Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

4 reviews

alomie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This took me a hellishly long time to finish, and it was good, but I really could have done with, it being about 150 pages less. I also found it hard to have sympathy for anyone, by the end I felt a little like choices had been made, and yet... They still moaned/suffered their way through it. 

Worth picking up but also good for it to be done. 

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jade_smith's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 Quite simply, I'm in awe of Barbara Kingsolver's ability to tell a story. Each of the characters in this book had such a distinct character voice -- I don't think I've ever read a novel that balanced adajcent character POVs so masterfully. The development of the way these women understood the world around them (and indeed the refusal to understand the world around them in the case of Rachel) felt true to life, and provided a grounded core for a intricate piece of historical fiction.

I've been obsessed with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" ever since I read it in high school because of it's complex position as a piece of early post-colonial literature written from a (contemporaneously) critical Western perspective. "The Poisonwood Bible" is the successor that I've been unconsciously searching for since then -- a rich and raw examination of Africa's interior, grounded in themes of womanhood, community, and exploitation of power. Kingsolver's descriptions of nature are just as vivid as Conrad's, evoking the humid extremes of the Congo. But, Kingsolver's work is also self-conscious in an immensely important way -- it understands discourses of whiteness, and mythologies of the so-called civilised West. It centers women, and quite justly draws together ideas of racism, misogyny, and class oppression as different heads of the same beast. The villain is not the dark of the Congo, and the problem is not individual men driven to madness by the darkness, but rather it is systems, invented, controlled and perpetuated by Western hegemony. This is something that I believe Kingsolver characteristically does well -- she understands the role of systems in a broken society.

This is one of those rare books that make me want to sit down and write an essay about it. The word I keep coming back to is "rich", because that's what this novel is. From the characters, to the prose, to it's malleable moral compass and multitude of themes, "Poisonwood Bible" is quite simply, very, very good.

Also, any work of fiction that comes with a two-page bibliography at the back instantly has my heart. 

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uss_mary_shelley's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I read most of this book today despite starting it in September, and I'm not sure what that means for my feelings on it. It's good and captivating but I think I've come away feeling disappointed. 

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gm_vak's review

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adventurous challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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