About:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver tells of a family of missionaries went to the Congo during a turbulent time of the later 1950s. Ms. Kingsolver is an award-winning, best-selling American author.
- 560 pages
- Publisher : HarperCollins
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0060175400
My rating for The Poisonwood Bible – 4
Buy The Poisonwood Bible from Amazon.com*
More books by Barbara Kingsolver*
Thoughts:
This was a fascinating historical fiction about guilt, and cultural arrogance. I thought that the mirroring the Price family’s journey to the Congo’s history was brilliant. The Belgium lose control over Africa as Nathan loses control over his daughters, and the eventual tragedy that strikes both family and country.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is told through the eyes of the five Price women. Orleana, the matriarch who has lost everything. Rachel, the eldest daughter, can’t stop thinking about the comforts she left behind and refuses to assimilate. Leah whose devotion to her father weaned as she rejects him, her God, while falling in love with Congo. Adah, Leah’s twin sister who is paralyzed on one side and views the world as a cynic who Loves word play. Ruth May, the young innocent daughter who looks at the world with an Innocent, raw eye.
I thought that the twins’ narrative was the most fascinating aspect of the book. Leah is athletic, hardworking and sees approval. When she realizes her father is not only making mistakes which endanger the whole family, her views change. Eventually she stays in Africa and chooses to attempt to fix the damage her father (and the USA) did instead of running away.
Adah is the silent twin, but as a result she is very observant. She sees the world through palindromes, causing her to think in symmetry, and often makes her indifferent. Eventually Adah becomes a successful American scientist and manages to lose he limp. As a result, though, she feels that she lost whatever it is that makes her unique.
The book is divided into two halves, the first half which demanded that the reader would look at history through the experiences of families, women and children caught in net of decisions being made for them. Ms. Kingsolver weaves the timeline of the Congo’s independence from Belgium into the narrative of the Price family. The second half follows the adult sisters and often feels like Ms. Kingsolver is lecturing the reader.
The last section of the book is a commentary on how the West relates through Africa through the eyes of each of the sisters. This section, called The Final Outcome, was the best part of second half of the book. The attempt to conquer Congo, whether in a religious or physical sense, has failed and the living, breathing land just moves on.
I enjoyed the different perspective on the Congo and showing different attitudes towards colonialism and postcolonialism. It was a clever and thought-provoking historical fiction that has many layers and nuances to contemplate.
Synopsis:
The Price family has takin on a mission from their Baptist Church in Georgia, missionaries to the Belgian Congo in order to “save” the residents of Kilanga, a small village. The patriarch, Nathan Price, is an uncompromising Baptist suffering from a guilt he acquired during his time in the military.
The Price women, his wife Orleanna, and daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May are witnesses to Nathan’s burdens with the land, community, his God, and himself. Belgian Congo, however, is in a state of turbulence and revolution which throws the family into as much chaos as the rest of the residents.
Buy The Poisonwood Bible from Amazon.com*
More books by Barbara Kingsolver*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book.
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