The Poisonwood Bible

It's been far too long since I updated. I have a pile of books that I've read, but not reviewed, so in the next day or two I'm going to try and update all of them.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

This was another excellent book by Ms. Kingsolver. I have to admit that it took me a while to get used to her style of changing up the point of view for each chapter. This books she's really done it well, giving us the perspective of a group of four children- ranging in age from six to sixteen, as well as adults. And it works fantastically to give us this story.

The Poisonwood Bible is the story of a missionary and his family. Set on 1960 the family embarks on a quest to save the people of The Congo. They were told not to go, their church withdrew their support, but Nathan Price has determined that it is God's calling that they go anyway. The story that ensues is both endearing and tragic. An Evangelical Baptist preacher, Nathan immediately chastises the native people for nakedness, and declares that they must all be baptized to be saved. What Nathan doesn't know is that a tragic accident involving crocodiles in the river and the village children has everyone afraid of the water. Animosity ensues, and Nathan and his family of four daughters and wife struggle to live in The Congo amongst the people. With no way out, can they survive?

I enjoyed this book immensely, despite disagreeing with much of it. I understood the point being made about Fanatical Christians forcing their beliefs on others, but I don't think that most missionaries or Christians, for that matter are that fanatical about their beliefs. I found the characters of Mrs. Price and her daughters Rachel, Adah, Leah, and Ruth May to be all very believable. And I also took something away from this book. I learned a lot about the rustics in Africa, who I imagine still live quite similarly to The Congolese in the 1960's. Of particular poignancy to me was the part where an African man was standing in a grocery store in Georgia, just staring at all the Shampoos. And he makes a comment along the lines of "do Americans really need all this?" It broke my heart. To think that in our country we can sit and spend hours pouring over all the bottles of Shampoo in an aisle to find just the right one. Meanwhile there are people in Africa who have never even seen a bottle of shampoo. We have dozens of kinds of toothpaste to choose from, but many African children are losing teeth before the age of twelve because they have no dental hygiene and spend their days sucking on sugar cane.

This book just added to an already increased awareness of how much we have, and I loved this book for that. It was a great story, and while I wish the missionary had been portrayed in a better light, overall, I can highly recommend it.