The Poisonwood Bible

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Barbara Kingsolver

Literature

Jul 28, 2018

Barbara Kingsolver’s novels seem to expand our sense of life and our capacity to tackle it. Although The Poisonwood Bible is in some ways just as intimate as Kingsolver’s earlier books in its depiction of a family’s life, its scope and setting are anything but domestic. At the start of this story, the family in question belongs to Nathan Price, an American fundamentalist missionary who has brought his wife and four daughters into the Congo to convert the Africans to his brand of evangelical Christianity. Yet as the narrative unfolds from 1959 through the 1980s—it is told alternately in the voices of the five Price women—the family slips from Nathan’s grasp, each of its members declaring her independence from his patriarchal and increasingly fanatical rule. The author’s huge ambition is matched by her fidelity to the tenor of each major character’s soul, giving her novel an extraordinary, compelling power.

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Olivia Diamond

Dec 6, 2018

Gripping narrative around colonialism and evangelism in Africa laced with some humor in a rather dark portrait of the damage foisting the Bible on other cultures produces both on the missionaries and the native population.

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Hope Daniels-Brown

Jan 2, 2019

I love the structure of this book--that each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the sisters. I also love the way it shows cultural imperialism.

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