The Poisonwood Bible: This Book Changed My Life!

This book review is part of the “This Book Has Changed My Life” Write off. Please see the end of this review for the list of participants.

It has been a long time since I have last written. I took an on-line graduate computer course and gave it preference over Epinions. The class required an extensive amount of homework and before I knew it, I lost that Epinions groove.

One morning there was a message in my email. Kate was inviting me to join a write off. I admit that the thrill of being invited to participate in a write off still gives me that special feeling of being wanted. I was also a bit bummed. I was working on my final project and knew there was no way I could write something that made sense. Kate told me to think about it for a while and let her know what came off my fingers.

Suddenly, I’m thinking about writing an Epinion. I am feeling like a newbie again. It took me a few weeks to decide which book to review. When I first started writing for this site, I would spend hours agonizing about what product to discuss. I had forgotten how much I thought about Epinions in a given day.

I have chosen to discuss The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I have never wrote an Epinion on this book simply because there are a million reviews posted and I figured that I was going to be telling the reader nothing more than the other reviews. There are still the million reviews but the task for this write-off is to tell the reader about a book that has profoundly changed my life.

I love to read and I love to use soap and cosmetics. These passions have me subscribing to a multitude of magazines. Previously I have reviewed Vogue magazine and mentioned that I enjoy reading their book reviews. The phenomenal reviews for The Poisonwood Bible began showing up in all of the beauty magazines almost five years ago. I was too cheap to buy it in hardcover, but snatched it up as soon as it came out in paperback.

The story starts out describing the various members of a southern Baptist family. The minister/father, Nathan Price, has become agitated with his own lack of greatness and decides uproot his family to become missionaries in the Belgian Congo. Politically the region has become ripe with unrest, and the Baptist church is dissuading people from traveling to the area. Unwilling weigh the needs of his family and parish, he begins his crusade to force his beliefs, lifestyle and culture down the necks of the people he has deemed worth saving.

This novel is set in 1959. American culture dictated that a woman follow her man and Nathan’s wife, Orleanna, is portrayed in perfect submissiveness. The Price’s have four children, Rachel who is 15, Leah and Adah who are twins and in their early teens and Ruth May, the baby at 5 years old. Ms. Kingsolver manages to weave a complex web of familial relationships into this story. Each chapter is told by a different member of the family and done in such a way as to evoke pity and understanding for each character’s role in the story.

The first half of the book describes the cascading, downward spiraling events that the family endures to help Nathan live his dream job. Kilanga is the name of the town the Price’s move to. It is accessible only by small plane. Shortly after their arrival, the Baptist church starts cutting the family off financially. One bad thing happens after another, at points I was wondering what else could go wrong for these people. The final half of the book is a fictionalized portrayal of political historical events as told by the surviving family members as adults.

Ms. Kingsolver has a beautiful ability to describe the landscape, temperature, color and nuance for each scene in this story. There are two scenes that stand out in my memory in the years since I read this book: The supply plane has just landed and the pilot is urging the family to be evacuated. The heat of the day is searing, the rations are small and the sense of despair is looming over the entire family. The father will not allow the family to board the plane. The second scene is during the red ant siege on the land. Every so often the red ants come out of the jungle like a plague, eating everything (and everyone) in sight. Ms. Kingsolver had me at the edge of my chair, barely breathing while reading this chapter. I still get scared thinking about the scene today and have never looked at a red ant the same way since.

I related to this story on many levels. When I was 16 I applied for and received a Rotary Scholarship to live as a guest in another country for a year. I never thought I would be picked, so I tried to increase my odds by deliberately choosing countries that others might not be interested in. Next thing I knew, I was on a plane to the Philippines to live with people I had never met before. Luckily there were six Americans in the very small city I lived in. Unluckily, we all possessed that obnoxious teenage American superiority attitude that I could slap silly today. Everything we did was so archaic and “third world” compared to the life of luxury we had in America. I have no idea why the people we came in contact with didn’t send us home directly. I spent the year missing American food and culture. Maybe I was just to young emotionally for the experience.

Somehow, I managed to learn the language and found a very nice Filipino friend and boyfriend who liked me. Twenty five years afterward I want to go kiss these people in gratefulness. They taught me to appreciate the beautiful things in their culture. I have fond memories of participating in their family celebrations, going to the top of a certain mountain to watch the glorious (and rather large) sun set, visiting the fresh fish market, and learning to respect the strictness of their religions. It was also very humbling to see the extend of poorness surrounding me, especially when a child would point at my skin and try to touch my light hair.

There were many places in The Posionwood Bible where the characters would long for food items, make fun of the relief supply clothing the village people wore, and just not realize the gift of living in another country/culture. Nathan was very unbending in his relentless preaching of his church and effort to recreate an American garden. I remember thinking that if things were done a little more this way, and dress was worn a little more that way, than the people I knew would fit in more.

Leah and Adah, the twins are very smart. At the beginning of the book Adah seems to have a learning disability because she doesn’t speak, then suddenly, everyone figures out how bright she really is. I this part of the book gave me pause to think about the millions of people who have been inaccurately judged based on a stutter, lisp or other non-speaking issues.

You are probably wondering what relationship my story has to the book? Well, I started to realize when reading the book that I needed to grow up and start realizing that each person deserves to live the life they choose without judgment. It isn’t up to me to convert people to my religion, politics, diet, music, entertainment or point of view.

Ms. Kingsolver discusses the history of the area, showing how the Europeans pillaged and stripped these areas of their natural resources, forced people into religions and lifestyles that they didn’t ask for. At one point a character asks why the white people feel the need to change something that isn’t theirs.

Besides hitting my head against the wall in embarrassment for being such a nit wit in the Philippines, this book has made me become a softer person. Feeling fortunate for what I have, I do not feel superior to anyone. I live the way I want to, I do not judge another for their decisions and I continually question the necessity for governments and churches to evoke their agenda over the good for the people.

As I wrap up this review, I want to tell the reader that the book has really made me think about the consequences of the actions I take personally and those I advocate by living and voting as an American citizen, which really does qualify this book for this particular review.

If you haven’t read this book, take it out of the library. The characters are complex, the story riveting and the history lesson is rich. Email me if you have any questions. It is my pleasure to be back!

If you have liked my review, consider reading the fine contributions by our fellow Epinioners listed below:
azielinski
cletta1201
darkhoney
dedemw
dramastef
faireheart
fionablackwolf
greatpilgrim
gungian
jankp
KatM
kurt_messick
kuuleimomi
lyagushka
mkp51
mothermeatloaf
murasaki
snpmurray
vormancian