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  • Wow

  • One of the most profound novels I have ever read. I could not put it down. Beautifully written. I read this book 6-7 years ago and have yet to find a book nearly as good.

    

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• ― Nicole Brice said on Dec 8, 2008 | Add your feedback

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  • Very good book, though I lost interest in the last 1/3rd or so. The first chunk of it was very interesting.

    

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• ― Deanna Kyre said on Sep 17, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • The only book to give me actual goosebumps in a while. The last chapter... I totally didn't see it coming, but it made so much sense. Amazing book. Highly recommended.

    

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• ― Miraclesmommadesigns said on Aug 25, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Powerful

  • A truly incredible achievement and one of the best books I've ever read.

    

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• ― Fleatopp said on Aug 15, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • One of my absolute favorite books.

    

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• ― Avi said on Jan 31, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • x, 546 p. ; 25 cm.

    

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• ― Brian Hamilton said on May 7, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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.

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