This book has sat on my shelves for some twenty years without my getting round to it. I tend to shy away from 600 pages, and from 'must reads'. In the event, I demolished it in under two days. This family saga is told from the perspectives of the wife, and the four daughters of a focused, unforgiving American evangelical pastor, Nathan Price. It paints an extraordinary picture of life in an isolated and (from the family's original point of view) primitive African community in the then Belgian Congo. Kingsolver immerses us in the detail of their first difficult year of hardship, then walks us slightly more briskly forward through 30 years of strife, conflict and post-colonialism. The family members are believably from the same stock, but very different one from another, which gives the opportunity to see several sides of the same history. This book is brilliantly realised, well told, and paints a picture of a conflict which was never far from the news in my childhood, but of which I knew little and understood less. It's also a picture of what happens when issues round religion, politics and race relations are unable to find compromise and mutual understanding. A powerful and ambitious tale. ( )

This book is great and I'm glad I FINALLY got around to reading it. Docking one star (probably unfairly) because it took me forever to read the whole thing. I don't understand why because I always enjoyed the time I spent within it's pages but it seemed like it might go on forever.

The story is told in alternating chapters in the POV of the five Price women who come to Africa as a missionary family in the mid-50s. Mostly, we are with the daughters, and they each have a VERY distinctive manor about them that makes it very simple to keep things straight between them. The writing is beautiful and I learned quite a bit about African history and I'm reminded about how little I really know about the world.

( )

Absorbing, horrifying story of a man who sacrifices his wife and four daughters to his insatiable need for a redemption he will never find. I was heartbroken for the mother who spends the rest of her life begging her youngest daughter for forgiveness. ( )

This book is beautifully written and each of the characters has a very distictive voice. THe sroty was facinating, and I loved the texture of the jungle and the lives of these people. I did get tired of it near the end, very little happened in the last 1/3. ( )

Review: The Poison Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 3* 09/18/2023

This is a fictional story about Nathan Price a Christian Missionary who took Orleanna, his wife, and his four daughters, Rachel, the twins Leah and Adah, and their youngest Ruth to the Congo in 1959. He is on an assignment to try and convert all the Congolese to Christianity to save their souls. Nathan could have been more friendly to the people in the village they were staying at. He also treated his family unkindly, especially when there were no modern elements which he never mentioned to his family. He couldn't understand why the people who were of African descent were scared of the narrow river when he wanted them to get in the river to baptize them while there were crocodiles in the water. He wasn't a friendly character in the story.
The people were forbidden to be educated but still managed to survive the environment within their community. Kingsolver organized the flow of the story well. I was three-fourths through the book and I started getting bored. It felt like too many things were going on at the same time. I did learn some things about the Congo that I never knew. The Price family became victims of life itself even the horrible father. The mother is the only one who changed her life. I thought it was a sad story. ( )

I had a very difficult time settling into this book but enjoyed it more once the characters were narrating as adults. I'm glad I stuck with it and always appreciate books that provide some insight about less familiar global history. Frequency bias is common for me when I read historical fiction so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when one of my regular podcasts mentioned the Church Committee and Lumumba the day after I finished reading this and then I stumbled upon a poem by William Carlos Williams (Adah's favorite poet). So even though I liked/didn't love, this one may stay with me. ( )

Yep, very good. Recommended. Made me go and look up some African history; and want to reread Mosquito Coast for comparison. Maybe a couple of characters deserved to be fleshed out a bit better, but the good bits are very good. Would have liked to give 3 1/2 stars. ( )

I adore Barbara Kingsolvers' works - all of them; but this is not my favorite. It's between The Lacuna, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle..... ( )

This is an exceptionally good novel. The story of a missionary and his family who travel from backwoods Georgia to the even more primitive and God-forsaken Belgian Congo has echoes of Joseph Conrad but they are unobtrusive and serve to highlight the book's originality. The novel is told in chapters, with each in the voice of either the Mother, Orleana, or one of the four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May. The father, Nathan Price, is the most Conradian character who bears a heavy cross of guilt from his experience as the lone survivor of a massacre that wiped out his battalion. The story moves across the ocean a few times and within Africa but it never loses its momentum or focus. Biblical references abound to good effect. The characters are extremely well-drawn and voiced. This This 614 page novel, covering four decades, is a long journey, but it is not without humor and the writing climbs to brilliant heights in several chapters. The frequent changes in narrator keeps the energy high. Looking forward to reading more Kingsolver. A native of Appalachia, she might have had her region in mind for some of this story. ( )

I've read this book twice and it remains on my top ten list. Kingsolver reveals to story through the distinct voices of five sisters in a way that is mesmerizing. ( )

The writing made the characters so real to me that I just wanted to shout at them and shake them into seeing what the hell was really going on. This book made me furious, and I highly recommend it to all. ( )

Interesting and intense at the start. Lingered a little long for me at the end ( )

The Price family–Nathan,a Baptist missionary; his wife, Orleanna; and their four daughters, Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and Ruth May–arrived in the Congo in 1959, shortly before the country gained independence from Belgium. Nathan is driven to convert all the Congolese to Christianity in order to save them. He is so totally driven by his goal that he fails to learn about the people themselves. For example, they refuse to go into the river to be baptized because they fear the crocodiles that dwell there. He is a severe, controlling man who insists that everyone carry his burden. His treatment of his wife and daughters is hardly better than that he gives to the Africans. When Independence comes, he is warned by other westerners to leave the country for their safety. He refuses because he hasn’t finished his work.
His wife and daughters each tell their own stories in their own words, moving the plot along. Orleanna’s story is primarily told in retrospect. The daughters is told in real time. Each of the daughters relates to their relocation and the Congolese differently. Rachel was a popular, vain, airhead teenanger in the United States and misses her previous life more than anyone else. Leah wants to be close to her father and is the one with the most involvement with and understanding of the people. Adah has a birth deformity which has crippled her. She spends most of her time in solitude with her books but is aware of what is going on around her. Ruth May, a five-year-old, gets along well with the children of the village but speaks in a voice much too old for her.
Most of the plot deals with how the Congolese people were affected by the arrival of the Europeans. Near the end of the book, we learn that four hundred years ago the people were well-dressed, self-sufficient, and had established a workable government. The Europeans came in, kidnapped many of the strongest and brightest, and sold them into slavery. The discovery of diamonds and other mineral wealth lead them to rape the country and cause horrendous suffering to the native people. The people are forbidden to be educated but manage to survive through their own ingenuity and sense of community.
When the Belgians leave in preparation of the country forming its own government, the Western nations, especially Belgium, France, and the United States, don’t approved of who the people elect and are determined to assassinate the new leader, Patrice Lumumba.
Eventually the family splits up. The latter part of the novel is about how they live their lives as adults, some remaining in Africa and some returning to the United States.
The book offers comparisons between the Westerners who respect the Congolese and those who don’t. It is current in that it shows what is still happening when we don’t respect other cultures enough to learn about them before we insist on them changing to our ways, what can happen when we get excited about countries having elections and forming democracies without the end results looking anything like we expected, and what our push for riches overrides people’s lives.
It is a lesson worth learning ( )

The best novel I’ve read in years! I so enjoyed hearing the story through the eyes of the children and wife/mother. I was also thankful that I didn’t have to actually hear Rev. Price’s voice. ( )

469 ( )

1.5 Stars ( )

This is not an easy read. It’s the tragic tale of one family’s desperate decline and disintegration, all because of one man’s bull-headed refusal to bend his rigid principles or admit failure. Though Nathan fills many of the pages, all that we see of him is second-hand, through the eyes of his wife and four daughters (who range from 5 to 16). I wanted to hate him, or at least despise him. I finally walked away with a mere strong dislike of this character, since once all is revealed, I could at least understand why he did the things he did. An excellent writer can make the reader empathize to some degree with the most despicable antagonist, and Kingsolver possesses this skill in spades.

While the story is focused on how the characters are affected by all that follows their arrival in the Congo, and while that was certainly a riveting tale, I found myself just as caught up in the cultural clash, and the difficulty either culture demonstrated in seeing the other’s point of view. Yet on every page, I could see the tiny and gradual changes taking over each of the daughters. Their observances and the way each reacted to their imposed new lifestyle revealed as much about their individual personalities as did the author’s descriptions of them. The reactions of the villagers to the Price family’s ways was just as fascinating to me; I tried to put myself in their situation and imagine how I would react if someone came to my hometown and set their minds to change everything about my world: how I and my neighbors dress, how we raise our children, how we cook our meals, how we speak to God, which God we speak to, how we hunt or garden, and all the rest.

At every level, Poisonwood Bible is a tale of contrasts, from the obvious religious differences to the fact that the village men all had multiple wives, even unexpected things like the differences between the Price daughters and the village children; the Price girls thought for sure that the Congolese children, with their swollen bellies, couldn’t possibly be hungry. It never enters their mind to consider that the children aren’t overfed but are infested with parasites. It is only years of experience that make the Price daughters (and their mother) come to an understanding with Africa and the lasting changes it has wrought in their lives.

The Poisonwood Bible isn’t a book I can fully describe. It must be experienced to fully see its depth and breadth. Early on, I almost put it down because I found the overly Caucasian judgments of the Price daughters’ African neighbors, as well as some of the terminology, uncomfortable; but I reminded myself that this tale begins in 1959. Much of what the characters say and think is typical of that era, not to mention in keeping with their Southern Baptist upbringing. Later, of course, the tables are turned and it is not necessarily a good thing to have “white” skin in the Congo. After a certain point, I no longer wanted to put it down and never finish the story. I was driven to know how their individual lives turned out.

I will reiterate, though, that it is not an easy read. While you may be able to predict a few details, I promise you that turning the pages in The Poisonwood Bible will lead you down avenues you never expected. Highly recommended for readers who love a tale of family or political/cultural drama, or tales of tragedy and redemption. ( )

I loved the different voices of the narrators. The writing is spectacular and the story gripping. ( )

Excellent. So glad I finally got around to reading this. Definitely a "best" book. ( )

This was a book I'd been wanting to read for some time and I wasn't disappointed. The writing and story are original and captivating with wonderful imagery and atmosphere that creates an amazing and unusual sense of Africa. The main story is set over a 12-18 month period but an extra 30 years or so are tacked on at the end and I felt this was unnecessary and let the book down. Otherwise I would probably have given it 5 stars, despite some reservations about whether having 5 POV characters was absolutely necessary. Having said that, the voices of the 5 characters were distinct and on the whole I didn't confuse them. It was more that I felt the story would have worked as well if it had just been told by the twins, Leah and Adah. Still an excellent book (favourite Africa book so far) and well worth reading. ( )

I've had this book in the back of my mind for a long time as something I should read. I'm glad I finally did. This is the story of how each member of a missionary family was changed and affected by their time in the Congo. I loved the language, Kingsolver's use of rotating narrators, and the subtle way she moves the story along using the various narrators. ( )

Last book read in 2022....it packs a punch, is a great story and the writing is beautiful and complicated, (I had to read a few sentences a few times to understand the meaning, nothing wrong with that) highlighted a few passages that asked questions that I have been asking since middle school. Kingsolver laid out the arguments about religion that will go on forever....and, of course, any book that makes me do my own research is worth recommending. Highly recommend....4 stars because I think the last 100 pages went on too long. ( )

This suffered from too many POV's for me ( )

This is not an easy read. It’s the tragic tale of one family’s desperate decline and disintegration, all because of one man’s bull-headed refusal to bend his rigid principles or admit failure. Though Nathan fills many of the pages, all that we see of him is second-hand, through the eyes of his wife and four daughters (who range from 5 to 16). I wanted to hate him, or at least despise him. I finally walked away with a mere strong dislike of this character, since once all is revealed, I could at least understand why he did the things he did. An excellent writer can make the reader empathize to some degree with the most despicable antagonist, and Kingsolver possesses this skill in spades.

While the story is focused on how the characters are affected by all that follows their arrival in the Congo, and while that was certainly a riveting tale, I found myself just as caught up in the cultural clash, and the difficulty either culture demonstrated in seeing the other’s point of view. Yet on every page, I could see the tiny and gradual changes taking over each of the daughters. Their observances and the way each reacted to their imposed new lifestyle revealed as much about their individual personalities as did the author’s descriptions of them. The reactions of the villagers to the Price family’s ways was just as fascinating to me; I tried to put myself in their situation and imagine how I would react if someone came to my hometown and set their minds to change everything about my world: how I and my neighbors dress, how we raise our children, how we cook our meals, how we speak to God, which God we speak to, how we hunt or garden, and all the rest.

At every level, Poisonwood Bible is a tale of contrasts, from the obvious religious differences to the fact that the village men all had multiple wives, even unexpected things like the differences between the Price daughters and the village children; the Price girls thought for sure that the Congolese children, with their swollen bellies, couldn’t possibly be hungry. It never enters their mind to consider that the children aren’t overfed but are infested with parasites. It is only years of experience that make the Price daughters (and their mother) come to an understanding with Africa and the lasting changes it has wrought in their lives.

The Poisonwood Bible isn’t a book I can fully describe. It must be experienced to fully see its depth and breadth. Early on, I almost put it down because I found the overly Caucasian judgments of the Price daughters’ African neighbors, as well as some of the terminology, uncomfortable; but I reminded myself that this tale begins in 1959. Much of what the characters say and think is typical of that era, not to mention in keeping with their Southern Baptist upbringing. Later, of course, the tables are turned and it is not necessarily a good thing to have “white” skin in the Congo. After a certain point, I no longer wanted to put it down and never finish the story. I was driven to know how their individual lives turned out.

I will reiterate, though, that it is not an easy read. While you may be able to predict a few details, I promise you that turning the pages in The Poisonwood Bible will lead you down avenues you never expected. Highly recommended for readers who love a tale of family or political/cultural drama, or tales of tragedy and redemption. ( )

Good story of a family in Africa. ( )