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Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible

I

irishgirl

New Member
Am half way through it at the moment, it's excellent.

Has anyone else read it? I haven't seen a disucssion on it on these forums!
 
I think we've mentioned it in a few threads, but it doesn't seem to have one of its own. Until now, I mean!

I read this one some time ago, and since I'm a major Kingsolver fan, of course I liked it, but for some reason it wasn't my favorite. I found it to be a departure from what I was used to reading by her, but now I forget exactly why I though so!

I usually don't go for books of essays, but two of hers that I adored were:

High Tide in Tucson and Small Wonders.

Interestingly, Poisonwood Bible seems to be one of her best loved (and well-known) books. I'll bet tons of people here have read it.
 
I read it for school and I really loved it! I had read The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven before so I knew I liked her, but I thought this novel was just as good, if not better. It was a little more preachy than the two I just mentioned (but not as much as Prodigal Summer) and I think of it as her most literary and most emotionally powerful work (of the four I've read).
 
I read this book not too long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Though at first I was afraid to buy it since it was an Oprah book.

The only things that got on my nerves was the stupidity of the Father. He was just too darn stubborn, and so much could have been prevented. The story with the girls was excellent. How they each dealth with the situation, and how they each were shaped so differently by the same events. Ada had to be one of my favorites, especially when they all grew up and the relationship between her and the mother.

I got very much into this book when I read it and absolutely loved it. I tried to give the book to my father, but he says he can't stand books where "One person's idiocy is the cause of everything". He gets too frustrated.
 
Scottishduffy said:
Itried to give the book to my father, but he says he can't stand books where "One person's idiocy is the cause of everything". He gets too frustrated.
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:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

This is where my emergency roll of duct tape comes in handy.

I am going to tape my laptop closed, then (somehow) I will manage to tape my hands to my sides and then I will retire for the night.

All this because I do not wish to be banned from this forum.
 
I read it on a greyhound bus once almost three years ago. I loved loved loved it. Though it's not as good as Prodigal Summer (which is being systematically leant out to everyone I know that reads) It was my first Kingsolver, and I genuinely enjoyed it.
The father frustrated the HELL out of me, and I though Ada's character was brilliant. I'll post more when I'm less tired.
 
Maybe everyone here thought this was obvious, but I thought it was really clever how Kingsolver had a cool allegory thing going, with the father of the family and his relationship with his wife and daughters, and how it represented the European (Belgian) relationship with the Congo. Did you notice how after the wife and kids left the father, life for them didn't suddenly become peachy (actually, it was just as hard, but in a different way)? Same for poor Congo and its postcolonial struggles. That's just one of the parallels, I could go on but I don't want to be boring :p

I liked Leah's character the best because you could really see how she changed and grew and really found out that yes, she had a mind of her own and by God it worked.
 
StillILearn said:
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

This is where my emergency roll of duct tape comes in handy.

I am going to tape my laptop closed, then (somehow) I will manage to tape my hands to my sides and then I will retire for the night.

All this because I do not wish to be banned from this forum.
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I personally enjoyed the book very much. However, the stubborness of the father character did make me feel irritated with him (But it i enjoyed the feeling as the characters themselves were feeling the same). My own father could not stand the book because of the one character. My father said he just sat there yelling at the book "For God's sake leave the country!".

I truly enjoyed the story. This one character did not inhibit my enjoyment of it at all. As previously stated Ada was my favorite, because she seemed to have the most inight into all the others. She truly changed the most when growing up, and Leah was also a very powerful character.
 
Now you've made me want to read the book :p

Scottishduffy said:
I personally enjoyed the book very much. However, the stubborness of the father character did make me feel irritated with him
Sounds like a precise portrayal of a relgious fundamentalist ;) Generally what characterizes fundamentalists are their incredible stubborness and unwillingness to see things from any other angle than their own.

It seems very much like I have to read the book, checked it out on Amazon to find a summary - not too expensive either.

But a question to you who have read it: How much of the book is about the family together in Congo? And how much of the book is after they split up? Are we talking 50/50? or something else?
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Jemima Aslana said:
But a question to you who have read it: How much of the book is about the family together in Congo? And how much of the book is after they split up? Are we talking 50/50? or something else?
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It's maybe 65/35.
 
Yes, Jemima, the father is a perfect Fundamentalist. He goes to the Congo convinced of his own superiority, that he must 'save' the heathens who know nothing, and that he will be like a beacon for them. Of course, it does not work out as such.

Yet without these people his whole family would die. The father refuses to learn from the village and adjust to them thereby making life difficult. Yet in spite of this, these people help him and keep him alive. The very values he spouts off are being displayed by these 'heathens' while he becomes something entirely different.The family becomes completely dependent upon them, yet the father refuses to admit it. On the upside, the character is at least developed to the point that we know WHY he is this way.

The book is about 70% of the family in the Congo, and the last 120 pages or so are the 25 years following.
 
Thanks, that definitely means I'm gonna pick up that book, I'm not too interested in where they go afterwards but more in the family together - so it's just what I want it would appear.

It has been noted on my To Be Purchased Soon list :p
 
i bought a copy summer 2003. i STILL haven't read it. which isn't exactly a bad thing since i was only 14 then. i'll be able to appriciate it a whole lot more when i get around to it.

Scottishduffy said:
I read this book not too long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Though at first I was afraid to buy it since it was an Oprah book.
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yeh, oprah books have a bad rep. i actually did notice this book, and A Million Little Pieces b/c of the oprah label.. i was surprised that White Oleander has an Oprah label since its more teenager orientated in my opinion.

Scottishduffy said:
I got very much into this book when I read it and absolutely loved it. I tried to give the book to my father, but he says he can't stand books where "One person's idiocy is the cause of everything". He gets too frustrated.
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haha it drives me crazy too. its usually why i wont watch an episode of a sitcom, or a movie. it just drives me absolutly crazy. i wanna give this book a shot though, since i bought it a few years ago
 
Scottishduffy said:
Yes, Jemima, the father is a perfect Fundamentalist. He goes to the Congo convinced of his own superiority, that he must 'save' the heathens who know nothing, and that he will be like a beacon for them. Of course, it does not work out as such.
Click to expand...

I love that Kingsolver provides Brother Fowles as the alternative picture of Christianity lived out among people rather than forced on them.

A brilliant and beautiful book.
 
I loved the Brother Fowles character as well. He actually reminded of a family I knew who were missionaries in South America for many years.

The father character just hates Brother Fowles for having accomplished what he can not. For proving him wrong regarding what it truly means to take a christian.
 
Wow, what an amazing book. I had seen recommendations but I never really fancied it much from the back cover/synopsis - it was sitting in my cupboard for ages before I finally got around to reading it but I am so glad I did.

I thought the multiple POV storytelling worked perfectly and the characterisation was in-depth and compelling. Yes the father was amazingly frustrating but the story would have been weaker for me if I didn't feel that frustration (and with Rachel in the latter part of the book).

It appears from some other comments that he earlier books are equally good so I am off to stock up my Amazon basket with Kingsolver and would urge others to try this wonderful book even if they are not sure they will like it.
 
I loved her book The Bean Trees, but didn't care for Poisonwood as much. Quite a different tone to it.
 
That's true, The Bean Trees had several lighthearted moments sprinkled throughout. It didn't crush the reader as much with the hopelessness of the injustice Kingsolver focuses on.
 
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