A review by mcc
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

dark

2.5

I remembered reading this book and not liking it. Since then I've seen nothing, but glowing praise and recommendations of this book, so I decided to give it another shot. Books can hit you differently at different points in my life and I thought there very well may be something that hits differently than when I was in my early 20s. I hated it just as much (if not more?) than I remembered. 

Kingsolver is an excellent writer, which is why I gave it an extra half star than my gut feeling. But ultimately the subject matter and plot was just revulsive to me - perhaps this was what she wanted me to takeaway from this? If art is supposed to illicit strong emotions, well it achieved it.

But a story about an abusive and controlling father who drags his family to live in destitution in Africa and then subject an entire village to his blind, single-minded ideas about what is right and wrong was just too intense of a concentration of white-male patriarchy in one place, I couldn't help but be totally repulsed by it and wish him the sad, lonely demise that he deserved. I guess I liked seeing how each daughter with their distinct personalities went in radically different approaches with their lives as a reaction to that, but ultimately it was just sad and enraging.