The poisonwood Bible : a novel (original 1998; edition 1998)

1001 1001 books 20th century Africa American American literature Belgian Congo book club Christianity colonialism Congo contemporary fiction family favorite fiction historical historical fiction Kingsolver literary fiction literature missionaries novel Oprah's Book Club own read religion sisters to-read unread women ( )

The Price family–Nathan,a Baptist missionary; his wife, Orleanna; and their four daughters, Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and Ruth May–arrived in the Congo in 1959, shortly before the country gained independence from Belgium. Nathan is driven to convert all the Congolese to Christianity in order to save them. He is so totally driven by his goal that he fails to learn about the people themselves. For example, they refuse to go into the river to be baptized because they fear the crocodiles that dwell there. He is a severe, controlling man who insists that everyone carry his burden. His treatment of his wife and daughters is hardly better than that he gives to the Africans. When Independence comes, he is warned by other westerners to leave the country for their safety. He refuses because he hasn’t finished his work.
His wife and daughters each tell their own stories in their own words, moving the plot along. Orleanna’s story is primarily told in retrospect. The daughters is told in real time. Each of the daughters relates to their relocation and the Congolese differently. Rachel was a popular, vain, airhead teenanger in the United States and misses her previous life more than anyone else. Leah wants to be close to her father and is the one with the most involvement with and understanding of the people. Adah has a birth deformity which has crippled her. She spends most of her time in solitude with her books but is aware of what is going on around her. Ruth May, a five-year-old, gets along well with the children of the village but speaks in a voice much too old for her.
Most of the plot deals with how the Congolese people were affected by the arrival of the Europeans. Near the end of the book, we learn that four hundred years ago the people were well-dressed, self-sufficient, and had established a workable government. The Europeans came in, kidnapped many of the strongest and brightest, and sold them into slavery. The discovery of diamonds and other mineral wealth lead them to rape the country and cause horrendous suffering to the native people. The people are forbidden to be educated but manage to survive through their own ingenuity and sense of community.
When the Belgians leave in preparation of the country forming its own government, the Western nations, especially Belgium, France, and the United States, don’t approved of who the people elect and are determined to assassinate the new leader, Patrice Lumumba.
Eventually the family splits up. The latter part of the novel is about how they live their lives as adults, some remaining in Africa and some returning to the United States.
The book offers comparisons between the Westerners who respect the Congolese and those who don’t. It is current in that it shows what is still happening when we don’t respect other cultures enough to learn about them before we insist on them changing to our ways, what can happen when we get excited about countries having elections and forming democracies without the end results looking anything like we expected, and what our push for riches overrides people’s lives.
It is a lesson worth learning ( )

Each character's personality fights to find their roots, their voices clear, but working to ground themselves in unforgiving African soil - flooded with flora to becoming cracked with thirst. For such a long book, it is a remarkably quick read. Not a word wasted, nor a description over extended. The precision of her writing allows the reader to jump in, she give the reader the respect of intelligence. Giving you questions and clues to the direction of the story, that you trust and are rewarded with being answered. The sort of book that you keep at your side too fill every free moment, until closing the last page with a content sigh. ( )

Politically immaculate, but technically clumsy, this is a book I get into arguments about ( )