Will I love The Poisonwood Bible?

I re-read this one and found it even better the second time.

I love the style of Barbara Kingsolver. Her writing is very evocative and places you right into the setting. I especially liked how each character's viewpoint was highlighted and how each of them dealt with life's obstacles in different ways. We can see a bit of ourselves in each situation. Beautifully written!

People kept telling me to read it, so I finally did–just in time to include it on this list. Rotating narrators–a White missionary’s wife and four daughters from the American South–represent disparate points of view concerning their family’s move to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

One thing I loved is the attention to historical detail and Kingsolver’s ability to include multiple, complex subplots to better frame the colonial history of this particular time/place and to better demonstrate the insidious ongoing brutality of colonization in terms of inequitable global wealth.

Language and religion play a major role in the plundering resource… show more.

Barbara Kingsolver’s magnum opus follows a Georgia missionary family’s self-destruction in the dark jungles of the Belgian Congo. The story is narrated by the mother and four daughters as the father, Nathan Price, leads his family to a remote village where they live squalid lives.

In a series of misadventures, he is resolute and foolish, attempting to lead the natives to Christ. Through poverty, culture clashes, and even death, the American women learn to depend on the villagers as Nathan blindly attempts to shove them into an Americanized form of Christianity. Kingsolver’s epic is an engrossing study of how destructive… show more.

At first, I was scared by the thickness of the book. More than 600 pages? I didn’t think I would have the patience and time to finish it. My book club chose the book as a reading challenge for everyone. A challenge indeed. But a colorful one.

I remember carrying the book with me everywhere I went. As I finally reached the last page of this riveting family saga set in Africa, I felt older and wiser. Wow, I actually finished the thick novel. It was a great achievement.

I was never bored or tired. I did not want the… show more.

When I read Poisonwood Bible, I was instantly with the characters, especially the children as they boarded the plane for the Congo dressed in layers of clothing because they could only bring a limited amount. The story of the evangelical preacher Nathan Price and his family who arrive in the Belgian Congo in 1959 completely unprepared for what they will see and experience does what great fiction can do. It dramatizes the intimate at the same time illumining the larger story and forces at play.

Barbara weaves history, politics, and family drama masterfully with the compelling narrative voices of… show more.

At first, I was intimidated by the mere size of this book, but once I started reading it was almost impossible to put down.

A family’s religious mission to Africa goes wrong. For example, when was the last time giant ants woke you up at 2 am, attacking you from head to toe and everyone in your family and in your entire neighborhood at the same time? I hope never.

It's a remarkable read. Not to mention the amazing life transformations along the way. After finishing this book, I wanted more. So I went out and got every single one… show more.

In this novel the mother, Orleanna, and then her four daughters, Rachel, Adah, Leah, and Ruth May, narrate the story of their lives in the Congo, where their father, Nathan Price, is a missionary during the 1960s.

It takes place during the Congo’s fight for independence and the drama is high. We realize each daughter’s ‘journey’ as she grows individually, influenced by their father’s mission and by living in Africa. All four sisters have their own destiny.

This is an unforgettable sister story, one where social influences and a life in Africa have a profound effect on the characters. I… show more.

This novel sucked me in from the get-go, following an American family as they move to Congo to be missionaries.

It captures the thrill and the fear of the unknown, and fed my obsession for wanting to spend more time in Africa. I also really liked how foreign the characters feel in their new home, only to find they also feel foreign once they return to their home country.

I could relate to being totally changed by one’s experiences.

The Poisonwood Bible took me completely out of my 21st-century, privileged world and dumped me unceremoniously into the 1960s in the Belgian Congo.

The novel takes the Price sisters and their mother on that journey too, into the ugly truth of colonialism and the U.S. government’s proxy war there against the Soviet Union.

I relived my childhood of the sixties with its prescribed “Barbie” roles for girls. I cheered for the sisters battling for autonomy and mourned with their mother. I fell in love with the beauty of the Congo, the forest “that eats itself”, the river and even… show more.