The Poisonwood Bible (Oprah's Book Club)

In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years.

The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and daughters tell their stories in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenage Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo.

Despite these weaknesses, Kingsolver's fully realized, three-dimensional characters make The Poisonwood Bible compelling, especially in the first half, when Nathan Price is still at the center of the action. And in her treatment of Africa and the Africans she is at her best, exhibiting the acute perception, moral engagement, and lyrical prose that have made her previous novels so successful. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

In 1959, Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, takes his four young daughters, his wife, and his mission to the Belgian Congo -- a place, he is sure, where he can save needy souls. But the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within this complex culture. Set against one of the most dramatic political events of the twentieth century -- the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium and its devastating consequences -- here is New York Times-bestselling author Barbara Kingslover's beautiful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable epic that chronicles the disintegration of family and a nation.

Well researched and deeply moving, it tells the story of a missionary's family from Georgia who move to the Congo in the late 1950s. The father is a religious fanatic, driven to convert the world to his brand of Christianity .His wife and four daughters have no choice but to respect his wishes. Using the technique of alternating first-person voices, each chapter is told from the point of view of these five female family members.

A poisonwood tree grows by their house. It is beautiful but it causes rashes and boils on the skin. It's a great metaphor.

There is the mother, Orleanna Price, who struggles daily with the effort of keeping her family together in a world that is suddenly devoid of electricity, plumbing and food. Precious wood must be found for the stove, water must be boiled to remove parasites, and vegetables do not grow. The oldest daughter, Rachel is 16. She misses her friends and her life in Georgia and yearns for nailpolish and hairdos. Then there are twins of 14: Leah and Adah. Both are smart and open to learn about the world around them but Adah cannot speak or move one side of her body. The littlest one, Ruth May, at age 5 teaches the native children to play games.

Each one of these voices is totally distinct from each other and tells her tale in her own distinctive way. Their overlapping views of the same incident turned them into multifaceted prisms instead of simple story lines. I wanted nothing more to go on reading, finding myself in their world, feeling the heat and the beauty of Africa as each one, in her own way, discovered her own Africa.

But Africa was changing even as they were . Revolution was happening. It was dangerous for the missionaries. The father refused to leave. And the family gets caught up in total upheaval. When one of the daughters dies and I felt the grief throughout my bones. It wasn't just happening to a person in a book. I had known her so well that I, too, mourned the loss and felt their struggle to leave the madness. Felt the raging fever of malaria, saw how each had changed.

The last third of the book follows the surviving women through the next 30 years of African and American history. It is a political statement and it opened a world for me I never even knew existed. Often in books that span 40 years, the first part of the book is the best. But this book even got better as it moved along. It's 543 pages long and I was sorry to see it end.

This is a truly important book. It sent me to the internet immediately to learn more. I've lived my comfortable life here in the United States all these years and never had any understanding about what Africa was like. In this one book, Ms. Kingsolver brings me there. She does it with her art. She is more than just telling a story. She is opening people's eyes. Hooray for her!

I give this book my very highest recommendation. Read it!


Down with the Evil White Devil   June 2, 2000
Acton Jacobson (ajm42@mail.com)
221 out of 367 found this review helpful

How can so many commend this book? Though the writing itself is good, there is a real feeling of artifice - the characters are not believable at all. They are all one voice speaking in different dialects and sounding very contrived. Ideologically, everything about this book is a sham and a cliche.

It reminded me of those "mandatory reading" books assigned in my communist school which were really propaganda - except those were a lot shorter and you knew what they were selling you from the start.

Ms Kingsolver falls for every cliche in the book. However, the most revolting one (since it is such a flagrant LIE) is the implied notion that the problems of Africa and Africans are entirely the responsibility of white men. Funny how all those who espouse this view seem to flip over that chapter in the history book where we learn how the Arabs bought sold and dehumanized the African long before a white face showed up on the African shore. Yeah, white men exploited Africans - so did everyone else - including Africans themselves. Someone had to sell those slaves at the shore. And let's not even get into how African men treat women - but Ms Kingsolver doesn't really pick up on that since it wouldn't quite fit into her "good African" story.

Whatis also forgotten is that the very concept of equality that the Africans seized on so eagerly is a construct of white people and the Western civilization. Africans themselves have enslaved each other for centuries - they heard about communism from the Russians and about Democracy from Westerners.

And oh yeah, Christianity is all evil and bad - but those witch doctors and their chicken bones they are okay! The Christian missionary who wants to control the Africans - he's bad. But the scorcerer who controls the AFricans with fear and senseless superstition -he's good! At least the white man has some medicine that has real effect.

I'd be returning my book, but all that paper seems useful in the bathroom.


A Lovely, Imperfect Gem   July 14, 2000
R. M. Calitri (California,USA)
219 out of 240 found this review helpful

Barbara Kingsolver is finally receiving the attention she deserves for her impressive novel The Poisonwood Bible. I read this book last year because I'd just returned from spending five weeks in East Africa and missed the people and the country.

This novel tells the engrossing story of quirky, feverish Baptist preacher Nathan Price who hauls his family off on a mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. The story's narration is shared by his wife Orleanna and their four daughters, ages 5 - 15, who seem much too tender and naive to survive the trials of harsh conditions, poor housing, language barriers, cultural clashes, and natural antagonists. What results is an absorbing story set against the backdrop of political and religious upheaval.

Kingsolver's writing in this book proves what can happen when a writer continues to pursue her craft. The work is impressively mature compared to earlier cute novels like The Bean Trees and shows her flare and passion and growth as a writer. The narrative voices are distinct and engaging except for 15 year old Rachel's whose heartsickness for American pop culture is somewhat irritating because of the stretches the writer makes to show Rachel's shallow nature. For example, at first Rachel's malaprops are entertaining, but read against the seriousness of several occurences, the writing sounds forced. Nevertheless, Kingsolver's narrators are living voices most readers will very much enjoy.

I loved this book in spite of its flaws--the characterization of Rachel, the plausibility of some of the Congolese people's actions, and Kingsolver's political analysis/overview. The last fifth of the book is laborious as the writer strives to incorporate Congolese political history, and such writing is not where Kingsolver's strengths are. She is a craftsperson, a creative writer--one who loves the poetics and muscle of English--not a political analyst. Readers should begin this book knowing this because the heart of it is wrought with passion, Biblical double entendres, and enjoyable characters in a fantastic and important setting. Kingsolver's ambitious research has produced an important novel with more strengths than weaknesses as she's given deserved focus to precious central Africa--as the world should have and should be doing now.


Engrossing and fascinating   August 10, 2000
Polly L. Mccall (Ottawa, KS USA)
104 out of 109 found this review helpful

I read Kingsolver's earlier "Pigs in Heaven" and "Bean Trees." I picked up "The Poisonwood Bible" on impluse to read while on vacation. Once I started reading it, I found it hard to put down.

I have never had much interest in African history, but this book made me want to find out more. Her characters, as in her earlier books, are very well realized and fascinating. The story begins with the arrival in the Belgian Congo of Nathan Price, fire and brimstone Baptist preacher, and his reluctant family. The family's story is told by Nathan's wife, Orleanna, and their five daughters - shallow teen-age Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and five-year-old Ruth May. The voices of the characters are authentic and believable.

Other reviewers are correct in their assessment that this is, in a sense, two books. The first is about Nathan's clumsy and ill-advised attempts to fit Africa to his fundamentalist beliefs, and the family's attempts to fit their lives to Africa. The second is about the way a family tragedy marks its survivors and the different ways events in Africa mark them as well. I don't agree that Kingsolver should have "stopped writing" at the end of the first part.

I was absolutely spellbound by the way the voices changed and the way they stayed the same from the first to the last of the book. One believes in the characters, they change and grow as the book progresses. Other reviewers found Rachel grating, but I think that was the point. Her shallowness brought home the points that Kingsolver was making even more effectively than the earnest preaching by Leah. I got the sense that in her own way, Rachel understood the events perfectly well, but that she did not care.

I felt very complete when I finished the book. It was a satisfying experience.


why do you want a 489th review of this book?   July 8, 2000
Patricia A. Powell (gladstone, nj USA)
69 out of 71 found this review helpful

At the time of this writing, there are 488 customer reviews posted. It seems you either love this book or hate it. I loved this book.

It is the story of a family that goes to the Belgian Congo to perform Christian missionary work in the 1950's. It is told in the first person by the wife of the minister, and his daugthers. Its point of view would of course be feminine, but not necessarily feminist.

While some reviewers seem personally offended at the author's treatment of the father, Nathan, I find him sympathetic. And, without him, there is no story. Nathan's soul is tortured. Through a quirck of fate, he misses a battle of WWII where his entire unit is lost. He never deals with it and he is changed forever. When he met his wife at a Christian revival meeting, he was kind and committed to Chirst. When he returns home from the service, we find that he has become a rigid, self righteous bible thumping preacher. He despises wife for his own perceived sin... he physically desires her. He barely tolerates his daugthers, as he takes the entire family to the Belgian Congo to pursue what he believes is his calling from God. The hierarchy of his own church does not think that he is suited for missionary work, and will not send him, but he manages to go anyway. The family is ill prepared for the Congo and this predictably has tragic consequences.

Once in the Congo Nathan antagonizes the few western missionaries he has contact with. And, in the end he fails in his effort to save the souls of the natives. There is racism in the 1950's attitudes toward the villagers... their souls need to be saved, but their lives are relatively unimportant. They can pray together, but not eat at the same table. When independence come, the other western missionaries flee, fearing for their lives. But Nathan stays and he will not allow his family to leave with the others.

There is the mother, who is trying to please her husband, to be a good minister's wife, and to be good mother to her four daugthers. She cannot do it all. There are the 4 girls, one a teenager who hates being uprooted from her friends, twins (one with a deformity), and a pre schooler. Their experience in the Congo changes forever who they are, and they do not all return.

The constancy is found in the lives of the African villagers who have suffered much worse, than these missionaries. There is the expected culture clash between the chief, the shaman, and Nathan.

Every great novel has characters who grow and change. Nathan's change took place in the Pacific in WWII. He does not change again and grow beyond that point. While he expects the Africans to change into Christians, they are constant in their own culture. That leaves it to the women of the Poisonwood Bible to change and grow. And, they do not disappoint us. Like other readers, I found the first 100 or so pages slow going. I almost put it down. But I am so glad I persisted. I highly recommend the Poisonwood Bible, and hope that there is enough that is unique in the above to justify posting a 489th review.