The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (P.S.)

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.


LABORIOUS, FORCED AND CONTRIVED   March 25, 2000
 45 out of 58 found this review helpful

The Poisonwood bible, set in the troubled Congo of the 1960s and spanning thirty-five years, is the story of fire-and-brimstone Baptist minister, Nathan Price, his wife, the emotinally distant Orleanna and their four daughters, the self-indulgent Rachel, the tomboy Leah and her bitter and twisted twin Adah, and the curious and adventurous Ruth May. The story is told from the point-of-view of the women in the family. It encompasses a brilliant and fascinating premise that was almost completey destroyed with poor execution and storytelling. From the opening sentence, all credibility and belief in the characters is destroyed. Orleanna, not educated beyond high school, who calls herself simply, "a housewife from Georgia," speaks like a Georgia housewife yet thinks in prose that would rival the musings of Michael Ondaatje. Rachel is even worse. Attempts to portray her as not-too-smart fail on all counts. Her malaproprisms quickly become tiresome and grating. What's worse, if accepted, they would reveal a brilliant mind rather than one that was lacking. Ruth May, an otherwise engaging five-year-old is also troublesome. At times her thoughts seem to be those of a typical five-year-old; at other times she sounds more like thirty. (At one point, Ruth May says, "Rachel was Miss Priss, now she's a freak of nature." I have never met any five-year-old that could understand, much less make, that comparison.) Each voice is so overly distinctive that the entire book feels forced and contrived, two elements really good prose always avoids. The author also never lets us forget we are reading a book. This problem begins immediately when Ruth May says, "My name is Ruth May." This is almost as bad as the archaic, "Dear Reader." There are other problems with the book, the most evident being Adah's deus ex machina "miraculous" cure and the fact that the narration continues long after the story is really over. I was going to give this book three stars because the events in the lives of the Price family are interesting and well worth telling, but upon further reflection I decided to reduce my rating to one star instead. I just couldn't get past all the mistakes.


A Engaging Parable for a Real Problem   June 12, 2000
 42 out of 45 found this review helpful

I have read all of Barbara Kingsolver's novels and, in my opinion, this one is her best. Five different female perspectives are given of a family's Baptist missionary conquest in the Belgian Congo. Their experience in a remote African village affects the characters, all in different ways, for the rest of their lives. Generally their accounts are dark and somewhat frightening but cleverly Kingsolver uses the voice of Rachel, the eldest daugther, to provide satirical comic relief.

The Poisonwood Bible has been frequently criticized for evolving from a well developed and interesting story into a political diatribe. I thought, however, that perhaps Kingsolver was attempting to draw parallels between the actions of one man's religious mission and the intrusion of global superpowers in Africa. Both were manipulative, self serving, and had calamitous results. I believe Kingsolver's intention was to describe the effects of foreign interference on a small scale to illustrate what a disasterous impact western influence has upon Africa on a macro level.

Kingsolver was able to combine a powerful fictious story and use it to help the reader understand the travesty of what much of Africa is presently enduring and why. The read is engaging and exciting while, at the same time, informative and enlightening.


An Exquisite Book that Made Me Feel, See and Sense Africa   August 17, 2000
 39 out of 42 found this review helpful

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.


Congo through the eyes of five keen-eyed women   May 3, 2002
 39 out of 43 found this review helpful

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.