The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel
by Barbara Kingsolver
List Price:
Our Price: $6.07
You Save: $8.92 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Barbara KingsolverEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-31
ISBN: 0060786507
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Book Reviews of The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel
Book Review: Stunning -- a True Modern Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Many critics have bemoaned the death of the great novel in recent years, but in the first two months of 2007 I have read two books to prove them wrong: "The Road," by Cormac McCarthy and "The Poisonwood Bible," Barbara Kingsolver's Pultizer Prize finalist from 1999 (if there were any such thing as justice in the world it would have won). These two novels prove that there is still a lot of life left in the fiction genre -- even in today's bottom-line driven publishing world that wants, above all else, to find the next Dan Brown or John Grisham. "The Poisonwood Bible" is a true modern classic; a book that will be relevant decades from now, and one that is worthy of being taught in classrooms across the globe. You could write papers about its subject matter and the quality, and beauty, of its prose. Kingsolver chooses each word carefully in constructing her sentences, and she has a poet's precision in her craft. She also possesses an incredible gift for theme and narrative, but I'll get to that later.
"I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence." (Pg. 96) In the beginning we are introduced to the Price family: Orleanna and the Reverend Nathan, and daughters Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and Ruth May. In 1959, at the behest of Nathan they pack up and head to the African nation of the Congo to bring Jesus to the 'backward heathens' that reside there, and from the moment they pack their suitcases they are doomed. The girls and their mother don't want to go, but there is no stopping their determined father. Resigned to their fate, they think that they can bring their American home with them through Betty Crocker cake mixes and pretty green Easter dresses, and soon upon arrival in the tiny village of Kilanga they realize that they are completely unprepared for life in the wilds of Africa. They think that they are better than the African villagers surrounding them, but most of them get a harsh reality check about how all men are created equal in the ensuing months. The lone exception is the fanatical Nathan, who refuses to bow down to centuries of cultural mores in his foolhardy attempts to reform them to his American ideals and to his God. His refusal to give up, even when other missionaries evacuate after civil war breaks out, leads his family inexorably into disaster.
It is no secret to say that one of the Price daughters is doomed, because it is made clear that this is the case from the novel's mesmerizing opening. The only question is which one will fall victim to her father's folly, and the suspense tears at your heart even before the shattering moment when the fated one is revealed, because Kingsolver manages the difficult task of making their disparate personalities equally lovable. It is the daughters who narrate the story, framed by haunting interludes from their mother at the beginning of each part where she reflects on her role in what happened to her family. Kingsolver does an amazing job getting inside of their heads and speaking in their unique voices, and each daughter has a different take on her surroundings that makes for intriguing reading. Malaprop-prone Rachel, the oldest, suffers through her sweet-sixteenth birthday in Kilanga, and wants nothing more than to return to the comforts of her American teen-princess life. Her desire to get out of there draws her into sexual tension with a dangerous local who has a plane that she would love to use to escape. Her not-so-casual racism is an affront, but through the course of the novel Kingsolver manages to make her a sympathetic, realistic character in her own right -- whether you end up loving her or hating her. Leah, the older of the twins, suffers from guilt because she unwittingly deprived her twin sister of nutrients in the womb and left her crippled. Leah tries to follow in the footsteps of her father to gain his approval, but this proves to be an impossible task. She is also the social conscience of her family -- the one who sees what injustices go on in Africa -- which leads to a dangerous friendship with a good-hearted local boy whose ideals are too volatile for the more traditional villagers and the government that has been corrupted by American influence. As guilty as Leah feels for her twin's physical handicap, Adah feels equally enraged at her sister and family. She has largely withdrawn from the limits of her body into her own inner world, where everything is slanted yet eerily accurate. She is misunderstood, branded a cynic and a lost cause, but the truth is that she strives toward a degree of realism and truth that most find uncomfortable. Yet, as smart as she is, her body is ill equipped to survive in a world where lions roam unseen, floods flash without warning, and numerous other dangers lurk in the shadows. Then there is Ruth May, a true firecracker and the youngest of the Price girls at a mere six years old. Fierce and determined as all youngest siblings tend to be, she refuses to be left out of any adventure -- and it is she who first makes headway in gaining the friendship of the villagers through the power of children at play. Her spirit is admirable, but it tends to lead her into situations that six year olds should probably avoid.
The thematic elements of the novel are also stirring and beautifully realized. It's refreshing to read a book that isn't too dense to be accessible or too heavy-handed and open with its meaning. The crises in Africa and American involvement in them are rendered with a careful eye, and the characters are portrayed with an open mind and a palpable sense of respect -- even Nathan, whose backstory lends sympathy and creedence to his current life goals. The truth is that the Prices are all doomed by their tangle with Africa, not just the one who dies. Their dealings with the Congo leave a mark on them for the rest of their lives -- just like the boils and rashes that are left behind by the Poisonwood tree in the jungles. None of them will ever be able to go back to the life they once knew, and whether or not there is justice in this is left to the reader to determine.
If "The Poisonwood Bible" has a flaw it's that its denouement is a touch too long; the novel continues a full 150 pages after its climax, and spends too much time in that final section getting political and hammering in points that you already got -- and more subtlely -- earlier on. But the quality of the novel and the experience of reading it make that one misstep easily forgivable. "The Poisonwood Bible" has easily launched itself into my top ten list -- and there just aren't enough praises that I could bestow upon it. Highly recommended.
Summary of The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.Oprah Book ClubŪ Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
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
Children's Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Children's Books
Looking for Bobowicz: A Hoboken Chicken Storyby Daniel Pinkwater
HarperCollins; Published: 2004-06-01; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
The Magician's Nephew, Color Gift Edition (Narnia)by C. S. Lewis
HarperCollins Narnia; Published: 2003-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.73
Price in other shops:
My Book About Me (Beginner Books)by Dr Seuss
Harpercollins; Published: 1983-03-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.75
Call of the Wild (Hrw Classics Library)by Jack London
Holt Rinehart and Winston; Published: 1997-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.43
Price in other shops:
Apple Valley Yearby Ann Turner
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1993-09-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $135.04
The Tales of Olga da Polgaby Michael Bond
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1989-04-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $83.57
The Complete Chronicles of Narniaby C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis
HarperCollins Children's Books; Published: 2006-11; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soonby Jane Yolen
Harpercollins Childs; Published: 2004-01-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.64
Oh, The Places You'll Go!by Dr Seuss
HARPER COLL CHILDREN; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Loraxby Dr Seuss
HARPER COLL CHILDREN; Published: 2004; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Me Talk Pretty One Dayby David Sedaris
Back Bay Books; Published: 2001-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops:
Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iranby Azadeh Moaveni
PublicAffairs; Published: 2006-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.17
Price in other shops:
Face (Complete Works of Cecile Pineda series)by Cecile Pineda
Wings Press (TX); Published: 2003-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.09
Price in other shops:
Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Storiesby Ghassan Kanafani
Three Continents Pr; Published: 1998-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.75
Price in other shops:
Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, Revised Edition, With a New Prefaceby Kevin Bales
University of California Press; Published: 2004-11-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
A New-England Tale (Penguin Classics)by Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-07-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.32
Price in other shops:
Zoot Suit and Other Playsby Luis Valdez
Arte Publico Pr; Published: 1992-04-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.78
Price in other shops:
The Bean Trees: A Novel (P.S.)by Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2009-05-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops:
Prodigal Summer: A Novelby Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Perennial; Published: 2001-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)by Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.14
Price in other shops: