A review by a_kt
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

5.0

Barbara Kingsolver is truly a one of a kind author. Her voice and presence is so unique and striking that I felt this book come to life as I was reading it. This was really one of the only times I can confidently say that a book "transported me" and it was a reading experience unlike any other. The whole conceit of Poisonwood Bible is to be a stranger in an unknown place. The story is about how for some places, no matter how hard to try to understand the land, its people, its life, its history- the more you are changed by it, even if you never end up fully understanding it the way you meant to. The Price family became as real to me as some distant relatives. I felt like I had met all of these people at one point or another in my life. It probably doesn't help that I grew up in the South, but even beyond that- by Kingsolver's writing I knew them. I knew their fragile emotional states, I knew their secrets, their inner thoughts, and watched them change and be changed, gradually, over decades. Reading this book is like watching the lives of people you get to know very well play out in real time. Sometimes the words on the pages became so realistic I wanted to scream at Nathan Price for his unwillingness to try and understand his surroundings in favor of breaking them down all together; I wanted to extend my hand to Adah and help her when no one else in her family would; I wanted to sit down with Rachel and try to make her understand the nuances of civilization. But of course I couldn't effect these characters' lives anymore than most people can effect anyone's lives. At the end of the day, we all make our choices, we walk our paths, and we must either stand still and drown in the mud of our regrets or trudge forward through it. That's what this book and all of its heartbreaking beauty teaches us. 
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