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A review by amandagstevens
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Did not finish book. Stopped at 11%.
I don't care about anyone in the entire narrative, and Kingsolver's agenda is so transparent I don't need to read to the end to interpret it. The quirks of point of view intrigue me to some extent, but the character voices are forced, and the verbosity has exhausted my patience after ten percent. Rachel's misused words and one-dimensional selfishness, Ruth May's profundity-masquerading-as-five-year-old-innocence, and Adah's backward writing (palindrome is inadequate and the gimmick is exasperating to no purpose) all helped nudge me to my decision to DNF this one. Leah is clearly intended as the most sympathetic sister, but I'm so over the Nonchalantly Gifted Child whose thought processes read like. . . well, like an author of literary fiction.
The clueless idiot missionaries are going to trample the culture they're trying to evangelize. Reverend Price is going to trample his family. The sisters may or may not change or grow up by the end; the problem is, I don't care whether they do or not, because they don't feel like real people to me. They feel like literary experiments in character voice. So I'm done.
The clueless idiot missionaries are going to trample the culture they're trying to evangelize. Reverend Price is going to trample his family. The sisters may or may not change or grow up by the end; the problem is, I don't care whether they do or not, because they don't feel like real people to me. They feel like literary experiments in character voice. So I'm done.