Bookworm

[#1]

By Barbara Kingsolver

Rich in detail, this compelling story follows the experience of an American missionary family. Their journey takes place in 1959, when it was common for Baptist churches to fund excursions of its most devout members to the wilds of the African Congo. They were sent to share their Christian faith with the locals, and hopefully convert a few along the way.

The story is told by Oleanna, the wife of the single-minded “man of God”, Nathan Price. His vigilance is so strong that the plight of the locals, and his own family, escape him. His sermons include frequent shouting of the phase, “Tata Jesus is bangala”, not realizing that in Kikongo, bangala not only means “precious and dear”, but also the “poisonwood tree”, a local poisonous plant.

Kingsolver weaves in the family’s three daughter’s perspective of the experience.  While mom Orleanna’s story comes in retrospect from her later years in Georgia, the daughters’ daily lives—and challenges—are narrated from the 1959 Congo.

As time passes, Nathan Price’s fanaticism leaves his family emotionally abandoned. Oleanna tries to maintain her faith, while also trying to create some type of normal life for the girls in the village of Kilanga, set on the Kwilu River. The family’s journey comes just months before Patrice Lumumba becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Republic of the Congo. He will ultimately be arrested and murdered, with the support of the American government.

She and the other women of the village battle daily challenges ranging from hunger to deadly green mamba snakes, roving armies of ants and more. Her husband's world seems to grow ever smaller, as he continues to sink deeper into mental illness, fueled by his evangelical fervor.  For their daughters, life goes on. Poetic Leah is the most accepting of the people and the environment in which she’s suddenly thrust. Her sister, 15-year-old Rachel, lives in a state of denial at their precarious situation, only hoping for a sweet-16 party and a pink mohair twin set.

Kingsolver’s novel twists and turns in this haunting  tale, ultimately triggered by one man’s desire to save the unbelievers of the jungle. This decision would change the lives of many for years to come.

About the Author

Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her widely known works, in addition to the The Poisonwood Bible (1998), includes:

• The Bean Trees, 1988, 1st UK edition 1989, Limited edition (200) 1992
• Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, 1989
• Homeland and Other Stories, 1989
• Animal Dreams, 1990
• Another America, 1992
• Pigs in Heaven, 1993
• High Tide in Tucson, 1995, also: Limited edition (150)1995
• Prodigal Summer, 2000
• Small Wonder: Essays, 2002
• Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands, 2002 (with photographer Annie Griffiths Belt)
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle 2007, (with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver)
• The Lacuna, 2009

By the Bed

The Bookworm is currently reading Surviving Christmas by John Grisham.

[#2]

This is a great recommendation. I loved this book!  The detail that Kingsolver puts into all of her books and characters is amazing. My only complaint was that the book ended too soon. I really wondered what was in store in the next chapter of each of the character's lives.  

[#3]

Thank you for your feedback!  You're right. It's amazing how wrapped up in her characters. For me, Nathan Price went from comical, to infuriating and then just plan crazy. Kingsolver is a gifted storyteller.

[#4]

For some reason it was hard for me to get into the book, but boy once I did, WOW!  I have not been to the Congo but have been to Kenya out in the countryside with the families.  So the comparisons came easily.  Even though this was not a true story, it was so true.  I was not just in tears but bawling at the end.  What a great book.

[#5]

I wish someone in Hollywood would turn this into the breathless, epic movie it would be!