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Has anyone here read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver? I have to read this for my AP English class next year, and I just wanted to know what you guys thought of it before I jumped in...
I prefer to have an idea of what to expect, so...
Posts: 450 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I used to work at Barnes and Noble and I know that book was a popular choice for book clubs. It flew off the shelves on a regular basis. I haven't read it myself, so be sure to post your review when you're finished.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I have read it and it's great. I'm not going to go into great detail, but I couldn't put it down. Of course, I have a thing for character-centered stories.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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I really like Kingsolver. That book is not my favorite thing of hers; it was painful to read at times (although not as painful as a few of her other books, for personal reasons.) It also wasn't as enthralling as many of her books (like Prodigal Summer or The Bean Trees-- although I don't recommend the sequel to the latter, very emotionally unsatisfying.) There's some backwards-talking stuff that can get irritating at first, and stops the characters from pulling you in quite as close as her characters usually do, plus she does some funny playing-with-point-of-view stuff that English teachers probably love ( ), but I think just gets in the way. However, it's a good story, well-written except for the issues I've already brought up, and I think if your teacher doesn't bash it to death, you have a fair chance of enjoying it more than some stuff popular in AP English classes (although I don't know your taste, so I wouldn't know for sure.) But you might want to read it over the summer on your own, so it's not ruined by the reading for a point that you're going to have to do in class.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I read it 4 years ago and LOVED it. It's very engaging from the very beginning, with interesting POV changes and satisrying character development. Not (IMO) all that hard to read, but full of interesting ideas.
Also, as perhaps a more pertinent recommendation, one of my friends (younger than I am) read it for AP English when he was 17 and also really enjoyed it.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, and Poisonwood may just be my favorite work of hers. The book shifts point of view with each chapter. It is a story of a family, but also a bit of a political history. Your sympathies grow to encompass the members of the family, the nation and the continent before you finish.
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Oh, it's a wonderful book. I read it as an extra credit assignment for a geography class while I was at university. It's sad and comic and makes some very pertinent points about life, about spirituality, and a whole bunch of other things.
It was espeically interesting to read at that time because I was running a writing lab that semester as well, and one of my students was from the Congo.
Oh, and you might want to think about reading "King Leopold's Ghost" as well. It is nonfiction about what Belgium did in the Congo. Not pretty, by any means, but it is something everyone should know about.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I read it and enjoyed it very much. I haven't yet felt the need to reread it, but maybe I will someday. It is quite painful.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I read this book and enjoyed it. The pacing is a lot slower than that of some of Kingsolver's other books, and I actually prefer her style in the Bean Trees, but the story in Poisonwood is powerful. The relevant history and politics are worth knowing as well.
Posts: 700 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I loved the book. There are so many layers within the family and their relationships that it's both fascinating and heart-breaking. I think Kingsolver did an excellant job of letting us see the characters' strengths and flaws. Each of them was just so *human.*
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The book is fun in the POV sense. It's a sad and tragic book, but the thing that excited me about it the most was that people read it on their own in their spare time. And I saw it at CVS (a local drugstore) once. Couldn't say that about any of the other books for AP English.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I adore this book. I think that there are a few books that make an author's life. The three that immediately come to my mind are East of Eden for Steinbeck, the Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for Chabon, and the Poisonwood Bible for Kingsolver. They are legacy books. If the authors don't ever write anything else, they have already fulfilled any responsibility they owe to the muses and society. They should be except from taxes, or something.
All three are fine books, differing in importance, and I believe that the authors are owed by the western literate world a hearty thanks for taking the time and care to pen those stories. I hesitate putting Chabon's work in there because I felt that the book was so uneven, but it sticks in mind and agrees with my mood, and so it remains. These aren't three of my favorite books, but they are three of the books I reccommend the most often.
All this said, I'd love to have tea with Mrs. Kingsolver.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Wow, looks like my taste is different from everyone in this thread's. I liked her other books much better.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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FYI (not that it really matters I guess): The assignment was actually given to us to be done over the summer...
Anyway, I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago. I actually liked it a bit more than I thought I would. It seemed to drag a bit at the end (I understand why those chapters are there; I just don't like it), but otherwise I was more or less able to enjoy myself while reading it.
Now I'm up at midnight before the first day of school, trying to get the homework done. At the moment, I'm having to pick one sentence from EVERY CHAPTER (that is, every time the POV shifts) that is "key to the overall meaning of the work." Yeah, not fun...
Posts: 450 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Why is it that the literature teachers delight in destroying the pleasure of good literature. What a dreadful chore! Does Teach want to teach you to hate this book?
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I recommended the Poisonwood Bible to a buddy of mine. She doesn't read much outside of the bible, and only that sparingly, but she is religious and good-hearted.
I picked up a copy of it at a used bookstore and started reading, trying to figure out if she would have the patience to enjoy the novel. I had my doubts when I reread the introduction and the first chapter, but then "Leah" starts like this:
quote: We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle.
I think this is fantastic first sentence. I can't think of a clearer way to establish the conflict. The rest of the chapter zips by in high style, but take a look at this first sentence. It's funny. It's interesting. It's not melodramatic, but it reveals a conflict that plagues the book, which is the appropriateness of importing the vices and the virtues of American culture and religion in the Congo.
quote: We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle.
What a lovely novel opening.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I spent two months in Mozambique a few years back, but before I left it looked like it might have been a lot longer than that. I was surprised at the number of people who tried to talk me out of my madness. I remember one very nice gentleman told me that I ought to read Poisonwood Bible because it would make me think twice before I ventured off to third-world Africa. I had to laugh -- that book only fueled my love for Africa, despite the horrible things described therein.
I agree with Irami that it was Kingsolver's defining work. I'm going to have to read it again. I also thought that Prodigal Summer was an incredible novel, but PB was the more important work, if more difficult to read.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I read The Poisonwood Bible this summer because of all your recommendations, so thank you all. I enjoyed it very much, although it was heartbreaking at times. I think it helped me work through some of my anger at certain aspects of religion embodied by Nathan.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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The last 100 or so pages of this book were annoying. The story ended just after they were *errm* leaving the village (that's not too much of a spoiler...) but the story shot forward 40 years in about 100 pages...Some of it was interesting, but I would have preferred a concise story with a definite ending.
Still, amazing book. It made me want to go to Africa, just to experience the wildness of it. All the creatures in the jungle -- even the poisonous snakes -- seem so amazingly beautiful to me.
Posts: 930 | Registered: Dec 2006
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We had to read this a few years back for IB World Literature as summer reading, and I'd say about seven eights of our class of ninety adored it.
quote:Originally posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong: I recommended the Poisonwood Bible to a buddy of mine. She doesn't read much outside of the bible, and only that sparingly, but she is religious and good-hearted.
I picked up a copy of it at a used bookstore and started reading, trying to figure out if she would have the patience to enjoy the novel. I had my doubts when I reread the introduction and the first chapter, but then "Leah" starts like this:
quote: We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle.
I think this is fantastic first sentence. I can't think of a clearer way to establish the conflict. The rest of the chapter zips by in high style, but take a look at this first sentence. It's funny. It's interesting. It's not melodramatic, but it reveals a conflict that plagues the book, which is the appropriateness of importing the vices and the virtues of American culture and religion in the Congo.
quote: We came from Bethlehem, Georgia bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle.
What a lovely novel opening.
Irami, what is the last line? I read the novel, and absolutely loved it, but do not have it.
After I finish a book(and often before I read it), I read the exact first and the exact last lines. They usually fit together beautifully.
(I usually start with the "meat" of the novel. not an intro or epilogue)
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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"Walk forward into the light." is the very very last sentence in Book Seven: The Eyes in the Trees. The whole thought, though, would be "Think of the vine that curls from the small square plot that was once my heart. That is the only marker you need. Move on. Walk forward into the light."
If you consider that an epilogue, however, the last sentence before that section reads, "I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible."
And, uh, I know I'm not Irami, but the book was just over on my bookcase, so... *shrugs*
Posts: 450 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I had to read it for AP English. It's a big book, but I enjoyed reading it because it was a book that people who are NOT in AP English read for the heck of it. We never get enough of those books in English class.
All the narrators are women, so it's a girls' book but not a girly book as far as I remember (like the Secret Life of Bees, which we also read in AP English, but the 2 line period reference made all the boys want to barf).
I did not enjoy when our teacher made us go through the entire book and try to pick out every biblical reference when we didn't know about the biblical characters to begin with.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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It always amuses me when a thread that I haven't seen in a year or so pops back up on the front page. I had pretty much the exact same response to the initial post as I did the first time, though the way I would have phrased it (if I hadn't noticed that I had already responded) had matured a bit. Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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I already gave the book away, but that first chapter can be found here. The symmetry happens between the mother, who brings Betty Crocker and loads the family down with all of her worldly conveniences to the chagrin of customs officials on both sides of the world--comedy gold, by the way-- and it ends with her father:
My father, of course, was bringing the Word of God--which fortunately weighs nothing at all.
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), but I think just gets in the way. However, it's a good story, well-written except for the issues I've already brought up, and I think if your teacher doesn't bash it to death, you have a fair chance of enjoying it more than some stuff popular in AP English classes (although I don't know your taste, so I wouldn't know for sure.) But you might want to read it over the summer on your own, so it's not ruined by the reading for a point that you're going to have to do in class.
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