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Title: The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver ISBN: 0-06-093053-5 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (1194 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Congo through the eyes of five keen-eyed women
Comment: I have found that an author who can both tell an amazing personal story and simultaneously educate her readers about historical events is very rare. Here, Kingsolver succeeds tremendously.
In 1959, a Baptist minister named Nathan Price takes his wife and four blonde, blue-eyed daughters into the Belgian Congo to spread the glorious news--that Jesus Christ is bengala! Bengala is the word that can mean both "precious and dear" as well as "poisonwood" in the language of the townfolk of Kilanga, depending on where you place the accents in the word. Of course, when preaching, Nathan gets it wrong and thereby tells his reluctant congregants that Jesus Christ is the poisonwood tree--a tree that burns your skin and thereby brings misery to those who touch it.
This metaphor is apt; the Price family is a disaster in the Congo. The story is alternately narrated by Nathan's wife, Orleanna, and his four daughters. The book touches on many themes--humans as just one form of life in the world; the inherent balance of nature; forgiveness and acceptance; and the evils that well-meaning foreigners can inflict on foreign lands.
The most compelling part of this book to me, though, was the relationship of these five women to each other and to the Congo. Orleanna and each of her daughters illustrates a different perspective as to their almost unimaginable lives in the Congo. Rachel is portrayed as being obsessed with material things, longing for soda, dances, and being popular back in Bethlehem, Georgia. Leah is Adah's twin who seeks for and never acheives her father's approval, so she comes to rely on herself. Adah was harmed by Leah in the womb, so she cannot walk straight and does not like to talk and blames Leah for her disabilities, but she has a unique gift for palindromes and balance. Ruth May, the youngest, is remarkable as the only member of the family to elicit the love of the townspeople. Orleanna is nearly incapacitated with longing, regret, and guilt, and cannot leave the Congo even though she has not set foot in Africa for 25 years.
The first 3/4 of this book is about the family's experience during the 14 months they live with Nathan. However, the book continues to follow the women for the next 30 years, against the backdrop of the original independence movement and the cleptocracy under Mobutu. I found this portion of the book to be somewhat less compelling than the intense story of the women's experiences with Nathan. However, it was still fascinating to see how that 14-month period shaped the women throughout the rest of their lives.
Overall, a beautiful, overwhelming story--so different from the other Kingsolver books I have read. A strong story about women who each triumphs, in different ways, in the face of tragedy. Still more, it is a story about Americans (and all human beings)are only one part in a huge chain of life.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Exquisite Book that Made Me Feel, See and Sense Africa
Comment: Having lived in South Africa for 21 years and in Georgia, USA for 29 years Barbara Kingsolver's book "The Poisonwood Bible" hit a nerve. Barbara descriptions of life in Kilanga, Congo 40 years ago is astounding and brought back fond memories of my travels in villages in Mozambique, Zululand and the Transkei. The serene-looking faces, quick laughter and bare chested elegance of the village people fascinated me more than the tensed-faced, harried, self-conscious city folk I knew. Barbara's exquisite writing made me feel, see and sense Africa all over again. Each of the Price family members represented parts of me and helped me to understand myself better. Nathan's religious fanaticism, Orleanna's loyalty, Ruth Mae's innocence, Rachael's self-centeredness and the thoughtful keen-eyed observations of Adah and Leah, the twins. They were the true seekers of wisdom and truth. Barbara's comment about the USA and Western Europe's involvement in the bloodshed and devastation of Africa is shocking. The possible link between the CIA and Patrice Lumumba's death; the United States support of Joseph Mobutu's dictatorship and abuse of funds; Mobutu spending $20 million to bring two American boxers to Zaire so quote "all the world will respect the name Zaire" when his people were dying of starvation and disease; the Export-Import Bank loaning the Congo more than a billion dollars for a bogus power line so they can be assured a permanent debt and be repaid in cobalt and diamonds. I had not idea and feel outraged. Through the characters of the Fowles, Anatole, Leah, Adah and Orleanna, the author shows how the people who get off the treadmill of further, faster and more to return to nature and simplicity seem not only to survive but thrive.
Rating: 4
Summary: Insightful and Creative Masterpiece
Comment: This is Barbara Kingsolver's masterpiece, for sure. This epic follows the family of an idealistic Southern Baptist preacher as he moves to the Congo to save the world from damnation. What makes it so lovely is that the story is told completely from the perspective of the wife and four daughters in the family, each of whom suffers her father's self-righteousness as the situation in the Congo turns from bad to worst.
The story is not only one of the girls' struggle to free themselves from an overbearing father, but an allegory for the attempt of Africans to free themselves from their "benevolent" European colonizers. But unlike other post-colonialist diatribes, Kingsolver does not attempt to belittle Western values. Instead, she focuses on the wrongheaded assumptions the West has made about the delicate and ancient tribal culture of Africa.
In these days of cultural clashing, the moral of this soulful story could not be more important. And there is perhaps no better story since Conrad's Heart of Darkness to warn would-be conquerers against riding the high-horse.
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Title: Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver ISBN: 0060959037 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant ISBN: 0312195516 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 15 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Bean Trees : A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver ISBN: 0061097314 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver ISBN: 006109868X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Memoirs of a Geisha : A Novel by Arthur Golden ISBN: 0679781587 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 10 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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