The Poisonwood Bible
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| Author | Barbara Kingsolver |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Domestic fiction |
| Publisher | HarperFlamingo |
| Released | 1998 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD |
| Pages | 546 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-06-017540-0 |
The Poisonwood Bible is a 1998 novel by Barbara Kingsolver, which details a missionary family's life in the Congo beginning in the 1960s as experienced by the five women in the family. The family consists of Nathan Price, the Baptist missonary, and his wife, Orleanna, as well as their four daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. The reader's opinion of Nathan Price is given through the third person as the book is written with five narrative voices corresponding to the five female members of the Price family.
The novel focuses on how the tragedies of violence and hunger experienced by Africans are mostly caused by the foreign influences in the country. Kingsolver expands the novel into more than a historical critique of the colonialization of Africa by creating parallels between the country of the Congo and situation of the Price family girls as they are abused by Nathan, who vehemently believes himself a vessel of the Christian God. He consistently symbolizes the exploitation by white men on Africa and, to some extent, the domination of anyone or anything too weak to fend for itself. The Poisonwood Bible offers perspective on the imbalance of power, resources, and justice that exists in the Congo and even the rest of the world.
The first narrative of each of the seven "books" that the novel is comprised of - all with names taken from the Old Testament Bible, specifically the Apocrypha Proper - is told by Orleanna, with the exception of the seventh, which is written by the deceased Ruth May as an assurance of forgiveness to her guilt-plagued mother. The narrative switches between the daughters in turn, with a focus on Leah as she explores the political struggle that was taking place in the 1950s and 1960s in the Congo. However, the maturity of all five girls throughout the novel is obvious as they react differently to their experience of Africa and the misogyny of Nathan; it is only after a series of misfortunes, including Ruth May's death, that the women find the strength to leave him alone in Kilanga, the village where much of the novel is set. The four survivors take very different paths into their futures, which are described up to the 1990s.
The book was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in 1999.
