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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
emotional
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
The epitome of an Oprah’s Book Club pick (derogatory).
Mostly solid, especially as a feat of storytelling. Some of the writing is bogged down by cliché, and only one of the five narrative voices (Adah) felt compelling and truly unique.
The last 150 pages are a mess. Kingsolver does not handle leaps forward in time with the deftness that she exhibits in the first 400 pages. The narrative goes limp. Much that is obvious is overly explained, and the whole mess circles the drain for a painfully long time.
Mostly solid, especially as a feat of storytelling. Some of the writing is bogged down by cliché, and only one of the five narrative voices (Adah) felt compelling and truly unique.
The last 150 pages are a mess. Kingsolver does not handle leaps forward in time with the deftness that she exhibits in the first 400 pages. The narrative goes limp. Much that is obvious is overly explained, and the whole mess circles the drain for a painfully long time.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Deeply cutting and frequenty moving, Poisonwood Bible was a delight to read. Sadly, it lost it's steam in the last 3rd or so, hence 4 instead of 5, but it's absolutely one of the best books I've read this year. I love Barbara's writing and the narrator of my 1998 Brilliance edition was excellent, nailing the subtle southern old person accent. Having grown up in the bible belt, Barbra has some quotes that absolutely nail the fundamentalist mindset. I cried a couple times in this book, notably at mother may I and another that I can't remember.
This one's pretty long, but the way Barbara just kinda casually reveals the domestic situation over the course of the book is chilling.
Father feels makeup and nail polish are warning signals of prostitution, the same as pierced ears.
Our Father probably interpreted Broca’s aphasia as God’s Christmas bonus to one of His worthier employees.
Sending a girl to college is like pouring water in your shoes,” he still loves to say, as often as possible. “It’s hard to say which is worse, seeing it run out and waste the water, or seeing it hold in and wreck the shoes.
That is the best way I can think of to translate the message. Actually he said you are leading our villagers down into a hole, where they may fail to see the proper sun and become trapped like bugs on a rotten carcass.
The things we do not know, independently and in unison as a family, would fill two separate baskets, each with a large hole in the bottom.
But where is the place for girls in that Kingdom? The rules don’t quite apply to us, nor protect us either. What do a girl’s bravery and righteousness count for, unless she is also pretty? Just try being the smartest and most Christian seventh-grade girl in Bethlehem, Georgia. Your classmates will smirk and call you a square. Call you worse, if you’re Adah.
And perhaps it was not evil I saw but merely the way of all hearts when fear has stripped off the husk of kind pretensions.
This one's pretty long, but the way Barbara just kinda casually reveals the domestic situation over the course of the book is chilling.
“I wonder what outlook you might think that to be,” he said to Mother in that same special voice, for bad dogs and morons.
She brushed her hair out of her face and smiled at him as she reached across for the china platter. “Well, for one thing, sir, you and the good Lord better hope no lightning strikes around here in the next six months!”
“Orleanna, shut up!” he yelled, grabbing her arm hard and jerking the plate out of her hand. He raised it up over her head and slammed it down hard on the table, cracking it right in two. The smaller half flipped upside down as it broke, and lay there dribbling black plantain juice like blood onto the tablecloth. Mother stood helplessly, holding her hands out to the plate like she wished she could mend its hurt feelings.
“You were getting too fond of that plate. Don’t you think I’ve noticed?”
She didn’t answer him.
“I had hoped you might know better than to waste your devotion on the things of this world, but apparently I was mistaken. I am ashamed of you.”
“You’re right,” she said quietly. “I was too fond of that plate.”
He studied her. Father is not one to let you get away with simply apologizing. He asked her with a mean little smile, “Who were you showing off for here, -with your tablecloth and your fancy plate?” He said the words in a sour way, as if they were well-known sins.
Mother merely stood there before him while all the sparkle drained out of her face.
“And your pitiful cooking, Orleanna? The way to a young Negro’s heart is through his stomach—is that what you were counting on?”
Her light blue eyes had gone blank, like shallow pans of water. You could honestly not tell what she was thinking. I always watch his hands to see which way they’re going to strike out. But Mother’s shallow-water eyes stayed on his face, without really looking at it.
Fabulous, she writes about the Congo, like someone who’s lived there, because she did, sometimes I’m glad to finish a book, but not this one. This was an Audible and was perfectly read.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is an impressively rich, complex novel. I felt like I “inhabited” it and got to know each character fully. Kingsolver is a master of voice - by telling this story through multiple characters’ perspectives, this skill shines.
While reading, I was asking myself what it meant for an American woman to be telling the Congo’s story. It seems like she hit the right perspective - she speaks from an American lens (flaws and all), with consistent respect for the Congolese. The story is beautifully written, challenges your assumptions, and never tries to oversimplify things.
Overall, this was a long and somewhat slow read, but I’m glad I read it. The bible format was effective and not overdone.
While reading, I was asking myself what it meant for an American woman to be telling the Congo’s story. It seems like she hit the right perspective - she speaks from an American lens (flaws and all), with consistent respect for the Congolese. The story is beautifully written, challenges your assumptions, and never tries to oversimplify things.
Overall, this was a long and somewhat slow read, but I’m glad I read it. The bible format was effective and not overdone.
challenging
emotional
slow-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
Wow!
Beautifully painful! If you like historical fiction I recommend the poison wood Bible!
Themes:
Religion
Guilt
Women Independence
Government- is it all bad?
Beautifully painful! If you like historical fiction I recommend the poison wood Bible!
Themes:
Religion
Guilt
Women Independence
Government- is it all bad?
emotional
reflective
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
I'm going to be honest. I've never looked at missionary work in this way, and it's eye-opening. Religion is sometimes taken as the hard truth, and sometimes it's taken with a few too many grains of salt. But in the midst of it, there is humanity. Life as we have created it and life as it was created.
The Poisonwood Bible tells of a preacher's family who has pulled up their roots to go and preach to the Belgian Congo. Throughout the story, each family member starts to see the Congo through their own eyes and not how it is portrayed on television or through their parents. They start to see the people, start to understand that they might not be the white saviors they thought they were.
The novel doesn't demonize religion, but it shows how we try to use it as an excuse to step foot in another's life and take over. Told through several viewpoints, the novel is at once eye-opening and heartbreaking, with a touch of romance. With lyrical writing that draws you in and announces each character as they begin to find their own way, the Poisonwood Bible is a journey into the human mind that questions just how different we really are.
The Poisonwood Bible tells of a preacher's family who has pulled up their roots to go and preach to the Belgian Congo. Throughout the story, each family member starts to see the Congo through their own eyes and not how it is portrayed on television or through their parents. They start to see the people, start to understand that they might not be the white saviors they thought they were.
The novel doesn't demonize religion, but it shows how we try to use it as an excuse to step foot in another's life and take over. Told through several viewpoints, the novel is at once eye-opening and heartbreaking, with a touch of romance. With lyrical writing that draws you in and announces each character as they begin to find their own way, the Poisonwood Bible is a journey into the human mind that questions just how different we really are.