Rating: 
Summary: An incredible glimsp of the Congo and American Women
Review: This book examines life on so many levels. I read it as I was leaving Zimbabwe this summer, and her descriptions of the Congolese family and the interpretations of their behaviors by Americans were funny, accurate and a bit scary. Also, this book discusses issues of greif and sprituality that I still think about.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly written historical fiction.
Review: Kingsolver does an amazing job of portraying the rise and fall of the Belgian Congo, as well as the tumultuous time afterward, through the eyes of young women. As we follow the Price family into the heart of darkness, we are consumed by the hardship and tragedy that befalls them. Africa refuses to succumb to their expectations. The characters are real, and the story riveting.
Rating:
Summary: Snakes and Brimstone
Review: With shifts in perspective reminiscent of Kingsolver's Animal Dreams or Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine, The Poisonwood Bible explores the tyranny of many subcultures in the most subtle of ways. Challenging patriarchy, organized religion, politics, disability and race relations by simply telling a story, Kingsolver evokes some of the most uniquely human emotions by creating characters whose voices are so distinctive it seems impossible that they were all created by a single mind. I was captivated through the entire book, though the hardcover version (there isn't any other available yet) is seemingly as large and daunting as the King James Bible itself. Some of the plot twists are slightly predictable, due to the author's gift of foreshadowing, but the words she uses to describe even the most expected of events makes them seem fresh and new. Some images were so vivid that I began to smell the congo when I was at home and the rain would start to fall. This is one of those books that changes the world for any reader who survives its pages.
Rating: 
Summary: wonderfully descriptive and full of adventures
Review: I could not put down this book at all! I loved every minute of it. The contrasting accounts given by the main characters in the book hold your attention. I have recommended it to all of my friends and co-workers.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but a little too long
Review: I had never read any books by Kingsolver before this one, and I have to say she is a wonderful and gifted writer. The Poisonwood Bible is a great novel, different from anything I've ever read before. I enjoyed the contrasting accounts of Congo life told by each girl. However, I felt this book was too long. After their mission in the Congo, I felt I wasn't as interested as before. I like to hear what happens to the characters after ordeals such as theirs, but it just dragged on for me. It became very political and symbolic in the end and I got somewhat confused. Other than this, the novel was expertly written and I am glad I took the time to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: what the hell happened?
Review: I found Poisonwood to be somewhat of a let-down. While Kingsolver's prose is ebulliant and her characterization unfailing, the story disintegrates three quarters of the way through the novel. The Price family's hellish adventures in Africa are narrated alternately by the four sisters and their mother. The first three quarters of the book span approximately two years' time and the narratives of different Price women overlap and contrast to great effect. Kingsolver then unsuccessfully gambled in switching her style, dispersing the narrators' accounts throughout the next thirty years. These diluted remains of the younger Price girls deliver essentially 140 pages of epilogue. In short, the book dies with Ruth May.
Rating:
Summary: Captures the complexity of Africa
Review: I grew up in Africa and have also spent a third of my life in America. I read TPB on the plane as I flew out of Africa for the last time. (Ive finally immigrated to Canada). I laughed out loud and cried all the way across the Atlantic. This book has captured the various lenses outsiders use to observe Africa to try and understand the harshness and beauty of it. I would agree that it gives a politically correct, third world view of America. But I have found these views useful in challenging my own life and what it stands for. I think those views are very useful for contemplating the future of the first world, particularly as the first world becomes more diverse and takes in more third world people. Having said that, I also think this book is not as politically corrrect as other reviewers believe. It actually shows why Africa spits out anyone coming to its land in the past 5oo years. I do not think any second generation American would accept being told that they are not American. Yet, I am told I am not African - even though I was born and raised there - because of the colour of my skin. I sadly accept it and Barbara captures all of my reasoning for giving up my heritage exquisitely in her book. Written from the depths of her heart.
Rating:
Summary: Kingsolver presents a gripping story.
Review: This was my favorite books of 1998. Although everyone sort of washed out in the end, I loved how the story was told through the family members. I could imagine my reactions in this political and primitive situation.
Rating:
Summary: Daring But Disappointing
Review: Rarely have I seen such a gifted writer stymied by her own material. Kingsolver's technical skills rank with the best I've read in modern American fiction. That makes the long list of deficiences in plot and character in this book all the more disappointing. Suspending disbelief is impossible when one encounters 15-year-old American girls, even precocious ones, fretting over global politics in the Congo while fleeing a plague of flesh-eating ants. Or, a middle-aged Baptist preacher with a passion for God but who can not show even a conflicted, warped brand of affection for his wife and daughters. For that matter, what the heck was Nathan DOING while his family and his miniscule congregation starved to death and otherwise participated in the narrative? We are told he was "away" most of the time, but we can not fathom where he could have been, given the fact that it was a tiny village populated by people who'd come to despise him. As a sucker for great writing, I truly wanted to be swept up and carried into this book. But even a sucker can take only so much.
Rating:
Summary: i hope stephen spielburg already has his eye on it
Review: As a high school librarian, i am always looking for a quality novel that students will enjoy and learn something. This novel is destined to be on high school reading lists in the years to come... so well written and intensely interesting...the kind of book that makes a person want to find another good book to read....
|
