The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

My Summary:

Nathan Price, a Georgian Evangelical Pastor, takes his family into the depths of Africa to a mission in the village of Kilanga. He along with his wife Orleanna, and his four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May, take everything that they think they may need for their one year in the Congo.

Only things aren't as simple as the Reverend Price thought they would be, but his single-mindedness keeps his family bound to their station throughout one of the most tumultuous times in the history of Africa.

A story filled with revelation of the human character, and the tragedy of our own convictions, this tale spans four decades showing how the decisions we make shape our lives forever.



What I Thought:

"Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened."

This was the first sentence in this book. It comes from Orleanna Price, the wife of Nathan and mother of Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. She tells us how the Congo changes them all, but being unable to tell us what happened herself, because she can't bear to speak of it, she leaves it to her daughters to tell us the story.

Rachel, the oldest daughter, is a selfish, spoiled girl. She hated that her family ever came to Africa and she looks forward to the day that she can return home. Rachel is an easy character to hate. She is the type of girl that you simply wish someone would bring down a few notches. The writing throughout her portions of the book let us know that she is not the most intelligent of girls, and she hates that her younger sisters are smarter than she is.

Leah and Adah are twins. Adah was born with hemipeligia and the dynamics between the healthy twin, and the broken one are incredibly telling.

One of the things that immediately caught me off-guard is the portions of the book told from Adah's point of view. Adah is a brilliant young girl. She readily admits that she has elected not to speak simply because she was not expected too, and it was easier to let people believe that she couldn't. She devours books and loves the written word. She is fascinated with Palindromes. Adah is by far the most observant in the group, and most of the information that the reader gains, they gain through Adah's insights.

Leah, the daughter desperate to please her father, undergoes perhaps the most obvious changes throughout the course of the book. Originally the child who believed (like her father) that Africa needed to be claimed and converted for God's Glory (and to look more like the United States), she soon finds herself struggling with the guilt of being a white woman in Africa, who is ashamed of her own homeland.

Ruth May is the youngest daughter, and the one that they entire family rallies around to protect. It is through her innocent eyes that we are reminded often that what is often regarded as the most important things are the things that don't matter at all.

Orleanna, the mother, is a dutiful southern wife who tries to adapt this role to Africa, while her husband tries to adapt Africa to them. There is a point early on in the novel when Orleanna is sitting at the table, crying because she cannot make her daughter's birthday cake and she says, "If I'd of had the foggiest idea, just the foggiest idea. We brought all the wrong things."

This family experiences tragedy and hardships at the hands of a demanding father who insists that they will do God's work no matter the cost to their family. The book shows us how Africa changes them, without really changing them at all.

At one point, years after first coming to Africa, Adah says of her sister Rachel. "If Rachel ever gets back to Bethlehem for a high school reunion she will win the prize for 'Changed the Least'."

I felt like Rachel's attitude was one of the superior American, who felt that by consequence of where they were born, they were automatically better than the rest. An adult Rachel tells us that the secret of 'surviving' as she has is not letting everyone else's problems effect her.

She says, "If there's ugly things going on out there, well, you put a good stout lock on your door and check it twice before you go to sleep. You focus on getting your own little place set up perfect, as I have done, and you'll see. Other people's worries do not necessarily have to drag you down."

This book was amazing. It really speaks to the human condition, and within one family we are shown all of the ways that people respond to it: Some run away from it, some fight it, others ignore it.

This was an intriguing story with a powerful message. It was loaned to me by my boyfriend's mother. She was eager for someone else to read it so that she had someone to discuss it with! That tipped me off that this book was going to be one that made me think, and boy did it!

I easily give it 5 of 5 cups. Add this to your TBR list!