'The Poisonwood Bible' by Barbara Kingsolver is an important book, one which should be on everyone’s TBR list. On Goodreads there are 666,825 ratings and 23,525 reviews. The novel was a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, the Orange Prize, the Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Adult, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Independent Publisher Book Award for Audio, the Exclusive Books Book Prize, the Puddly Award for Novel, the International Dublin Literary Award - and it won several of the above. There are also thousands of book reviews online written by professional literary critics.

In my more humble opinion, it is a magnificent novel. It is Kingsolver’s magnum opus, her Les Miserables contender. It is a multi-dimensional statement about Human Folly. It also has many other literary themes, with perhaps the one main one of spirituality and its many faces, which makes it perfect for book clubs and other discussion groups.

Some readers believe the novel is anti-missionary or anti-religious, but I think her book was more nuanced and Big Picture than that. I think Kingsolver was demonstrating the uselessness of a certain type of Christian missionary. She was not condemning the entire group, only those self-proclaimed religious messengers who have no real religious training or cultural expertise, or who are focused on a single aspect of an organized religion to the exclusion of all other considerations. At one point, it is revealed Nathan Price, the keystone character who sets in motion the tragedy of the Price family’s disillusionment with their father, and more, went to Africa and took over the small Kilanga mission without sanction of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Service.

The Service did give Price a small monthly stipend of $50 a month, but they did it reluctantly because he had refused to attend the classes he needed on living in the Belgian Congo in 1959. He never learned any African language. He knew nothing of what supplies he needed. He dragged his family of wife and four daughters to a village in the middle of a jungle without having done a single thing (except for a few vaccines) to prepare them for an African country very different from Bethlehem, Georgia, their previous home.  As the story unfolds through the alternating narratives of Nathan’s wife, Orleanna Price, and of his four daughters, fifteen-year-old Rachel, fourteen-year-old twins Leah and Adah, and five-year-old Ruth May, three years of hell pass. The stipend is stopped when the Belgian Congo won its independence in 1960. Nathan refuses to leave despite recommendations of fellow Baptist missionaries, despite the breaking out of civil wars, and despite the threat to the lives of all White people in the Congo, many of whom are murdered after the Congo’s declaration of independence.

The things Nathan cannot accept are legion. He doesn’t recognize the physical needs, like food, of anyone, including those of his family. He does not recognize that the concept of God comes in many packages around the world. To Nathan, spirituality exists only in one face - that of the Old Testament God of the Christian Bible. Although he is Baptist, he rejects the approved Baptist Bible which does not include the Catholic books called the Apocrypha. He is focused, to the exclusion of all other expressions of spirituality, only on the ritual of baptism no matter what environment he finds himself. He cannot convince the people of Kilanga being baptized is more important than being eaten by crocodiles.

Nathan is clearly deranged, but it takes his family a long time to understand this. Eventually, Nathan’s monomaniac interest on baptizing African polytheists costs him his family, his honor, and his sanity. The question of survival becomes the issue. Will Orleanna, Rachael, Leah, Adah and Ruth May get out of Africa alive? What caused Nathan’s monomania? How is it that Orleanna married such a man, and even more puzzling, continued her support of his view of Christianity to the point of endangering the lives of her children?

Poisonwood is a local plant which kills unwary people. Touching it burns the skin, and using it as firewood or food will kill. The family has a painful run-in with the plant since they have no clue about local flora or fauna.

The Price family assumes they can plant Georgia crops in African soils, but of course, that ends up a disaster. Besides the fast-growing native jungle environment, there is the different seasonal environment of the Congo. It is has two seasons - rainy and dry. The Price family had never heard of rainy and dry seasons. They also didn’t know Kilanga had no refrigeration, no electricity, no indoor or outdoor toilets except bushes, no water except that from streams or rivers. The streams are used as a bathroom, to wash the few articles of clothes people had, and to drink. Only the Price family boils the water. They didn’t know about the crocodiles, the snakes, the bugs, and other wildlife which attack the people of the jungle. They didn’t know how diseases affect the people who must live with them without remedies except that provided by “witchdoctors.” With wonder, they observed many of the people of Kilanga had missing limbs and eyes.

The poverty of Kilanga and other surrounding villages amazed them. The Price family was poor, and they had lived in poverty in America, but they discovered they were wealthy compared to the Africans. Children were mostly naked. Those who wore clothes walked about with holes in the seats of their pants. Only men were allowed to wear pants. Boys finished their education at age twelve. Men hunted, women grew manioc and cooked it. Manioc was the main food, and it did not provide many of the necessary minerals and vitamins for good health. The Price children mistook the bloated bellies of African children for obesity. Two hundred languages were spoken by the various tribes in the Belgian Congo.

Nathan believed the answer to all of the problems of the Congo was baptism. His sermons consisted of the hellfire-fright teachings of the Bible. He threatened eternal damnation and living under the Devil for anyone not accepting Jesus. He denigrated their local gods.

Clearly Nathan was a nihilist except for fundamentalist Christianity, although he would have denied this. He wasn’t interested in the problems of staying alive or in suggesting ways to ease grief, pain and suffering of physical bodies while breathing, only in sending people to heaven after death. He preached only the supposed consolation of being loved by Jesus after the pain of living along with the horrors of eternal damnation. He isn’t the only Christian who believes in preaching Death as the only answer to starvation, poverty, disease and suffering because of the future of being in Heaven. They can’t hear themselves, I think.

His words had to be translated since Nathan didn’t speak the local language at all. He learned a few words eventually, but he never got the hang of the tonal qualities of a word. In mispronouncing bangala, a word that could mean both ‘most precious’ or poisonwood, he continuously preached a message to his small congregation which was confusing. His other messages of ‘love’ were already being understood with outrage. By insisting the villagers throw their kids into a crocodile infested river for baptism, he chased away most of the people who went to his church at least once. In telling them their doctors, whether those of their deities who they had worshipped for pain relief for generations, or the local ‘witchdoctor’ who also provided remedies for pain, grief and fear, were evil, the villagers waited for learning how worshipping Jesus would alleviate their physical sufferings while alive. Of course, Nathan had nothing concrete for that.

Each of the women in the Nathan’s household believed in Nathan, except for Adah. Adah had been born with a crippled right side. Her family was told she had only half of a brain. Later, she mentions polio, but I noticed this sentence is missed by many readers. Adah and Leah are geniuses, and were placed in accelerated learning classes while they lived in America. However, Adah mystifies her family and they ignore her. She never talks. She cannot keep up with the rest of the family when they walk around or work. Her nicknames involve the word “crooked” in all languages. But her narrations make clear she not only is an atheist, she is the only one who realizes Nathan is not ok.

Rachel is unknowingly amusing, and self-centered. She is not a genius. Her mirror is her most precious object. She hates doing anything which will mess up her hair.

Leah is daddy’s girl. She follows him about like a dog in heat. She wants to be him when she grows up. She thinks prayer will solve everything, and she believes if people accept Jesus, their starvation and diseases will be cured. She is also the outdoor kid, accomplished at hunting and living in the woods, strong and fit.

Ruth May is cute, charming and completely accepting of everybody and everything. She walks into neighboring huts full of curiosity and friendliness, and easily makes friends. Her ability at picking up languages is phenomenal. Adah also can do languages, but her family does not pay her much attention as I mentioned before.

Orleanna. She is the character that most interested me. How did she get to be the kind of person who follows a deranged man to Africa, putting her children at risk from horrible death and suffering by local deadly flora and fauna, starvation, disease, racism and civil war? In the beginning the answer is the Baptist religion did it along with extreme ignorance, but later? She slowly decides to trust her own eyes and ears, but omg. It takes a dreadful tragedy to do it. Before then, religious mores blind her and bind her into submission. Nathan beats them all as well. She does nothing about it.

Africa. What is wrong with Africa? The book has so much information about the Congo during the years the family is there. The author gradually reveals the horrors of colonialism. The White world of Europe and America robbed Africa of its resources while promising education, the building of infrastructure and food. Food and educational resources were provided - temporarily, without continuing maintenance. Through bribery of African leaders, White governments killed legitimate African leaders and installed corrupt governments. This, from the same White race which also came to Africa preaching Christianity.

Between wrong-footed Christianity and White promises of wealth, Black Africa was kneecapped by corruption. White people took everything of value and left only an impoverished hell of suffering on the African continent, ultimately only giving the ordinary African the intangible reward of a love from an invisible god after Death.

The novel is wonderful. I highly recommend it. It only misses being a classic with the stature of Great Literature, imho, because one of the characters does not quite measure up - Rachel. Nonetheless, it definitely is great, small g, literature. Some readers thought it prejudiced against Christianity, but I think they didn’t read the book closely enough. Others thought it too supportive of communism, but many African nations and its people believed communism held the answer to redistribution of wealth issues which beset Africa. An author cannot do a history of Africa without including the infatuation with communism many African countries had. At the time (and currently) only the communist states of Russia, Cuba and China offered tangible resources that they followed through on. They provided doctors, roads and dams - practical solutions to practical problems. The help came with strings and racism, along with a lack of consistency and maintenance too, but that came later. The principles of Communism in its teachings definitely appeared a thousand times more attractive than that of gaining a heavenly existence only after one has followed religious rules designed for a desert culture of millennia ago and preaching people must live and die suffering agonies while alive.

There is a bibliography in the back. Plus, the author lived in Africa as a child.

I had been meaning to read The Poisonwood Bible for the longest time, and it didn't disappoint. It is an epic family saga of vibrant, memorable characters and the enormous challenges they face.

The story begins in the late 1950s. Nathan Price, a stubborn Baptist preacher, decides to take his wife Orleanna and their four daughters to the Belgian Congo, in an attempt to convert the natives to Christianity. The scale of the task soon becomes apparent. The family take up residence in an extremely poor village, where food is scarce and the climate is brutal - a long way from the American luxury they are used to. This alien environment tests their resilience to the very limit. And though they are initially welcomed by the locals, Nathan's missionary efforts are met with no little resistance. Some of the girls adjust to the new way of life better than others, but it seems as though there is always another obstacle for them to tackle.

Each chapter is narrated by a different family member, except for Nathan. It's a clever idea, as we discover the impact that this abusive, monstrous man had on his victims. The voice of each Price daughter also becomes clear. Rachel, the eldest, is self-absorbed and materialistic. Leah is smart and the most sociable of the siblings - she worships her father even though they have blazing rows. Adah, her twin, is disabled since birth, and remains mostly silent, though we learn from her thoughts that her mind is sharp and poetic. Ruth May is only five years old, yet she can pick up on the worry and unease of her mother. Orleanna's account looks back on their life in Africa with sadness and regret, and hints at a major tragedy that befell the family during their stay.

The event, when it occurs, is indeed shocking. The story then proceeds for over 150 pages, and this is my one criticism of the book - it does feel a little long-winded. I suppose Kingsolver wanted to show how each of the Prices coped with such misfortune and moved on with their lives. However, this is a minor complaint. The Poisonwood Bible is one of those unforgettable reads. It examines weighty themes like race, religion and politics from so many angles and manages to wrap it all up into such a rich and compelling story. It's an ambitious, powerful yarn that Barbara Kingsolver spins and she pulls it off with real aplomb.

RACHEL

I am the oldest sister and a typical teenage girl, oh-jeez-oh-man. All I want is to go back to Georgia and kiss boys outside the soda bar, but instead here I am stuck in the Congo with unconditioned hair and ants and caterpillars and scary-but-with-a-heart-of-gold black people. Jeez Louise, the life of a missionary's daughter. Also I make a whole lot of hilarious Malabarisms, that's just one of the tenants of my faith. There's two of them now! Man oh man.


LEAH

The other day, Anatole rushed into our hut all excited about news from the wider world. ‘Great events are underway, Miss Price!’ he said. ‘Oh really?’ I asked, wondering if he would do for a love interest. ‘What's happening?’

Anatole took a deep breath. ‘Well, in the fallout from the Léopoldville riots, the report of a Belgian parliamentary working group on the future of the Congo was published in which a strong demand for "internal autonomy" was noted. August de Schryver, the Minister of the Colonies, launched a high-profile Round Table Conference in Brussels in January 1960, with the leaders of all the major Congolese parties in attendance. Lumumba, who had been arrested following riots in Stanleyville, was released in the run-up to the conference and headed the MNC-L delegation. The Belgian government had hoped for a period of at least 30 years before independence, but Congolese pressure at the conference led to 30 June 1960 being set as the date. Issues including federalism, ethnicity and the future role of Belgium in Congolese affairs were left unresolved after the delegates failed to reach agreement,’ he said.

‘Well I guess that's us brought up to date, then,’ I sighed. Anatole folded up his printout from Wikipedia and left the hut.


ADAH

Sunrise unties blue skies clockwise. Pinot noir, caviar, mid-sized car, Roseanne Barr. I have a slightly deformed body and I Do Not Speak, which means I have more time for deep, ponderous internal monologues and wordplay. Ponder. Red nop. That's my thing – I say words backwards. Ti t'nsi, gniyonna? For you see, each of us Price girls needs a distinctive stylistic tic, otherwise we'd all sound exactly the same. Bath, sack, cock, cash, tab! There's a palindrome for you. No nasal task, Congo – loud duolog nocks Atlas anon. Good luck finding a profound thematic message in one of these. But if I run out of them, I guess I could always just go through the nearest Kikongo dictionary for material. *flips to page 342* Nkusu means ‘parrot’ but nkusi means ‘fart’. Hmmm. I wonder how many paragraphs I can get out of that?


RUTH MAY

I am just a widdle girl. I don't understand half of the things I see around me, which is just as well, given all the conflict diamonds and CIA agents I keep stumbling on. I play with all the children in the village, even though I have no toys, which is sad. If one of the village children dies, it's just as sad and tragic as if one of us cute little white girls dies. Well, not really, obviously, otherwise the whole book would have been about a Congolese family in the first place, but maybe if I keep saying it you'll at least think about it for a couple of minutes. Daddy doesn't seem to like the Congolese at all. Our daddy is such a big meanie. He loves god a whole bunch but he's just awful to Mother and my sisters. He's just the nastiest ogre you can imagine. ’Course, I guess he probably wouldn't see things that way. That's why we don't let him narrate any chapters of his own.

A book that countless people told me to read, which I finally got round to doing. This is a provocative tale about the land that was once called Congo; the tale of a missionary and his family as told by his 4 daughters and wife over 40+ years the rise and fall and rise of the Price family. Very interesting in that I get to get a feel some of Africa's recent Colonial past albeit through European eyes. A book that definitely stayed with me after completion. 6 out of 12

2010 read

Updated August 13, 2018
Reading this book was like visiting some old friends and catching up. It was a really nostalgic read for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed Kingsolver's writing in this novel.

The Poisonwood Bible is about the Price family who is on a mission trip to Congo during the 1950s. The Dad, Nathan Price is a Minister who sets out to saving souls for Christ and baptizing everyone who comes in his path. There are a lot of cultural, spiritual and political things in play that hinders Price from achieving his goal- including his family.

What absolutely loved about this novel was the writing. The book is told from the POVs of the mother and the daughters in the family. It is uncanny how distinct each voice it and I thoroughly appreciated that.

This is a solid five star novel for me.

July 12, 2016
It took me 9 days to finish this book. NINE DAYS. I feel like I just finished running a marathon. I am exhausted, emotional, annoyed, happy, unhappy, angry, vindicated, tired- I am feeling just about every emotion after finishing this book.

Like running a marathon, there were times where I felt I would never finish this book. There were times where I just didn't want to continue reading, but Kingsolver is a master storyteller, it was impossible to stop once I started.

I have to say, Kingsolver's character development and use of varying POVs is impeccable. I am amazed at how she goes between four characters and each have a very distinct voice. At first I thought all of this would falter coming to the end but these characters are very consistent. I would go out on the limb and say, I have never read a book with such strong character POVs.

I honestly loved this book. I think I rushed through some of the parts because I just wanted to be over, but overall, this is a must read.

Also, how am I JUST finding this book when it seems half my Goodreads friends read it already! Late to the party much.

MUST. READ.

The Poisonwood Bible covers a cataclysmic period in the life of the Price family of Bethlehem, Georgia.
Nathan Price, a Baptist preacher takes his wife and three daughters deep into the jungle of the Belgian Congo to spread the word of god. His unswerving path is clear, unarguable and dictated directly from above. He is driven, single minded and stubborn.
However, we soon begin to suspect that Nathan will find it hard to save or convince anybody ....... including his family!
His long suffering wife and three daughters have some love and respect for Nathan but this gradually dissolves in the heat, dust and massive privations that follow.
Orleanna his dazed (but strong) wife soon questions this life changing move and their children are rocked by culture shock. Ruth May is a precocious five year old, Leah a fifteen year old tomboy, Adah is Leah’s frighteningly intelligent disabled twin and Rachel is 16, pretty and vain and continually aghast at her surroundings.
The story is cleverly told through their multiple view points.
The mission house is the only brick built building amongst huts and the Price family live an uneasy life apart from the villagers.
They are tolerated, sometimes with good humour sometimes with irritation and distrust but are never really seen as anything more that a curiosity. Christianity is rarely considered as a serious competitor to the ancient gods that have served the villagers since time began.
As the Price’s grapple with the incomprehensible and hostile world around them, violent political change is spreading across the Congo. Independence looms as Europe, Russia and American hover like vultures with eyes on the vast mineral wealth.
Nationalism, racism, and the harm done to Africa by rich foreign powers are all themes that thread through this story.
The novel builds up gradually, with great narrative skill to a shocking climax but then spends perhaps too long on the aftermath as we follow the main characters into the future and see how their collision with Africa has shaped their lives. Although interesting, the book in the latter stages, seems to lose focus and become a little drawn out.
Reservations aside though, The Poisonwood Bible is an engrossing saga full of memorable characters, vivid set pieces and a lot of dark humour.
A modern classic I think, and I’m eager to explore more works by Barbara Kingsolver.

This one took me a long time to read, not just because it has a lot of pages but also because I had to read every single word carefully and re read the best bits too! It is so beautifully written and so very evocative of the atmosphere of Africa.

It is told in the five different voices of the female members of the family and I have to admit to liking Adah's chapters the most. She has a wonderful way of looking at things and I especially liked the way she referred to her bible thumping father as "Our Father" sarcastically likening him to God himself. Rachel provided the humour to the book and I enjoyed her chapters after she left the family and made her own way in life in South Africa.

In truth I liked all five of them and became totally involved in their lives. Altogether a beautiful book.

A rook who would be king. And the piece that will fall? Patrice Lumumba, a postal worker elected to head his nation. The Belgians and Americans agree, Lumumba is difficult. Altogether too exciting to the Congolese, and disciplined to let White control the board, preferring the counsel and company of the Black. (PG 318)

I honestly don’t know how to convey what I read here to you all… it was too powerful

How does a country let foreigners destroy them and then their own peoples, their own government Fx them too? It’s too big for my small brain to comprehend. When people know history, like truly delve into it, can these same people continue to 100% trust their government and feel safe ever again? I think when you look at everything logically and decide NO, I CANNOT it doesn't mean you're unpatriotic but it means you're awake and full of questions and that is healthy for a human being. You are not a conspiracy theorist because you ask questions. There are many things people have laughed at but have recently have come to light that these things didn't happen as was told to us, ie JFK (David Blaine must've given them a magic bullet!) Other things I can mention but will probably get ridiculed here but who can say I am truly wrong or you are truly wrong? We don't know, that is the point. We are kept in the dark as were the Congolese and it was the Americans, Belgians, Brits all over again. If someone did whatever was done to these Congolese in these particular countries, DAMN, imagine WWIII! Imagine the outrage but then a man tries to fix the country, the CIA murders him and plants another moron in office that's bedding the highest bidder. A man in power prostituting himself for shiny, big things, not for the well-being of its people.

I Googled many of the events in the book and while it is historical fiction the background and the governments of that time are real. It makes me sick to know this stuff and that it's 2023 and they would do it all over again OR it is still happening in plain sight. We fight for political correctness and gender equality, which is important to some, but where people are being murdered for the sake of democracy no one bats an eye or goes protesting at any government house. We need what they have and if we don't do it someone else will take it. We call them savages and make filthy cartoons about them but do we take the time to realize they are a people of their own nation with their own injustices? They don't need us. They've been fine for thousands of years.

It's probably a dumb, emotional review but this book pissed me off for the right reasons. History is slowly being dissolved and retold so this must be taught to my kids and their kids by me. The funny thing is I didn't want to read it and it took me two times to finally get into it but it's one of those books that I should have read years ago.

Can a country and its politicians be called narcissistic psychopaths? If they were diagnosed for a mental illness by a professional would they be on anti-psychotic pills for the rest of their days? Would they be considered mass murderers or serial killers? Would you vote for these people knowing what you know about their background or how they came into "old" money? Doesn’t it bother people that your hard earned tax dollars are being used to rape and murder people in other countries yet making you live in fear in your own because of inflation? I feel tricked and robbed with a big sprinkle of gaslighting.

Just questions that crossed my mind after reading this. Trying to think outside the box, like technicolor.

As Brother Fowles told us a long time ago: there are Christians, and there are Christians. (PG 435)

God doesn't need to punish us. He grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves. (PG 327)

This book really made me think about why we adopt certain beliefs: what comes from the environment we are immersed in vs. what comes from within. I loved how Kingsolver shows the world view of an entire family who is experiencing the same basic situations in the Congo, but each member deals with these things very differently. It also brings up issues with culture differences and the obstacles in trying to persuade a culture to change. It poses the question of should they change, is the American culture superior, is Christianity superior, is democracy superior, is wealth superior to poverty? Each character answers these questions differently. How our actions or inactions affect other people is another commentary this novel addresses. The story brings up ethical issues that arise in getting involved with other countries: do we do it because we believe we are superior or to exploit their resources or to sincerely try to help other people have a better life? Lots of interesting things to think about in this book.
Here is the synopsis from Amazon.com: 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.

Kingsolver's book about a missionary family in the Congo could have been two separate books--one fiction, the other nonfiction. Sadly, The Poisonwood Bible was a combination of both which resulted in a story a bit long-in-the-tooth.

On one hand, there is nothing new here, and on this same old tirade, I disagree strongly with the author. Examples:

* Relativism. I'm sorry, I believe infanticide to be wrong for all cultures, for all times.

* Missionaries, particularly protestant missionaries to Africa were entirely the endeavor of egotistic, abusive, colonialists who were merely out to change Africa into either a western society or an exploitative factory for western society. Wrong again, read Tom Hiney's "On the Missionary Trail" for a non-fiction perspective that documents ways in which many missionaries were actually upsetting the colonial balance by preparing native peoples for independence, tutoring leaders on negotiation with world powers, recording native history and cultural practices and transcribing their languages, ; see also Philips Jenkins' "The Next Christendom".
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

* Marriage is an oppressive institution that consumes women; they need to escape. Certainly SOME marriages are, but that doesn't mean we go the way of disregarding it as a foundational institution of society.

* America is an evil power of which we should all be ashamed. False again. I cannot deny mistakes have been made in American foreign policy, and certainly events of the Congo, as presented in this book, would appear to be this way. But, there are also many things America has done that are good (such as preserving freedom for those who live here to write books ripping on America), and these shouldn't be ignored.

* All cultural traditions should be preserved because they have merit in and of themselves. I do not agree with this at all. Female circumcision should not be, regardless of whether it is a cultural tradition. Not only does it serve no purpose to enhance the lives of either men or women, it is destructive to them. At the same time, the American high-fat, high-sugar diet, while traditional (burgers, fries and shakes) should be changed. American isolationalism that doesn't consider other cultures and peoples should also go too.

* The work is hailed as an "examination of personal responsibility". Clearly all Belgians, American, colonialists, businessmen, husbands/fathers, missionaries, and mothers (to a lesser extent) are to be found culpable in the downfall of the Congo, as if this type of situation has never occurred in history before. But the truth is often far more complex, and the events in Congo, while horrible, cannot really be understood outside of their larger context. Was Congo the only African nation to suffer? Was there truly not a single benefit of colonialism? Were all businessmen/ westerners culpable or colluding? Were all involved in the downfall of the Congo Christians? Were not the African leader, Mbuto (funded by the US, yes) and his followers not equally guilty of selling out Africans for personal gain? Were there not some westerners (like the noble parents of the author mentioned in the prelude) trying to make life better for Africans? Is this not the same thing we see currently in Zimbabwe? If we are going to examine evil and exploitation, let's remember that no one person, country, or even time, has a lock on it. And lets not paint extreme pictures of those we chose to reject, while painting those we agree with in glowing terms. As with many fictional accounts, we don't like to admit the good and the bad falls on both sides.

*Christianity is merely a tool people use to exploit others and promote their own agenda. I fundamentally disagree with this perspective. Christianity is a relationship with Christ that involves following after Him and becoming more like Him.

The extreme situation the author creates in this fictional account allows her to proclaim her philosophies of life with vigor, particularly anti-Christianity and anti-Americanism. In the foreword, she makes effort to point out that her parents (who went to the Congo in the same time period) have NOTHING in common with the main subjects of the work, essentially preparing the reader for the assault upon the southern baptist missionary and his 4 children from Georgia who are the main characters.

With such flaws, a work should be easily dismissed. However, there are some glowing strong points. The writing is exceptional, and there are many rich scenes that are not soon forgotten. The understanding of African life, customs, language and landscape as well as the ability to portray this amazingly beautiful land as a living organism were compellingly impressed upon my mind. The character development and interaction of perspectives (each chapter is the perspective of one character, the book being a series of their interwoven stories), is extraordinary; though it is noteworthy that the author doesn't include a single chapter from the perspective of the husband/father/missionary zealot of the family, but only permits him to be defined by the others. I really cared about the characters and wanted to know what would happen to them.

The examination of cross-cultural interaction and communication is powerfully illustrated as we begin with a purely American perspective that slowly opens (through the eyes of some, not all, characters) to an African perspective.

While it might be a helpful work to those longing to know Africa or understand cross-cultural disconnects, I cannot give it more than two stars because of the blatant agenda referenced above.

ADDENDUM: For those really wanting to understand the history of the Congo, including the dark side of it's formation, I recommend "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild. Hochschild's work is well told, enjoyable even to non-historians, and will give an excellent picture of the dynamics (both the good and the evil) at work in the Congo. Looking back, compared to the exceptional "King Leopold's Ghost", Poisonwood Bible was an incredible waste of time - i'm lowering it to one star.
Tom Hiney's "On the Missionary Trail" is also excellent in content, though not as well written, for those interested in the lives of ordinary (meaning not generally famous) missionaries around the world.

King Leopold's Ghost, Hochschild, 1999
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

On the Missionary Trail, Hiney, 2001
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Give Me this Mountain, Roseveare, 1966
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a non-fiction memoir written by a missionary serving in the Congo during the time period covered by Kingsolver. You will notice the prose lacks Kingsolver's enchantment, but you will learn something of what it was actually like for a mission and some of it's servants to live through the independence of the Congo and the following civil war.

UPDATE:
Research quantifying the impact of protestant missionaries around the world. A summary:
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentar...
Scholarly publication in American Political Science Review, here:
https://www.academia.edu/2128659/The_...

PS. I believe this to be the WORST review I have ever written on Goodreads, yet it is the most discussed! I was so annoyed by the material, I didn't want to spend the time to polish my thoughts - I just wanted to be done with it! Yes, now I regret it. For what I consider better work, and no less controversial, check out my review and follow up comments/ discussion of Roots by Alex Haley.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This title came up in discussion as a non-fiction resource for learning about the African continent as a whole.
The Fate of Africa, Meredith, 2005
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

" I walked through the valley of my fate, is all, and learned to love what I could lose " (p.369)


I have been aiming over the past few years to read at least equal numbers of books by male and female authors and so I started this because I knew I had read three books by men so far this year, plainly I needed to consciously start to even up the scales.

Two thirds of the book deals with a period of about two years in a village in the Congo, around the time of independence, with some flash backs in memory to the 1940s, the final third moves up the beginning of the 90s and takes place in a number of different countries.

The story concerns an American baptist preacher, Nathan Price, who leads his family of wife and four daughters, three teenagers and one significantly younger child into the jungle, and what happens to them, and the impact those two years have on the rest of their lives. There is a winking analogy to the Vietnam war - a prologue chapter is called The Things We Carried. There is hubris, grand objectives that are in fact too nebulous and grounded in ignorance about the local situation to lead to anything other than disaster and a glance at the table of contents gives you a good idea of what is to come: Genesis, Revelation, Judges, Exodus... You probably won't be surprised if I tell you that the preacher is a domestic tyrant, violent and a martinet, that this is rooted in his insecurities and deep sense of sin and failure due to surviving WWII instead of dying in the Philippines jungle along with the rest of his unit  he has some other problems too of course. So far it's plainly going to be an unsubtle bundle of paper, but that's ok, a good story doesn't have to be subtle, just well told. Equally there came a point when I felt that all that this was just the surface, that underneath the themes were developing slowly and occasionally asserting themselves.

The two that I saw were Communication / miscommunication, and fixicity / movement, all of which were in dialectic.

One review took offence at this book finding the portrayal of missionaries unsympathetic and unduly negative. Nathan Price certainly comes across poorly because he is utterly fixed in his personal past, he speaks, but rarely listens, and he doesn't seem to understand what he does hear either, he seeks to impose a Christianity which reflects the civilisation of the mid- century USA rather than one that might complement or support the spiritual needs of the village. His communication is mostly in English, translated by the village school teacher, supplemented by some words in French or the local language which he mispronounces, since the local language is tonal he frequently is saying something quite different to what he intended which gives rise the book's title. There are other missionaries in the book, overall the picture is nuanced but in terms of the development of the novel my impression was that the rights or wrongs of missionaries were not relevant, the book was more about the psychological unfolding of the five women who follow their lord and master into the jungle.

The preacher, as I said, is fixed in his past and everything he does is in relation to his war-time experience, the women though are still able to flow and eventually are able to slip away and to develop other lives. Kingsolver evoked Heraclitus for me in the middle of this novel with the forcing together of opposites coupled with showing us that everything is changing - not always fast enough, equally sometimes too quickly, another missionary figure suggests a synthesis between fixity and flow by describing himself as grafted on to Africa, and since trees at least in this particular village are viewed as animate this allows us to see the characters as rooted by potentially capable of growth, being transplanted, being grafted on to other lives or having others grafted on to them.

However the characters are all hampered by issues of communication, the wife can't speak as an equal to her husband, the husband doesn't share a language with the people he wishes to convert and he can't talk about the issues that deeply effect him, the characters are at first literally restricted to English not that that even allows easy communication with other English speakers. Non-verbal communication is important, later we are told that the Congolese are constantly scanning the people they see assessing their bearing and presentation to understand their social position. We also see that the missionary family are so deep within their own culture that they can't understand the sub-texts of what they are told or the meaning of what they are shown. This is a story that continues to unfold, another few chapters further up the path can offer quite a different perspective on what has gone before.

For me this was a book that became compelling in the last third, almost unputdownable, as I was so eager to see how the lives of the women grew after their experience and how it marked them. As an added bonus for me, I can see this in relation to her non-fiction book animal, vegetable, miracle which I had enjoyed reading some years ago.