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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
This was so beautifully written, Barbara Kingsolver might be the best writer I’ve read. To tell this incredibly ambitious and informative story is a difficult task, but I really enjoyed it. It was, however, unevenly paced, with the first 200 pages being incredibly slow. From that point on, I was fully engaged in the stories and the characters. But then at around the 500 page mark the story starts to get slightly rushed in my opinion. The way the four sisters were written with such distinct voices was really well done and the themes of colonialism and Americans involvement in Africa were very informative and thought provoking. I just wish I had been more compelled by the story overall like I was in Demon Copperhead.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-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
I felt like a different person after reading this. What an absolute experience. Kingsolver's writing is deft with beauty and a gift to read. I especially enjoyed Adah and Orleanna's views the most for the sheer quality of the prose. All the symbolism, poetry, and biblical references enrich the book and play into the author's depiction of the Congo's relationship to its colonizers. I loved the descriptions of Kilanga and Congo jungles as they are rife with lovingly and terrifiyingly laid down imagery. After all the Price women have lived through, American normalcy and politics do seem absurd and petty. Florentino Ariza's lens of suffering and Adah's lopsided balance between loss and salvation. The political views Kingsolver presents are so sensible and obvious, to the conquered and once-conquered, and yet seemingly not to the top reviews I see here on goodreads. To those, I present to you this fallacy: hypothesis contrary to fact, and the long-suffering third-world countries who are victims of your white savior complexes.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
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
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I thought this book was fantastic- the imagery was spectacular, I could picture everything, I could feel what the characters were feeling, and I learned so much more about the history of the Congo even though I have read books that take place in this setting before. But there is so much rich history to the country and the land that it’s always fascinating to learn about. I will say that it was to read from the pov of a missionary family in Africa, and see how even within a family there were many perspectives on what their purpose there was, and how it impacted each of them differently. Even though it was a long book, it flew by. It loses half a point because I felt like the last ~50 pages were unnecessary but overall would highly recommend.
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I thought this was really good! Def slow and took me a while to finish. I am normally not a fan of the alternating pov’s but I thought it was so well done here.
adventurous
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes