The Poisonwood Bible
The Poisonwood Bible was published in 1998 by Barbara Kingsolver. She has an incredible last name and created an equally incredible novel. It follows the Prices, a missionary family who move from America to the Belgian Congo in 1959. Nathan and Orleanna Price take their four girls with them and over time, as Nathan’s faith-fueled stubbornness puts them in increasing danger, they all resist in their own ways.
Coming off of the heels of Educated, I’m fed up with overzealous dudes who use their beliefs to justify their narcissism and abuse. You suck. Please stop. Nathan is the only main character who is not given a first-person voice in the novel. Each chapter rotates between the perspective of each female, including Orleanna, almost as if it’s a series of diary entries. Because we never see Nathan’s POV, he’s pretty one-dimensional and I certainly didn’t empathize with him. In a movie, I might find this cheap, but it works in the book. I think that Nathan is an analogy for America; he’s a person that injects himself in everyone’s shit without fear of retribution, and he truly believes that he’s always correct and never culpable.
While the events in the novel are fictional, Kingsolver, having spent time in the Congo as a child, bases the book on historical fact. So, not only do I love the narrative form of the book, allowing me insight into so many distinct voices, I also appreciate the history lesson. The Congo-- now the Democratic Republic of Congo-- has a very complicated past that I knew virtually nothing about. And it’s the 11th largest nation in the world. During the Cold War, when the United States was all up in arms about Communism, we helped stage a coup and then engaged in nation building, which actually looked a lot more like destruction. Yes, I’m aware that I benefit from my current American life. But let’s call a spade a spade.
My favorite aspect of the novel is its childlike tone. Because the girls in The Poisonwood Bible are young when they move to Africa, they speak of grave, upsetting things through a lens of innocence that is both eerie and perceptive. I love this dichotomy in literature-- it’s done especially well in Room.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I appreciated the biblical references throughout (although I promise that there’s plenty to enjoy if you don’t like that sort of thing). Its respectful description of tribal rituals, not as “barbaric”, but as traditions different from our own, reminded me of Things Fall Apart. In fact, Kingsolver (still such a swag name) cites that novel in the bibliography. Moral relativism is obviously still problematic, which makes reading about it probably even more important. Kingsolver’s book was long (~550 pages), which allowed me to become invested in the characters as if I was growing up alongside them. The book is currently in the works as a TV adaptation on HBO with Amy Adams’ production company, so I recommend that you read it sooner rather than later. The Poisonwood Bible receives 4 out of 5 flames.
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