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The Price They Paid: The Poisonwood Bible

© Erica Davis

It is Academy Award week and I thought about doing another article on a great screenplay, but let us get back to books this week with an incredible novel that is fast becoming a classic and should be made into a movie. I am referring to “The Poisonwood Bible,” by Barbara Kingsolver. Published in 1999, it went to the top of the New York Times best sellers list, and was a selection in Oprah’s Book Club, something that almost guarantees a book’s success these days. I bought it myself after hearing about it by other readers online who couldn’t say enough good things about it. Now I know why.

“The Poisonwood Bible,” follows the story of the Price family through 3 generations of survival. It begins when Nathan Price, a Baptist minister, takes a missionary job in the Belgian Congo. He uproots his wife and four daughters, and they all move from their home in Bethlehem, Georgia to Kalanga, a small village in the middle of the jungle. The year is 1959, and the book revolves almost as much around politics as it does around the family.

Kingsolver’s format is very interesting, because the book is narrated by all 5 of the women, which I found refreshing from other novels narrated by only one character. Each chapter, a different daughter, with their name at the top, and the introductions into each section of the book is written from the Mother’s reflective thoughts. Although the father is the cause of so much of their struggle, and plays such an important role, the books is remembered by the women.

The book itself is 543 pages, but it is so engulfing I finished it in a week. It is not a “chick book,” like one might think either. Although the title suggests a religious overtone, the ironic part of the story is that Nathan Price’s “God or bust” attitude only serves to drive those closest to him away from religion all together. The rest of the story, as the girls grow up and leave Kalanga, or remain as some do, is that they each are effected by their childhood in exactly the opposite way that anyone would have expected.

Each character is built strongly, and carried through the book so firmly, I wondered if they weren’t real people, and the author must really be given credit for creating such tight characters. I recognized many of them, as relatives of mine, schoolmates, and so on. Kingsolver’s writing takes you deep into the terrible thoughts of a family who struggles to survive together, and then spends

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