I'll wait until after I've finished this review before I read other Goodread reviews of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, but I did take a quick look at the numeric ratings other reviewers have given the book. A couple of reviewers have given this book a four rating, but most of the reviewers have given this book either a rating of three or five. That makes perfect sense because this book deserves both a three and five rating. It deserves a three rating because it can be a long and slow read, and there isn't much plot progression. It deserves a five rating because it gives readers Shakespearen quality characters and the sensation of having shared life-altering experiences.

This novel is a tale about the Price family. There are two adults and four kids in the Price family. The children are all girls. The middle two are twins. The father, Nathan, is a tad crazy. The mother, Orleanna, has problems asserting her own identity.

I grew up in a similar family during a time that was almost identical, so it was easy for me to identify with the Price family.

Nathan Price uprooted his family and moved them to the Belgium Congo shortly before the Belgium Congo obtained its independence in 1960. At this point, I'm going to cut away from the Price family and talk about life in 1959.

In 1959, Eisenhower was still President. JFK was running for President. There was Jim Crow in the South, and Redlining in the North. Edward R. Murrow attempted to provide the USA with a moral compass. Douglas Edwards was the news anchor at CBS. John Foster Dulles, the Clarence Thomas of white diplomats, was Secretary of State. The Cold War was warming up, and people were debating if they should build fallout shelters in their backyards.

In 1959 Doo Wop music was the rage. Like everything else, music was segregated. Sam Cooke eventually integrated the music scene, but he was killed for his efforts. White radio stations played white groups like Dion and the Belmonts. Black radio stations played black groups like Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters. White groups like The Weavers were blacklisted.

In 1959, I was eleven years old. My best friend had turned me onto the Hardy Boys and The Kingston Trio. I owned two LPs. One record album was by The Kingston Trio, and the other was by The Drifters. To this day, they're still my favorite two records. Back then, I watched Douglas Edwards anchor the evening news. Walter Cronkite wasn't yet on the scene. When I wasn't watching the news or reading a Hardy Boys Mystery, I played one or the other of my LP records on the stereo system my brother had built. The Kingston Trio sang The Merry Minuet, so I knew, "They're rioting in Africa." That bit of information was later confirmed by Douglas Edwards when he told me what was happening in the Belgium Congo.

Not to change the subject, but before I got to high school, I was educated mainly by spinsters. Spinsters who all had female housemates who lived with them for purposes of sharing expenses. In 1959 it was okay for a woman to live with another woman just as long as they both had low paying jobs, they were "just sharing expenses", and they didn't talk much about their home life. When I got to 7th grade, my science and math teacher was one of those spinsters. Her reputation as a disciplinarian pretty much gave me a conniption, but on those few occasions when I was forced to talk to her one-to-one, she was a regular lady.

I'm mentioning my 7th grade math-science teacher because she was the only actual person I've ever actually met who had actually been to the Congo. Not only that, but she was there at about the same time as when the Price family first arrived. (Is that a coincidence, or what?) I mean she was really in the Congo; that is, if you can believe driving through the Congo South-to-North in a caravan of Land Rovers counts as actually being there. I don't know if she actually met any Congolese people, but she saw lots of animals and took lots of photos. (I mean, she shot lots of animals, but not a one was hurt by it.)

Back to the Price family. I'm grateful for two things. First, I'm grateful I was able to experience what they experienced without actually experiencing it. Second, I'm grateful I was born and raised in Kalamazoo, not Kilanga.

Finally read this!
What a time it was spending 10 days in the Congo!
A Baptist minister accepts a post there without taking his wife and four daughter’s opinion about this mission.
Oh my goodness… what these women had to endure…
Anyway… so much hardship and loss… that would stay with them forever.
Glad I finally got to this… Kingsolver is a fantastic author.. I have much more of her to read.

I adore this book!! The Prices, an American family led by a missionary father, travel to the Belgian Congo in 1959 to live among the natives and spread the word of God. The story is told from the point of view of the mother and the four daughters (all written with very distinct personalities), and they quickly learn how much they don’t know. The narration takes you through each one’s experience in the Congo and how the events of that misguided missionary trip reshaped their beliefs and impacted the course of their lives. As Rachel Price said, “You can’t just sashay into the jungle aiming to change it all over to the Christian style, without expecting the jungle to change you right back.”

This book covers so much – religion, history, family, politics, race, poverty, arrogance, greed – but it is all woven together in such a compelling and readable way. The characters are so well-written, and I was deeply invested in all of them. The father is the villain of the story, and you can feel the shame and sense of loss in the poignant observations of the mother and daughters as they begin to see him in a new light. I also loved how the author used the Kikongo language throughout the story. The Kikongo words have so many different meanings, and some of the daughters used the language to acknowledge their naivete and help them reconcile how the Congo was altering their perception of themselves, their family, and the world.

I’ll avoid spoilers but I do want to mention some of my favorite parts of the book. These are the sections that have stuck with me, and I look forward to re-reading them every time I pick up the book. The first is the end of Book 4, the climax of the story. This is one of the most beautifully written scenes I have ever read in a book. The grief of all the characters is so deeply felt and the imagery is so vivid, I find myself crying every time. I would love to say more, but you just need to read it. The second is the night of the "nsongonya" at the end of Book Three. Each family member’s reaction to the events is so well written and so on-point with how the author has developed the characters. And Adah’s re-telling of the night is truly heartbreaking.

I like to periodically re-read the books I have deemed my “favorites” to see if they have withstood the test of time as I explore more books and continue to refine my criteria for what makes a great read. Some books don’t survive the re-read test, but The Poisonwood Bible is not one of those books. I’ve read The Poisonwood Bible three times over the last fifteen or so years, and I still love it as much as the first time I read it. If you haven’t read the book, you definitely should!

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.

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...

This is, quite simply, one of the best, most powerful, most resonant, most surprising, most beautiful, most alive novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Barbara Kingsolver seems to have written this toweringly stunning book after peering into the deepest corners of her soul. She was clearly animated and awakened by the profound outrage and horror she felt as she came to understand what colonialism and American capitalist interventionist policies had done to the Congo, where she had briefly lived as the child of foreign aid workers.

I had read her first novel, The Bean Trees, many years ago, as it was a favorite of my mother’s. I remember finding it to be a sweet but somewhat shallow book. I think that’s partly why I had put off reading The Poisonwood Bible, which I’ve owned for many years; I was worried it would be overhyped. I could not have been more wrong. It has weight and wisdom and gorgeous prose and complex ideas and a thoroughly human and altogether inventive approach, and deserves every inch of praise it has received.

It’s the sort of book that leads me to feel almost silly as I attempt to capture its profound impact in a Goodreads review. I am changed by it: expanded, enlightened, shattered, and deeply, deeply moved.

Though I found this novel quite daunting and dense at times; it really is a great work of fiction that should be read and taught in schools everywhere from high school to college.

It's an accessible postcolonial work that also serves both as a preachy learning tool about the evils of postcolonialism; as well as stereotyping ones religious beliefs and beliefs about race in general.

Nathan Price is one of those villainous father figures you love to hate- he's so stubborn about everything; and his daughters, Rachel, Leah, Ada, and Ruth May and wife Orleanna are all well-constructed women with complex point of views; complete with a deadly encounter with a green mamba snake out in the Congo.

I did read that Kingsolver was heavily influenced by that great classic of classics, “Things Fall Apart” in writing this book, and like Achebe, she writes with empathy and tenderness even it comes to the repellant characters.

You'll find yourself rooting for Leah and Ada especially since they're the moral compass of the story; whereas Rachel and Nathan Price are the one-note villains that every great work must have in the tradition of Colonel Kurtz.

It is not Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" though it was heavily influenced by the latter; but it certainly has some gorgeous cadences worth noting for the discriminating reader.

Reviewing in the face of the great billows of love projected towards this novel is a hapless task, your hat blows off and your eyes get all teary and if you say one wrong thing small children run out of nowhere and stone you or just bite your calves. So I shall this one time sheathe my acid quill. But I can't resist just a couple of little points though -

1) you have to suspend great balefuls of disbelief. These kids, they're awfully highfalutin with their fancy flora and fauna and fitful forensic philosophising. And the mother is worse, you can see where they get it from.

2) I don't care for the historical novel/film cliche where a character rushes in and clues us up to the bigger picture - "Have you heard, Sophie? War has broken out between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Turks, the English fleet has just been sunk, the king has fled and we have a new Pope" "Why Sir Marmalade Gin-Rummy, you don't say so, and how is the Queen?" "The Queen has syphilis and now barks like a very dog" etc etc.

3) For 350 pages the writing is lovely and the recreation of one tiny corner of the Congo convinced me. Ah if it was only all like that, then we could remain friends and there would be no tears before bedtime.

4) After that it goes really wrong. I mean, seriously.

5) But 350 pages can't be denied. It's more than you get from most books.

This is the saga of an American missionary traveling to the Belgian Congo to teach his word if God in 1959. He brings his wife and four young daughters with him, leaving the comforts of Bethlehem, Georgia.
The story is told by the four daughters, Rachael, the oldest, the twins Leah and Adan and the youngest Ruth Mary, and his wife Orleanna.

Five different narrations of life in the Congo. We follow the family of Nathan Price as they endure life with a different culture than they are accustomed to.

The writing was atmospheric with well developed characters. I loved Rachael’s story the best. She made me laugh to some of her experiences.

Excellent book.

The Poisonwood Bible is a fascinating story of Nathan Price, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

The story is related through the wife and four daughters. Through controversial storytelling, they reveal how their mission actually reshaped their beliefs. However, it doesn’t develop the perspective of the father, and I can see how some who take his side might have some issues with this storytelling, especially when it deals with Christianity. The women connect with native people. The father struggles with that. He simply preaches, basing his beliefs strictly on the Bible.

The story is very rich in historical background. The characters are richly developed. It evokes human emotions. However, some may not like its representation, which is driven by one side.

This story has resonated with many. I’m in the minority with my rating. This book has everything I’d look for in a story. However, I found the pace slow. My rating is not based on debatable subject, but the pace. Also, the first half of the book has a better flow than the second half.

Where to start in discussing this book. Kingsolver presents us with a family of naive Americans, pious Father, somewhat subservient mother, and four daughters, newly arrived in the Congo on their father's mission to convert the natives to God's ways. What follows is a description of the failure of the "mission", the family, the changes that occur in everyone involved. We witness growth and stagnation in these people as they interact with their surroundings and the people they live alongside in primitive conditions.

Over time we will see life and death, love and hate on a grand scale, the birth and strangling of a nation, so much that happens in Africa.

Through the eyes of the Price daughters, and to some extent their mother, we see how Africa and Congo can affect individuals, building their strengths or exaggerating their weaknesses. The daughters have wonderfully independent voices. These are joined by various Congolese citizens, other missionaries and some questionable sorts who figure prominently in the story.

Other than what felt like a slightly quick ending, I loved this book. I felt I came to know Orleanna and her daughters. I care about them and actually would like to know even more about what has happened to them. But their largest story happened in the past.

I suggest reading this if you haven't already. Don't be put off by the length...it reads easily.

I'm struggling between 4 and 5 for rating. I think I will go with the 5 for all the enjoyment and information.

Set primary in the Congo (DR) as it transitioned from Colonialism as the Belgian Congo to independence, then into the despotic regime of Mobutu (Zaire), we trace the Prices, a missionary family who come to spread the good word. The story takes us back to the States, but also to the Republic of Congo & Angola.

There is, of course not much that is new to tell in a book which has been reviewed over 25,000 times on GR, but I will waffle for a bit before giving it 4 stars...

There are strong primary themes - fanatical religion and great lessons on how not to apply it to people whose culture you have no idea about. The classic of incorrectly applying translation and totally changing the meaning of what you are trying to teach bears out for the whole novel. Similarly attempting to coerce children into a river to be baptised while they are told constantly that crocodiles await should they go there - flawed teaching. foreign intervention not only the atrocities that were carried out in the name of the Belgian Congo, but the interventions the USA seems helpless to stop making into newly independent countries where they "secretly" support an usurper who inevitably turns out to be a dictator of the worst kind.

Secondary to these, we witness the dynamics of the Price family - the unlikeable Nathan, his passive wife and 4 daughters Rachel, twins Leah & Adah and Ruth May. The story, told through the women - mostly the children - but also Orleanna. We see how different the daughters are, and while a little exaggerated, the writing styles and thought processes of the individuals all manifest differently in the writing. Nathan however falls away throughout the book, having no voice in this book (as nobody talks about him) and becomes a fairly shallow caricature.

Rachel was hilarious, although a little obvious, with her incorrect use of 'big' words. There are some amusing quotes to be found - two I made note of:

“It is my girlfriends here in Joburg that have taught me how to give parties, keep a close eye on the help, and just overall make a graceful transition to wifehood and adulteration.”

“I’m willing to be a philanderist for peace, but a lady can only go so far where perspiration odor is concerned.”

There is, of course, a breaking point to a passive wife, and we see rebellion within the family in various ways.

Unsurprisingly it is the Congolese people who come away from this novel looking the best, although as the girls thrive in adulthood in their own, quite individual ways, they have found their own strengths and goals. Where most of the understanding of the Congo and the Congolese comes is from Leah, as her own family adapt to the Congo, and she assesses where her father made no connection with, and failed to understand, the local culture.

There is enough of the setting to keep the context, rich in description, but perhaps not in as much depth as could have been, but at over 600 pages, there was perhaps enough going on without deeper description. Mobutu, quite rightly, is seen as a despicable figure, his human rights record, his funnelling foreign aid to line his pockets, taking from the people who could least afford it, and not paying civil servants for years, yet propped up by America. A quick google search shows photos of him with Nixon and Bush (Sr), lapping up the praise.

The novels wrap up is gradual, but fades out a little, although I can't think how it could have been better concluded... like my review, I guess.

4 stars