This is on of my favorite books. ( )

Story of the family of an evangenical preacher who move to the Belgian Congo in the 1950s. A bit like The Mosquito Coast in the way it shows how an alien environment can change a family that comes to it from the outside. Epic, poetic and very enjoyable. ( )

Another book with lots of hype that I was extremely excited to read.

The Poisonwood Bible is about a family of the church who move to Africa to mission and try to build a church. With four girls to take care of, the parents find themselves in dire circumstances over and over again. The mother wants desperately to take her children away, while her husband won’t leave the people to sin and die.

While it was a very interesting to see the evolution of the characters and the different female perspectives, I was not as impressed with the story in the end as I had hoped. The diversity of characters, their points of view, growth and separate lives were intriguing and that was probably my most favorite part more than anything else.

It was also interesting reading the story through only the eyes of the female characters and not from any males. Overall I was glad I read the story, but it didn’t seem as great as it was made out to be.

Another of my favorite books of all time is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I was first introduced to her my junior year of high school when reading her other novel The Bean Trees. I enjoyed the book and wanted to explore more of her work when I discovered The Poisonwood Bible. This novel about the hardships of missionary life in the Congo is not my usual kind of book. I tend to stay away from novels that contain politics or matters of religion, but this book is a different story.

Written from the different perspectives of each family member, Kingsolver's novel illuminates the extreme difficulty of living in an unfamiliar land and delivering a message to a people who have no interest in listening. It shows how each character is changed by this profound experience and the power of conflict and politics on people. Issues of religious differences, physical responses to living in the jungle, and political upheaval create much discord in the novel.

This is another beautifully written novel that actually somewhat changed my outlook on life. I didn't know much about the world in high school, but this novel began my interest in the world around me, my thoughts on government and politics, and how we should deal with other cultures (whether to interfere in their issues or leave them alone--the anthropologist in me says leave them alone!!). I ended up doing a lot of research on the conflict in the Congo region and writing a paper for the National Peace Essay Contest.

Some of my favorite quotes from this book:
"This forest eats itself and lives forever."
"We can only speak of the things we carried with us, and the things we took away."
"When I finish reading a book from front to back, I read it back to front. It is a different book, back to front, and you can learn new things from it. It from things new learn can you and front to back book different is it?"

And after all of the harsh realities and devastation in this book, I somehow want to go to Africa more than ever. ( )

Wow. I just finished reading this, and need to mull it over a bit.

I'm only scratching the surface here, but it is at the outset the story of a missionary family in the Congo as told through the mother and four daughters.

It was fascinating how the girls ultimately turned out. And I was thrilled the mother finally (FINALLY) found the determination to leave her abusive and somewhat insane husband.

I wish I could review as richly as this story is told; my words don't do it justice. If you are interested in the recent history of Africa, READ THIS. ( )

This book was recommended to me many years ago by a beloved English professor, Dr. Ottilie Stafford. Through the years, I have dabbled with it and put it down. It's a long read, but once I fully embraced the read, I began to enjoy the journey. Don't read this book if you are looking for a soft, sweet look at the missionary experience. This book shows a harder reality, with a Pastor who lacks compassion for his wife, daughters, and congregation.. If you are looking for a book that will challenge your thinking and demand examination of issues AND if you are committed to a long read, pick it up. You will find some beautiful language and an opportunity to broaden your world view. ( )

One of my all-time favorites. ( )

Great book! ( )

http://titlewave.com/search?SID=1f0f9...

Kirkus Review starred.

I bought this knowing absolutely nothing about it except that a lot of people really liked it. Sometimes that's the best way for me to approach a book. After all, if someone had told me it was about a Baptist preacher and his family doing missionary work in the Congo (now Zaire) in 1960, I probably would have passed it by. I'm glad I didn't, though, because it's is so much more than that. Told in alternating narratives between the preacher's wife and their four daughters - snooty Rachel, overeager Leah, cynical Adah, and brutally honest Ruth May - the story unfolds to reveal their individual perceptions and prejudices. Though there is some political discussion (the history of that area is pretty turbulent in places). it is presented in such a way that it comes across as the opinions of the characters, as opposed to leaving the reader feeling badgered by the author. Likewise with the frequent thoughts on religion. In short, this is an extremely well-written and engrossing story and I look forward to reading more by Kingsolver in the future. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1332114...

The Price family move to the Belgian Congo as Baptist missionaries in mid-1959, against all advice but in line with the sense of mission felt by Nathan, husband and father. The story is told through the perspectives of his wife and three daughters, as the family endures tragedy and disaster, and each of them eventually settles their own terms with Africa and with each other. Nathan Price comes across as an absurdly unsympathetic character, sacrificing his family for his improbable mission, but each of the women gets a good bit of narrative to themselves. Not knowing the DRC, as it now is, I can't speak to Kingsolver's accuracy, but she seems to have done her research.

I was struck that a number of write-ups of the book seemed to think that it was about what the US did to Zaire (as it then was) and Africa, when in fact this is simply political backdrop, taken for granted, for the more human drama of the Price sisters and their mother. Having said that, of course the political circumstances shape the environment, and Nathan's simplistic and disastrous attempts to bring Christianity to the natives are a direct parallel with the American fascinatiom with warding off Communism.

Anyway, a fascinating and thought-provoking read. ( )

I will be honest. I dislike this book primarily because of the American ethnicity of it. In the end, it is sentimental and indulgent. I feel that the author is expecting me to be at one with an American take on the story, so that I am shocked by the divergence from the American ideal. It seems to me to specifically be a book written FOR Americans to read.

Nothing wrong in that, of course but I think it does leave the whole thing short of a beating heart for Europeans in the same way that perhaps Graham Swift might be less accessible to Americans.

I'm much more taken with Paul Theroux's "The Mosquito Coast" which deals with a similar story and equivalent themes in a more universal way. ( )

For the most part, I loved this book. The book jumps from the point of view of the mother and each of the four daughters. During the first half of the book, this works and the story is coherent and flows well. Unfortunately during the second half, I didn't think that it held up as well and the jumping from differents points of view was confusing. ( )

Love it.

our young girls accompany their missionary father and their mother to a Congolese village, and none of them manages to truly leave Africa again, although each reacts to the place in a completely different way, with a completely different outcome. I would not call this story, in which the naive family survives famine, drought, malaria, crocodiles and ant infestations, particularly uplifting. In fact, it is a downright depressing examination of the problems of Africa compounded by Westerners’ attempts to bring our god and our ways into a completely alien culture. ( )

This is a gripping tale that shines best when focusing on the African experience of the four Price sisters: vain Rachel, twins Leah (the bold one) and Adah (the disabled but smart one) , and the littlest Ruth May, along with their emotionally abused mother Oleanna. The novel itself spans their lives from their arrival to Africa through their lives many decades later. They came woefully unprepared, forced by the fierce, stubborn patriarch of the Price family, Nathan. The women see right away what Nathan does not: they are unprepared for this journey. Little of what they bring from America is useful in the harsh climate. Even their ideals are out of place. Nathan's obsession to baptize the African children in the crocodile-infested waters is just one of the family's many blunders that ultimately tears them apart, the aftermath of which haunts the women all the rest of their lives.

In the background is the tumultuous history of Africa, from being divided up by cruel conquerers to civil wars and phony elections for independence. Kingsolver cannot refrain from politicizing the novel, and her voice is loudly heard, sometimes loud enough to throw off the characters, as in the case of Oleanna in the middle of the novel. It is hard to argue the damage done by the colonists, however. Dealing with the aftermath spans two different extremes: from the cold acceptance of apartheid by Rachel, to the intense white guilt felt by Leah. Sometimes Kingsolver runs away with her politics and forgets the story, but thankfully, it is a strong enough tale that easily allows one to jump right back in.

Speaking of politics, Kingsolver hada strange note in the beginning of the book that almost put me off wanting to read it. In her acknowledgements page, she thanks Mumia Abu-Jamal for reading a copy of the novel she sent to him in prison and making notes on it. Abu-Jamal was tried and convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. I was puzzled why Kingsolver would contact such a person for approval. Granted, Abu-Jamal's cause has been taken up by many celebrities and idealistic college students, many of whom are unfamiliar with the details of the case, and claim Abu-Jamal was framed for the color of his skin. Whether you believe in Abu-Jamal's innocence or not, I felt this was a strange move on the author's part. This is also why I particularily believe that Kingsolver identifies most with the character of Leah, whose guilt makes her as much an "other" in her adopted homeland as her skin. It appears born out of Kingsolver's guilt in trying to understand racism performed by her race against Abu-Jamal's. For these heavy topics such as racism and dealing with the aftermath of the brutal slavery of Africa's people, there are no easy answers. Ultimately, this is what Kingsolver captures best, the shell-shocked after-effects of one country's influence on another's. ( )

quite easily the best book I have ever read. Multi-layered, loved the characters and how true the author was to them and her play with language ( )

http://thebookwormslibrary.com/?p=406... ( )

I liked 3/4 of the girls in the story, but found the one superficial sister completely undeveloped. It's been a long time, but I would never read this book again. ( )

Wonderfully wrought tale of a family and a country's destiny ( )

Nathan Price, a Baptist missionary, moves his wife and four daughters to the Belgian Congo in 1966. Each of these family members is changed in remarkable ways by this experience. This novel is extraordinary for its realistic portrayal of flawed human characters. Each of the women in the book takes her turn telling her part of the story. This shifting point of view provides valuable information about each character, shading them in effective ways. The strong characterization helps to soften Kingsolver’s underlying thematic dogma and keeps the story rooted in the real emotions of real people. The novel examines the role of imperialism and the effect of religious fundamentalism. It also discusses patriarchy and relates the personal—a family—to the political—the continent of Africa. However, the richly drawn characters and fascinating plot conflicts keep the tale from devolving into a polemic. ( )

This took me quite a while to read, but I wanted to make sure I took it all in. I had to re-read much of it, not because I didn't enjoy it, but because my concentration levels aren't that great at the moment.

Wonderful story and characters and the description of life in the Congo was very rich. It was a very interesting story and the characters were all so different, but all very strong.

Highly recommended reading! ( )

This is the sort of book that, when I finish, I put down and just stare into space for a while. I'm contemplating: "what does this mean for my life?" The emotional impact is powerful and undeniable, but the specific implications for me and my relationships are left to me to sort out.
It's probably because I'm not exactly an intellectual giant, but I found it hard to understand what the last chapter was saying - so maybe it was trying to be more optimistic than I found it to be. My emotional response was one of profound depression: about the people of Africa, about what men can do to their families, about the hope of recovery from past traumas.
When I first heard about this book I thought I'd find its African setting to be too distant from my comfortable middle class urban existence for me to really relate. However, this wasn't the case at all. Indeed, I think maybe this is one of the points of the novel - that I am an oppressor (as a white, male) regardless of my personal role. But there's so much more than that in this book....the arbitrary nature of life and death; trauma and recovery; wrong and forgiveness; predestination and the power to change - you name it. And that's not to mention the specifics of American-African politics.
It's a longish book by my standards, but I never felt that it was dragging on. There's no wasted words, and the reading hours have been a great addition to my life. ( )

In alternating first-person narratives, missionary wife Orleanna Price and her daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, tell the story of their family's time in the Congo during its bid for independence in 1960. Each narrator has a unique voice and point of view. The prose is lovely, even while the story is ominous from the beginning and deals with themes of guilt and responsibility. Though the political commentary is a little heavy-handed near the end, the layered narration and expert touch with thematic content make this a good choice for a book club or class discussion, whether or not you agree with the author's persuasion. A challenging, thought-provoking story. ( )

Read it, then do some research on the history of the Congo and Africa in general (there is a bibliography in the book but probably not much of it available to the average reader). She is a fine writer, and she makes you think. ( )