Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?

In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years.

The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and daughters tell their stories in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenage Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo.

Poisonwood Review

The Poisonwood Bible is the first book I ever read by Barbra Kingsolver. Parts of it were truly amazing. I really like her writing style and she did a good job developing the character of Leah - although I agree with some of the other reviewers that the character of Rachel was one-dimensional. I feel that the best part of the book was the first half, when the family was still living in a small village in the Belgian Congo. It reminded me of"Little Women" but with a terrifying survivalist kind of edge. The later part of the book was a little disappointing to me (the last 20% - I don't want to give anything away plot-wise). I felt that much of the character development in this section fell flat, although I really enjoyed learning more about the history of the Congo. I wish I could give this book five stars. It had a great plot, excellent narrative but I have to give it four stars because I don't think that some of the characters were very realistic.

Historical fiction at its best

Great story set in the early 1960s in the Congo. A missionary zealot leads his family into the wilderness to reclaim the souls of misguided Congolese. Boy are they in for a reality check. Kingsolver really creates great characters and helps you live through them. I listened to the unabridged audio book and really looked forward to my commute everyday to see what would happen. Most of the book focuses on the family's experience in the Congo, but about 20% of it is post-Congo following the lives of the different daughters as they grow up. Really makes you think. Highly recommended for all readers.

A healing look at life's scars

This is a book about how life can be unfair, how people can be horribly biased in their views, how religion can be hokey (on many counts), and explores the reactions of those subjected to trauma in five very distinct voices. I admired Kingsolver's ability to lend a unique voice to each of the story's narrators: the wife and daughters of a self-righteous, horrid minister. The blights and scars the Congo imposes upon this family are healed in very individual ways, much like the Congo itself grows over with vines and heals itself after an injury. This book explores the effects of values on a world society, and highlights how superficial many Americans (and Europeans) can be, and the imposition of the American government on other nations' leaders and governmental organization. It even touches on the nature of God, if such exists, and the presence of the supernatural in the natural. At the very least, even if the concepts explored are antithetical to your own views, this book prompts deep thought and discussion. Highly recommended.