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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is really a 3.5 to me. I was so taken with the beauty of her sentences especially on the later parts that I sometimes lost the story. Her research and details of this country makes me want to read more about it and to realize how fragile life is.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book infuriated me at times. The history of colonization and Christian overreach into other cultures is a sensitive topic for some. Setting my feelings aside, I can say that this book is a great historical fiction with great character development.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a remarkable work, such brilliant writing, delivery of character, plot and political history.
We begin with the Price family coming to the Belgian Congo as an almost archetypal arrogant missionary family and one immediately suspects that hard lessons will be learnt and disaster unfold. And it does. But the strength of Kingsolver’s writer - like the Prices looking at the jungle - is that she has a way of making all this seem new.
There are so many aspects of this to admire.
Firstly, in how many epic novels - by which I mean novels that take place over lengthy periods of time and across many countries - do characters really grow and develop, inhabit different voices from the ones they begin with? Kingsolver does this with four, no, five characters here.
Secondly, each of the characters have different voices which gives the novel an unbelievable range of texture and different points of view.
Then there is the use of language. Or rather how language is misinterpreted, whether that’s the Kikongo speakers not understanding English speakers and vice versa or the mid interpretations of the various translations of the bible over the year. This is clever, it’s a great way of skewing the evangelical Christian position: how can you believe the literal truth of the bible when you don’t speak the language of the bible?
Then there’s the step change and the way she gives those of us ignorant in the matter, a history of the Congo/Zaire. It’s so we’ll done - and bloody upsetting
Some might argue that the voice of the Congolese is rarely heard there, it’s through the ears and eyes of the Americans - but isn’t that the point? The cruelty and arrogance of the imperialists, even after they have “given” independence
A truly great novel
We begin with the Price family coming to the Belgian Congo as an almost archetypal arrogant missionary family and one immediately suspects that hard lessons will be learnt and disaster unfold. And it does. But the strength of Kingsolver’s writer - like the Prices looking at the jungle - is that she has a way of making all this seem new.
There are so many aspects of this to admire.
Firstly, in how many epic novels - by which I mean novels that take place over lengthy periods of time and across many countries - do characters really grow and develop, inhabit different voices from the ones they begin with? Kingsolver does this with four, no, five characters here.
Secondly, each of the characters have different voices which gives the novel an unbelievable range of texture and different points of view.
Then there is the use of language. Or rather how language is misinterpreted, whether that’s the Kikongo speakers not understanding English speakers and vice versa or the mid interpretations of the various translations of the bible over the year. This is clever, it’s a great way of skewing the evangelical Christian position: how can you believe the literal truth of the bible when you don’t speak the language of the bible?
Then there’s the step change and the way she gives those of us ignorant in the matter, a history of the Congo/Zaire. It’s so we’ll done - and bloody upsetting
Some might argue that the voice of the Congolese is rarely heard there, it’s through the ears and eyes of the Americans - but isn’t that the point? The cruelty and arrogance of the imperialists, even after they have “given” independence
A truly great novel
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
So good.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes