THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, BY BARBARA KINGSOLVER

Yes, Shawn, I am finally reading your damn book. I hope you’re happy. But I’ve enjoyed Kingsolver in the past. and I guess I should read novels that aren’t scifi now and then.

Done

I have a problem with books about Africa, and the problem is this: they always leave me despising Africa. Whether it be Nadine Gordimer, A Primate’s Memoir, or this book, the whole continent comes off as chaotic, diseased, and hopeless. They’re always filled with tales of swindling, bribes, abuse, rape, filth, etc. and those are the only things I seem to retain. That’s the lasting impression. It’s stupid, of course. Africa is kind of a big place, with kind of a lot of people. Most of the political disasters and atrocities there can probably trace their roots to Western meddling. And if you took all of America’s wealth and power away, we would be no less petty. But all I ever retain is the images of people begging, people dying, people stealing and conning, and I feel less pity than revulsion. I suppose the only cure would be to live in Africa for a few years. Or stop reading novels.

Anyway, my prejudices aside, I enjoyed this book. I guess I’m no judge, but I thought it was well-written, with strong characters, and a distinctly naturalistic perspective that I appreciated. The male characters were perhaps a little cartoonish, the father an abusive fundamentalist, the lover a faultless brainy hotty, but that honestly only just occurred to me, so it didn’t really detract. I like cartoons, after all.