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A review by oliviasbooktalk
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
4.0
Beautiful, enriching, frustrating, enlightening, challenging. This book is a test of endurance, and with it being so long it’s hard to summarize concisely. But at its essence, we follow the five women in the Price family—the mother and four daughters—as they leave their small Georgia town for the Belgian Congo because their patriarch has decided to set his missionary efforts there.
There were some POVs I loved (the mom, Orleanna, and the disabled daughter, Adah), and some I hated (the eldest daughter, Rachel, and the youngest, Ruth May). You can also tell this was written in the late ‘90s with the language used, but I think the deft hand in cultural and character explorations, never allowed circumstances to feel gimmicky or exploitative. While events that happened in real-life are in the story, the characters themselves felt all too real. The narrative line was blurred and had me wondering if this really was fiction.
Going into Kingsolver’s work for the first time, I knew I’d be experiencing a Masterclass in excellent character work, truly stunning prose, and nuanced layers of systemic global and domestic issues (colonization, racism, ableism, religious bigotry, domestic abuse, misogyny—to name a few), but her craft itself exceeded my expectations and the well-deserved hype that surrounds her work. She will challenge you and your worldview, and authors like that deserve to be transcendent.
I’m looking forward to reading more of her work (it’ll soon be time to relieve Demon Copperhead from my TBR). If you’re looking for a tome to settle into, look no further.
For more reviews, follow along on Instagram: @oliviasbooktalk 📚
There were some POVs I loved (the mom, Orleanna, and the disabled daughter, Adah), and some I hated (the eldest daughter, Rachel, and the youngest, Ruth May). You can also tell this was written in the late ‘90s with the language used, but I think the deft hand in cultural and character explorations, never allowed circumstances to feel gimmicky or exploitative. While events that happened in real-life are in the story, the characters themselves felt all too real. The narrative line was blurred and had me wondering if this really was fiction.
Going into Kingsolver’s work for the first time, I knew I’d be experiencing a Masterclass in excellent character work, truly stunning prose, and nuanced layers of systemic global and domestic issues (colonization, racism, ableism, religious bigotry, domestic abuse, misogyny—to name a few), but her craft itself exceeded my expectations and the well-deserved hype that surrounds her work. She will challenge you and your worldview, and authors like that deserve to be transcendent.
I’m looking forward to reading more of her work (it’ll soon be time to relieve Demon Copperhead from my TBR). If you’re looking for a tome to settle into, look no further.
For more reviews, follow along on Instagram: @oliviasbooktalk 📚