Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Kingsolver’s novel will doubtlessly find its place amongst the great works of contemporary literature: it is accurately documented, clever and extremely well-written and constructed.
The story takes place in the 1960’s Congo: a church minister, Nathan Price, settles in a remote Congolese village, burdened with a godly task: converting the heathens. He’s brought with him his family, his Bible, and the Judaeo-Christian values, that he tries to impose with obvious paternalism. However, this powerful father figure will soon find the villagers tougher to rule than his own submitted family. And even the four (all feminine) members, with their African experience, will undergo different transformations over three decades and, each in their own way, eventually free themselves from patriarchal domination.
Though the character of Nathan Price is strong and tyrannical, we never hear his voice: Kingsolver has chosen to tell the story through the four feminine narrators, taking turns in each chapter: the wife, Orleana and three daughters (Leah, Ruth-May, Adah and Rachel) whose different personalities unfold and redefine themselves as the story is told and takes unexpected turns.
Many things are remarkable about this book, of which several readings can be made. First of all, we learn a lot about the events that lead Congo to decolonization and renaming as Zaire, so it is first of all a thoroughly researched historical novel, whether we agree or not with Kingsolver’s political views.
The novel’s puritanical background is associated with the character of Nathan Price. The Bible material is solid and very wittily disseminated throughout the text (one has to read it to know why it’s called The poisonwood Bible!), the four parts of the books are named after books of the Bible. The novel shows a strong Hawthornian influence at times, conveying the claustrophobic atmosphere of small puritan societies; Nathan could have been created by Nathan-iel Hawthorne himself!
Finally, The Poisonwood Bible presents very pertinent linguistic (and sometimes amusing) subtleties, mostly in the Adah character’s parts (she loves making up palindromes) or in Nathan’s unsuccessful attempts to translate his sermons in Congolese dialect…
The Poisonwood Bible is a novel about initiation and mutation (both political and personal), nature versus culture, and the clashes between civilizations. But most of all, the book conveys a remarkable message of tolerance, proving that to really understand a culture, one has not only to experience it from the inside (and even this can lead to misunderstanding), but also to open one’s mind to it…
Rating: 5/5
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