Barbara Kingsolver
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Total reviews: 1419
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
A Gem of Postcolonial Literature 5 out of 5 stars.
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"Jesus is Bangala!" declares Reverend Nathan Price to his ragtag congregation deep in the Congolese jungle. The exclamation is full of irony; in the villagers' native Kikongo, "bangala" means either "precious and dear" or "poisonwood tree," depending on the pronunciation. Rev. Price blithely uses the latter pronunciation, characteristically misunderstanding his would-be flock as he blunderingly tries to superimpose Christianity and American customs onto their culture. The consequences of Price's ignorance (and arrogance) are grave, playing out alongside the exploitative history of Belgian colonialism, the struggle for independence, and the subsequent CIA coup that replaced the Congo's first elected leader.
Kingsolver's engrossing novel is narrated by the five Price females, each coping in her own way with what they have been part of. Orleanna is a missionary wife who, as a woman in the late 1950s, has little choice but to obey her husband, but who later struggles with her complicity in Nathan's--and America's--interventions in the Congo. Rachel, the eldest daughter, is vain and superficial (when the house is besieged by army ants, Rachel rescues not one of her weaker siblings, but her mirror), with an attitude of pure condescension toward the villagers she lives among. Then there are the twins: Leah, a tomboy who tries in vain to win her father's love, and the dark, poetic Adah, who was crippled in the womb. The youngest daughter, Ruth May, is most beloved by Orleanna, who struggles to protect her from the dangers of the jungle. Some make it out of the Congo; others do not, whether by tragedy or by choice. In the latter half of the book, the surviving members come to terms with their time in the Congo in different ways: becoming part of the machinery of exploitation, shunning whiteness and assimilating into Congolese culture, entering the healing profession, or turning inward.
Only Nathan remains essentially untransformed by the Congo, although he does evolve into a more grotesque version of himself. Unlike the (mostly) dynamic Price females, he is a one-dimensional character with no redeeming qualities, quick to anger and incapable of seeing past his rigid views. While he is a poignant symbol of colonialism and post-colonial intervention, trying to baptize the village children in crocodile-infested waters, the flatness of his character makes him seem inhuman.
"The Poisonwood Bible" is beautifully written, and the story of Price family is absorbing, as is the history of Western intervention in the Congo. A brilliant novel.
Editorial Review:
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
