baptist minister that thinks everyone should be a Christian.
Characters- Nathan is the evil father and husband. He forces his family to come with him into the Congo. Orleanna started out afraid of standing up to Nathan, but then grew determined and left w/ her kids. She also takes all of the blame for Ruth-May's death. Leah is supportive of her father and falls in love with Anatole, who is the village teacher. Rachael is a prissy blonde that was forced to go. Adah is paralyzed on her left side but is the most observant of all of the women. Ruth-May is the youngest sister. She is very adventurous. A Mamba snake killed her.
Language- The language did not seem to pose as much of a barrier to the family. They were able to regard to Anatole if they were ever confused. The kids communicated and got along with most of the village kids, and Nathan tried to force his ways into the village people no matter what language they spoke.
Style- The family changed their style a whole lot throughout the book. Things started to be more important that were not important before. The valuables that they brought along slowly became less important to them. They spent more time worrying about food, water and sickness.
Rating: 
Summary: No blisters from Poisonwood
Review: This is what I thought about some attributes from the novel
Plot. The plot of the poisonwood bible is the story of a Preacher's family who decide to become missionaries in The Belgian Congo. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the father is abusive and the situation the family is in is quite dangerous. After the death of the youngest daughter the family splits up and live individual lives in various places. Style. The Poisonwood Bible is told through the perspectives of the daughters as the story goes on; and by the mother after she leaves Africa. This style of having one event discussed by more than one character gave it a roundness but sometimes it got a bit wordy. Language. It was written through how each of the women would have thought. This style was very effective in The Poisonwood Bible. Especially wonderful was the palindromes and poetry that the character Adah used. Characters. The main characters of the book were the price family. The protagonists were the daughters of the price family and the mother. I felt it was a good choice to have all of the women be protagonists, it helps the reader to understand each of them. And for most of the characters it was interesting, because they were all quite unique, though I felt that one of them was a tad boring.
Rating:
Summary: Eden in the Congo
Review: The story revolves around the Price family, which consists of a Baptist-minister, his wife and their four daughters, who go to live in the Congo during its fight for independence. It is told through the perspectives of the five Price women, switching between them from chapter to chapter. The plot of the novel was original, not falling into the common trap of being cliché, nor being so unusual as to be unbelievable. Barbara Kingsolver immediately begins by moving her characters from their familiar environment, and proceeds to follow their attempts at dealing with and adapting to their new situation. It is a wonderful setup for character development; the Prices become outsiders in this new situation, and so turn inwards, having nowhere else to go. The plot, although not suspense-based-which is cheating anyway-is quite present, the author does not slack off in favor of character growth. Drought spreads across the African village, green mamba snakes haunt the Price's footsteps, and the CIA flies to and fro between villages.
The style used by the author of switching the perspective from person to person each chapter is initially a bit hard to adjust to, one has to concentrate to remember who is narrating. However, a few chapters into the book, the writing style of each separate character becomes familiar, and confusion ceases to become a problem. The author's style is innovative and engaging, giving the reader a rare chance to look at an unknown world through five pairs of eyes.
Barbara Kingsolver suffers no slight to her characters in lack of attention. She uses cliché personalities, but delves so deeply into their consciousness that the cliché disappears. Not everyone is deep, or compassionate, but everyone develops in such a way as to become real. Even villagers who appear for just a few chapters manage to reveal a new aspect of humanity in their short performance. Briefly, the characters in The Poisonwood Bible serve as a beautiful depiction of the varied nuances of human nature.
In addition, Barbara Kingsolver employs a rich use of metaphor paired with articulate details of everything. The use of vivid, evocative words serves to promote imagery and convey the sense of wonder and bewilderment felt by the family set down in an unfamiliar place. Each character develops their own form of speech, and their stages and growth can be traced through the changes in the way they communicate. The real language achievements in The Poisonwood Bible are the chapters of the crooked, cripple twin, Adah, who thinks in palindromes. Her sections are not simply good writing, they flow and become poetry. Adah's eloquent speech and clear perception of the world alone make the book worth reading. The Poisonwood Bible is not a short book, but by no means is it a dull one, not one of its pages 543 drags and takes away from the overall story. It flies by, leaving its reader with many questions, both illuminating and disconcerting. Indisputably worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: very fun, but not amazing
Review: The Poisonwood Bible is, overall, a very good read. There are few points at which one truly wishes it would end, and the writing is always perfectly decent and at times quite beautiful. The chapters the crippled Adah narrates are especially fun to read. They make you look at language in a way not often explored outside books specifically about wordplay and other such linguistic frivolities. They are also at times very poignant and insightful, though usually not in ways that are particularly earth-shattering: she gets the point across, and does it in an often hilariously cynical way, but if she didn't connect the dots for you it wouldn't exactly be that hard to come to the same conclusion. These chapters make up a bit more than a fifth of the book. The rest of it is written in turn by each of her three sisters, and occasionally her mother takes a stab at narration. The book follows the Price family from 1950s America to the Congo and then, in the weakest part of the 600-plus-page novel, each female member as they go their separate ways. There are several flaws in these last 150 pages or so, after the mother leads them out from the wrathful (mis)guidance of Nathan, the fanatical missionary man of the family. First and foremost among them are a few ridiculously meaningless coincidences and pseudo-surreal passages. A woman they don't know in a market randomly gives the mother an object of sentimental value to her but which would be purely ornamental to anyone else. A dead girl's dream of becoming a snake is realized in a nicely written but really rather hypocritical way. Another problem is a long passage of not-that-great writing which takes the long way round showing something that could easily have been demonstrated with a paragraph or two, or even just thought on paper by the concerned party. There are some very contrived but still funny mispronunciations, and a few other little things that in retrospect needn't really be there. Overall, though, it was really quite enjoyable, at times informative, and occasionally deep. Not truly great literature, but definitely worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: <<Tis a good book>>
Review: The plot of The Poisonwood Bible was very interesting and creative. It moved at a good pace, and I was not bored too often when reading it. The story was very entertaining and it made me think a lot. It was rich with events, important and subtle, but each one keeping my attention and interest. The author really created a storyline that captivated its readers.
The Poisonwood Bible's language was easy to read but really detailed and intriguing. The author used such grand descriptions that made a vivid image in my mind. Each section of the different characters was written differently. And so the language was constantly changing. This made it a lot more interesting to read.
The style of The Poisonwood Bible was very creative and nicely written. The fact that it was written in sections made it very easy to read and very interesting. It almost seemed like a mix of nonfiction and fiction in a way. Because I felt like I learned a lot about Africa and what was going on there in that period. But at the same time the story was not boring at all because of its nonfiction aspects.
The characters in The Poisonwood Bible were extremely rich and interesting. They seemed very real because of the way that the author portrayed them. Each character was different from the other. And their emotions and experiences were expressed very clearly so that it painted a perfect picture of the characters. Every character had their own separate personality, making them very intriguing.
Rating: 
Summary: "no sir. I broke my arm instead."
Review: Overall, I loved The Poisonwood Bible. In my opinion, it was the most beautifully written book I have ever read. The plot kept me captivated throughout the entire book, even the first and last pages that many say were pointless. The plot was interesting, based on something that I have never really read about before. Reading the book made me think constantly of what it would be like to live in the book, be in that plot. It is such a fascinating topic, what would happen if a family of white Christians in the 60's came and tried to change a completely black village in Africa. Having a plot that automatically interesting kept me interested in it the whole time. The plot was a real backbone for the book, and the words never really strayed from the plot. I loved that the plot extended onto the lives of the Price family many many years after they came to the Congo, which really put an ending to the story, wrapped everything up, and didn't leave you hanging on what might have happened to the characters.
The characters in The Poisonwood Bible are also really brilliantly written into the book. Each and every character is described in detail, and the reader can always really relate to them, or rather, can really understand what each character feels, thinks, and what they do and do not understand. For instance, Ruth May is described perfectly as a child; someone who is outgoing, smart, strong, but obviously oblivious to many of the things that are happening around her. Each different character is there own person, has their own individuality. Adding to that, the characters in this book are also wonderfully written in how each interacts with one another. For instance Rachael discarding everyone but herself, and each one's personal relationship with each different person.
They style in which this book is written was perfect for me to read, as it is the same style in which I would like to write. For some, it could have been boring, because the book is not necessarily incredibly eventful, or action packed. But to me, the way that it was written in description was awesome. The style of this book was not happenings, not people always doing huge interesting things, but slower, stopping to tell about what was around each character, the smells and sights. This style was absolutely captivating for me.
When I first read The Poisonwood Bible right before I went to Africa myself, my mother told me that even if the plot was completely uninteresting to me, just to close my eyes and picture the images that the author draws in words. That is also what I ended up doing. Finding the plot almost slow in the beginning the first time I read the book (though I didn't find it slow in any way the second time), I literally just stopped reading and saw everything that was described. This book was written so beautifully that the writing was all I really needed to love the book. I could almost live in the Congo with them, I could see while reading the book the atmosphere, feel it and smell it. There was nothing bare or plane about the writing either. It never really just stated anything, just described a place or sound boringly, there were always creative and beautiful, or even revolting words to illustrate everything.
All in all, in conclusion I would by far say that this is one of the best books I have read so far, and would most definitely recommend it to anyone that would enjoy beautiful images and words. I was never bored in what was happening, and the plot was so different from anything else, that I never wanted once to put it down and not find out what would happen in the end.
Rating:
Summary: I Would Definitly Recomend
Review: The Poisonwood Bible set in the Belgian Congo during the 1960's, releases the story of a missionary family and their journey to Africa. The Poisonwood Bible is a historical based novel, where much happens politically in just a small amount of time. Within five hundred pages of mostly fiction plot isn't the main focus of the novel. The story is made of mostly thoughts and reflection, and some of this could have been replaced with more action and adventure for some extra balance to the overall tale.
Kingsolver seems to make a huge effort to drive this book by its characters. The characters seem so real, because the reader can see inside the protagonist's heads. Kingsolver allows five women, four being only children for a majority of the book, to release such strong views, beliefs and emotions. Within the family of characters, each person was given such a different personality; this was key to get the broadest sense of the story possible.
The language is consistent through out the entire novel. I wouldn't say it was an easy book to read, but I wasn't sitting next to a dictionary looking up three words per page. The content of the book is what was more difficult to undertake. Depending on what stage of life the reader is in could change the book entirely. Kingsolver makes it easy for the reader to relate to book by incorporating 'every human' thoughts into the characters thoughts.
The beautiful and unique style of The Poisonwood Bible is what kept me turning the pages in a smooth rhythm for so long. The images and writing techniques used in Kingsolver writing of this book, is what made it seem so real. After finishing this book it was hard to believe it was a work of fiction. Detailed descriptions and portrayal of the big picture are two aspects of writing Kingsolver managed to use and put together to keep the equilibrium of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: The plot of the Poisonwood Bible was a little slow moving because almost everything that happened had to be analyzed in turn by each of the perspectives. One would think that this might make the book boring, but it doesn't. Because each of the perspectives is so different, it is like hearing about an entirely different event. Overall, the way it was told added enough to the plot to help it stay interesting throughout the entire novel. The language changed constantly in the Poisonwood Bible, depending on who was speaking, and that made it easier to read because one wouldn't get tired of the way that it was being written. The language never got old because it was constantly switching, which made the story much more interesting. Even though the language changed, there were always beautifully constructed sentences and description so that the book flowed easily from one thing to the next. The style of the book was ingenious. There was very little third person narration except when Africa was speaking. In most novels like that, it is difficult to get the whole picture because the way a person sees things is often very different from the way they actually are. In this book, however, they managed to do almost all first person narration and still portray the full picture, by their use of switching perspectives from character to character. The character development in this novel was about as good as it could be for the five women of the price family, because it got inside each one of their heads. We got to know the thought process of each of the girls and a little bit of the mother's. The father however, was portrayed as a static character, and we never got to actually hear what he was thinking because the author left his view out of the novel. The characters were also very stereotypical: there was the ditz, the cripple, the religious fanatic, the strong one, the baby, and the submissive and oppressed mother.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting look into a small family in africa.
Review: The Poisonwood Bible is a book that entertains, educates, and envelops the reader in the story about a humble preachers family that takes a missionary opening in the Congo. The book takes place largely in the 70's, during the period where the Belgian Congo severed its ties with Belgium and started their own independent country. The Price Family, a family of six (Father-Nathan, Wife-Orleanna, and Children-Ruth may, Adah, Leah, and Rachel.) Is sent to the Congo to preach to the Congolese the teachings of Jesus Christ, but the political uprising, harsh living conditions, and general madness causes the family to quickly start a downward spiral into the disintegration of a family. The story is presented in an interesting format; all of the female family members take over the job of writing a chapter. So, for example, the first chapter may be told from the viewpoint of a very young child named Ruth May, but a much older child named Rachel would write the next chapter. This technique works as a very viable alternative to the tired and old Omnipotent overseer of events/narrorator. The writing style of the book is also another strong point about this book, not only is it beautiful, and able to envelop the reader with the sense that they are experiencing the situations themselves, but the writing style changes from character to character. Some characters have a very simplistic writing style, but others are complex and poetic. This really helps get across the idea that the reader is getting a different perspective on the situation from each character. The overall style of the book is different than most, just because of the different characters perspectives, and the historic background setting. It's almost like a history book with characters, because it creates emotional situations for the characters while also showing what was going on at the time, and how it affected the characters way of life. Also it's a very realistic style, so it feels like the book is actually a compilation of journals of a real family, living in the Congo at the time. This creates an even deeper sense of meaning for the book. If it were presented in a more normal format, the impact wouldn't have been nearly as strong. Barbara Kingsolver's novel really conveys the situation of a political movement in the heart of Africa, while carefully crafting a family drama, and presenting it in an unusual style, and executed with beautiful writing and precision.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful prose, but too heavy-handed
Review: This book was compelling and absorbing - until the final 100 pages or so. Having already read and enjoyed "Prodigal Summer", I did have a good idea of what I was getting into with Kingsolver, but I had hoped for a bit less preaching. The way that the story was told, by employing alternating characters giving their oral histories, was interesting and kept things moving. And there is no doubt that Kingsolver is a very gifted storyteller and story artist. But I got the point already! The author didn't trust that her story was "telling the story" -- she had to ram it down the readers throat. I was also dismayed that there was absolutely no saving grace given to the Christians in the novel. Brother Fowles was a sympathetic character, but the author didn't really give him enough space. In other words, Christianity was definitely the antagonist in this novel, and portrayed as evil and poisonous. Very one-sided viewpoints put forth in this novel, and that's a shame, because it really does attempt to tell an important story.
|
