Prelepa knjiga, sjajan prevod Gorana Kapetanovica :)

4.75

this book is terrible. and yet i continue to plow through, i'm not sure why other than an exercise in small and constant sacrifices, like some kind of immolation i subject myself to, trial by fire. actually it's more like water torture, these small meaningless drips that could drive you mad. the writing is really plodding and unnatural and forced. for instance the voices of 5-year-olds written with the obvious tones of a middle-aged florid ego-driven agenda. one of the things i hate most in writing is when you can feel the author thinking about the story and how it might sound good to tell it, and what might make her sound poetic and wise, and how it might make her look to people. you can hear her imagining how people (the reader) might see her, with every word she writes. lots of affectations, i'm saying.

I read "The Poisonwood Bible" for two reasons: Because I've always wanted to read a Barbara Kingsolver book and I am intrigued by secular takes on Christianity in modern-day writings.

I just finished it today. It is the story of a missionary family's trek to the Congo, told through the eyes of the four daughters and their mother. The father is a misguided preacher who is trying to escape past demons by force-feeding Christ to a culture that he has neither researched nor desires to understand (the name of the book is a reference to his misuse of the native language -- so instead of calling the Bible something holy, he's referring to it as a poisonous tree).

All in all, I am glad I read the book -- the discussion of the Congo's tumultuous history and the commentary on how the United States and various European nations have tried and failed to control something so wild and free was very interesting. It is a theme I saw repeatedly play out in this book -- when people/nations are unwilling to take the time to understand where others are coming from (be it individuals or people groups), the result is long-running anguish, regret and the destruction of lives and families. The writing can be very good -- the death of one of the daughters (which is disclosed early in the novel, although she is not identified) had me literally weeping over this book.

That all said. There were parts of the book that dragged for me -- and the whole catalyst for why these four girls and their mother were transplanted to Africa (a highly controlling husband/father) was never completely resolved to my satisfaction (he sort of disappears in to the jungle halfway through the book, never to return).

From a Christian standpoint, I was also disappointed in how missionaries were generally portrayed -- self-seeking, greedy and Bible-thumping morons who were either frothing at the mouth or couldn't get out of the country fast enough when the going got tough. There were also doctrinal errors (I spent several years as a Baptist and I never attended a church that believed baptism was a necessary ticket in to heaven -- quite the contrary, actually).

It would have been a fascinating foil to have a truly Christ-focused, God-seeking missionary family in these people's midsts ... while I appreciate how the only "good" missionary in this book didn't completely reject God, his buffet-style approach to what he accepted/discarded about the Bible was disturbing. Yet it was clearly held up as the preferred example for the rest of characters in the book.

3 stars !....This book had moments of perfection in its poetic prose (5 star quality) to sections of the most horrible chick-lit (1.5 star quality).

The narrative of the Congo was fascinating both historically and anthropologically. At times I felt connected to the collective unconscious.  The hunt scene as well as the death of Ruth May come to mind as examples of this.

The individual voices of the Price girls and even less so the Price women (when they grew up)did not ring true and I feel strongly that this book would have been much more powerful written in the third person.

I am perplexed that a book that at times reached the pinnacle of literary wonder could rapidly deteriorate to trite vacuous melodrama.

I am certainly glad that I finally read this novel and am open to trying another novel by this author as when it was good it soared.

“The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.”

This book follows the Reverend Nathan Price and his family; his wife, Ordelia and four children: Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May. Nathan Price becomes a missionary and moves his family deep into the Congo, far from their home lives in Atlanta, to teach those in the village the ways of believing in the one "true" God. Upon arrival the Congo is completely different to their typical way of life, and through the eyes of the women in the family, particularly those of the daughters, we get to imagine their experiences of a different culture and obstacles they face.

This book markedly points out the differences of life of those from being comfortable in the USA to a different lifestyle in the Congo. Not only is the culture and environment a complete shock, but also society is completely different to what the Price family is used to.

This book had beautiful writing and vivid descriptions, especially those of nature and detailing the atmosphere of Congo. This is a compelling read based on family, loneliness, identity, religion and loss.

This book is set around the de-colonisation of the Congo and the years that proceed after it with political tensions running high. It shows the girls when they first arrive, to when some of them leave the Congo and what becomes of them. Not only detailing in the history of the Congo during the 1950's- 1980's and the political tensions arising from it with America's involvement, but also tensions within the family. It is obvious at the start that Nathan Price is thoroughly devout in his religion, using it as punishment for his children if they behave in a way he deems inappropriately. We also witness the differences and tensions among the sisters, all of whom have completely different and often conflicting personalities.

While I say that this book didn't have a happy ending, it had instead a very realistic one instead, as each female in the Price family offer deep reflection of their time in the Congo and the effect this had on them for the decisions in their lives.

This book literally put me into rage. In fact, I had to put it aside and read something a tad lighter (compared to The Poisonwood Bible even depressing The Lonely Polygamist is a lighter read) to be able to fall asleep. Reading about social injustices can do this to me sometimes.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story of a Baptist preacher Nathan Price who chooses to become a missionary in the Belgian Congo of 1959. Along with his unwavering beliefs and desire to bring salvation and enlightenment to savage natives, Nathan takes his wife and four daughters to Africa. His attempts to introduce Christianity to the residents of a tiny Congolese village are mostly fruitless, as Price knows very little of their language, culture, and religious beliefs. But the preacher is relentless, even when he hears the news of the looming Congolese independence and is warned to leave the country immediately because any westerner is unsafe in the country which is trying to free itself of decades-long white oppression. Nathan decides it is his calling to stay and continue his righteous work at all cost to him and his family. This decision does cost the family dearly. Not one of them comes out of this experience unscathed.

The novel is narrated from the POV of 5 Price women - Nathan's wife and daughters. Each has her own perspective on Nathan's work and on what is happening in the Congo. While none of the women physically takes part in a whirlwind of events the Congo is going through - the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, first election of the Prime Minister, the CIA-staged coup to eliminate this democratically chosen Prime Minister and to install his replacement who would guarantee the West's access to the Congo's natural resources and safeguard the country as a pillar of capitalism in Africa - each has to carry a burden of responsibility for what has happened to their family specifically and the country in general. The reactions vary from solidified dismissal of the natives and rampant feeling of white supremacy to complete acceptance of the responsibility for atrocities forced onto the African nations by whites.

In a way, the Price family is a symbol of colonialism. Nathan Price symbolizes the colonialist forces that think it is their right (if not responsibility) to bring change to the countries they misunderstand and look down upon, at any cost, including destroying people's cultures, religions, and leadership. And the Price women are representative of all of us, unwitting participants in all of this, who may chose to close our eyes and pretend nothing is happening or to try to do something drastic about it or in the least to acknowledge that such cultural arrogance is wrong.

I suppose some readers will this book off-putting because of its seeming liberal agenda and its negative portrayal of both Christianity and the West (mostly America). Well, I'll leave them to admire Rachel Price's POV and live in denial. I personally found this book very enlightening. Kingsolver speaks my language.

The reason why I am giving The Poisonwood Bible 4 stars and not 5 is because of the last few pages which left me feeling rather helpless. It seems, nothing that we do (including absolutely good-intentioned vaccinations and efforts to save children's lives) can bring anything but hardship to Africa. I guess, Kingsolver's last advice is to leave Africa to its own devices...

When I first started reading this I was honestly confused as to what was happening. And the plot wasn't what I was expecting, I wasn't sure exactly what I was expecting but it wasn't a story about a missionary to the Congo. I was pleasantly surprised though and eventually ended up getting really into the book when I got about a third of the way through, so much so that I was reading it while I was supposed to be working, hopefully my supervisor didn't notice I was MIA. I did think that the book was slow at times and dragged on, especially towards the end. And it was kind of funny that the ending felt  sort of like the conclusion paragraphs of an essay where it was kind of summarizing all the characters and their perspective etc . It was kind of hard at times to sit through the book because I kept wanting their dad to just die or fuck off honestly, but I think that indicates that the book did a pretty good job getting me emotionally invested.

Thoughts on the book itself:
- Especially in the later chapters, Rachel bothered me deeply. How do you go from growing up in the Congo to just pushing it all away again and acting the way she did? (Privilege, of course.) I don't understand her. (I do but I don't like it.) Leah and Adah (and even Orleanna) made a lot more sense to me.
- Reverend Price reminded me of the American adventure blogger incident in 2018
- I lovelovelove Anatole and Brother Fowles

This book was published in the late 90s and the storyline spanned from 1959 to the 1980s. And it still feels so incredibly, infuriatingly relevant in 2020.

Memories I'll hold onto from/while reading this:
- Reading on the porch in the sticky July heat while the cats either nap or chase squirrels and birds #Summer2020
- Waylon catching his first bird E V E R
- No rain for two weeks and then the night I finished this, there was a massive downpour

5

This book was pretty magnificent.

Essentially, it's about a crazy missionary who moves his family from Georgia to the Congo in the 60s. He's all like, "Jesus Saves!" And his children are all like, "...Daddy, I have malaria."

The Price Family: Nathan (crazy missionary), Orleanna (the wife and mother, who is not quite sure how she came to be in the Congo) and their four daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May. All have a turn at first-person narration except for Nathan.

The strength of the book lies in author Barbara Kingsolver's complete and utter commitment to each woman's unique voice: the guilt-ridden Orleanna, the strong and outspoken Leah, the vapid and materialistic Rachel, the brilliant hemiplegic Adah, and the young, spirited Ruth May.

Kingsolver weaves the political turmoil in the Congo throughout the novel, and uses the family's narrative voices to illustrate the differing views to such a complicated plight: e.g., you have the objective observer, the ugly American, the conscious participant, etc.

There are symbols and themes galore in here, enough to have a field-day and write pages and pages. When I started to have an inkling at what Kingsolver was going for, I was pretty much in awe: the book is a scathing indictment of American colonialism: our superiority and blind arrogance, best embodied by pretty much anything Nathan does throughout the book. But the writing never felt overdone, or show-offy. It's above anything, just a brilliant, solid story.

5 stars.

One of my favorite books of all time. If you like a solid read, a well-developed plot and characters, this book is it. Kingsolver--I love her writing style! Smart, funny, compassionate, gritty...and her storytelling skills are supreme. This is a longer read, but I've always preferred a thicker book to shorter novels. But this one I've actually read several times, and each time I find something new to love and appreciate.