The Poisonwood Bible

Kingsolver, Barbara

ISBN 10: 159355950X ISBN 13: 9781593559502

Publisher: Brilliance Audio, 2004

Synopsis

The family of a fierce evangelical Baptist missionary--Nathan Price, his wife, and his four daughters--begins to unravel after they embark on a 1959 mission to the Belgian Congo, where they find their lives transformed over the course of three decades.

About this title

Review:

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 four 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 on 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 fortunes across a span of more than 30 years.

The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and four daughters tell their story in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenaged Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo.

Despite these weaknesses, Kingsolver's fully realised, three-dimensional characters make The Poisonwood Bible compelling, especially in the first half when Nathan Price is still at the centre of the action. And in her treatment of Africa and the Africans she is at her best, exhibiting the acute perception, moral engagement and lyrical prose that has made her previous novels so successful. --Alix Wilber, Amazon.com

Review:

"Kingsolver's powerful new book is actually an old-fashioned 19th-century novel, a Hawthornian tale of sin and redemption and the 'dark necessity' of history." -- Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times""Haunting . . . A novel of character, a narrative shaped by keen-eyed women."-- Front page, Verlyn Klinkenborg, "New York Times Book Review" "Barbara Kingsolver has dreamed a magnificent fiction and a ferocious bill of indictment..What we have here--with this new, mature, angry, heartbroken, expansive out-of-Africa Kingsolver--is at last our very own Lessing and our very own Gordimer." -- "The Nation""A powerful new epic . . . She has with infinitely steady hands worked the prickly threads of religion, politics, race, sin and redemption into a thing of terrible beauty."-- "Los Angeles Times Book Review" "Fully realized, richly embroidered, triumphant."-- "Newsweek"Powerful . . . Kingsolver is a gifted magician of words." -- "Time""There are few ambitious, successful and beautiful novels. Lucky for us, we have one now, in Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" . . . his awed reviewer hardly knows where to begin." -- Jane Smiley, "Washington Post Book World" "Beautifully written . . . Kingsolver's tale of domestic tragedy is more than just a well-told yarn . . . Played out against the bloody backdrop of political struggles in Congo that continue to this day, it is also particularly timely." -- "People" "Tragic, and remarkable . . . A novel that blends outlandish experience with Old Testament rhythms of prophecy and doom."-- "USA Today" "The book's sheer enjoyability is given depth by Kingsolver's insight and compassion for Congo, including its people, and their language and sayings."--"Boston Globe" "Most impressive are the humor and insight with which Kingsolver describes a global epic, proving just how personal the political can be." -- "Glamour" "Compelling, lyrical and utterly believable."--" Chicago Tribune" "A triple-decker, different coming-of-age novel, but also a clever look at language and cultures." -- "San Diego Union-Tribune""A bravura performance . . . A subtle and complex creation, dealing with epic subjects with invention and courage and a great deal of heart." -- "Newsday" "A novel that brims with excitement and rings with authority." -- "Portland Oregonian""Kingsolver's work is a magnum opus, a parable encompassing a biblical structure and a bibliography, and a believable cast of African characters." -- "Atlanta Journal-Constitution""Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonder." -- William Faulkner

About this edition

• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 159355950X
• ISBN 13: 9781593559502
• Binding: Audio CD