A review by bridget_in_md
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

3.0

It's probably sacrilegious for me to say The Poisonwood Bible was "just ok" for me. The first half of the book was slow for me, as I stumbled between the 5 different narrators (mom and 4 daughters) and therefore, 5 different styles of prose. I asked my friend "is this book supposed to be funny/a comedy of errors (it reminded me a LOT of the musical "The Book of Mormon") and being that it's NOT, I just trudged on through a story of a father who drug his family into the Congo with intent carry out his Christian mission, which did NOT go to plan at all, nor was the family at all prepared to live in the Congo. I almost wished I had read it with an eye of a comedy of errors because otherwise - the dad was a JERK all in the name of Jesus (which he ironically told the Congolese was "poisionwood" due to his horrible translation). I guess that is my problem - I don't like this particular setting (white family going in to "tame" the savages, all in the name of Christ, thus wiping out a beautiful and mysterious culture). When I reached the turning point of the novel and the mother finally took action, the prose between the girls just seemed all the same. I'm not sure if it was because time moved much quicker in the 2nd half, and the girls were older (and had lost the voices of their "youth" but it seemed much less choppy and easier to read. But... overall the book was just sad and only cared about a couple of the characters. I do think it was interesting the father never had a voice, and his story was told through his wife/daughters.