The Poisonwood Bible (Audiobook)

Synopsis: The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them all they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. This tale of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction, over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa, is set against history's most dramatic political parables. The Poisonwood Bible dances between the darkly comic human failings and inspiring poetic justices of our times. In a compelling exploration of religion, conscience, imperialist arrogance, and the many paths to redemption, Barbara Kingsolver has brought forth her most ambitious work ever.

Review: I really loved listening to this one, Dean Robertson's narration was just spot on .. even though she did not alter her voice much for each of the girls, she was totally convincing.

Nathan Price is an American baptist preacher who takes his wife, Orleanna, and his four daughters, Rachel, Adah, Leah and Ruth May to the Congo to try and convert the 'tribes of Ham'. Orleanna narrates the first chapter in the present day, she is back home in America, and you can tell that something terrible happened during her time in Africa, something she is struggling to come to terms with.

The book is then alternately narrated by Orleanna and the four girls. We are taken right back to their arrival in the fictional village of Kalinga in the Belgian Congo. Whatever their pre-conceived ideas were of life in the Congo, they soon find out that it is much worse than they have been supposing. Disease, sickness and poverty are widespread, and then there's also the stifling heat and mosquitoes. They are fairly stuck in their own ways and at first are reluctant to take advice from the villagers about cooking and planting etc ... they had actually brought Betty Crocker cake mixes with them which failed miserably ... but soon come to realise that their Georgia way of life was not going to work here.

Nathan Price is a hellfire and brimstone kind of preacher, he wants to claim the village of Kalinga for Jesus. He's a bully, he accepts no other opinions or viewpoints other than his own and rules over his family with a rod of iron. His particular brand of bible bashing is never going to win over any converts. He has no respect for the Congolese or their ancient beliefs, they are just souls to be saved and he is determined to do it. He's the sort of fanatical religious nutjob that Louis Theroux would want to film a documentary about.

Their eldest daughter is Rachel, she's blonde, pretty and materialistic. All she can think about is herself and the life she's left behind. She could be attending dances or going on shopping trips to the mall to look at the latest fashions. Instead she is sweating, sweltering and eating inedible food, probably all to the detriment of her complexion, it fair makes her mad with rage! Her first words about the Congo are 'Man oh man, we are in for it now'. Like her father she has no respect for the villagers, she looks down on them but for different reasons. As soon as she is able (she's fifteen) she is hotfooting it back to the land of the free. She's a lot like Amy in 'Little Women' only Amy got more sensible as she got older, Rachel never does.

Next in line is fourteen year old Leah, and in a way she's probably the principle narrator of the book, the one we learn most from or perhaps I viewed it that way because she became my favourite. When we are first introduced to Leah she's a bit of a Daddy's girl, she has a kind of idealistic view of him and what he's trying to do and she fervently supports him. It's Leah's compassionate nature that mistakenly leads her to think that her father is doing all he can for the villagers. As time passes, and she observes her father more closely, she starts to question his behaviour and her admiration turns to disgust. She also becomes aware of the political situation between the Congo and the USA as the Congo heads towards independence, as far as she can make out, the truth doesn't reflect well on her homeland and those in office.

Adah is Leah's twin, but an accident at birth has left her with a physical disability, she's also mute. She's the reverse of her twin, where Leah is positive, Adah is negative and looks at life backwards. Adah's disability becomes less obvious in the Congo amongst the natives who have more than their fair share of mutilated limbs and disfigurements, where she would be stared at at home her disability is hardly noticed here. She loves words and wordplay, especially palindromes, she likes to repeat the line ... 'live was I ere I saw evil' (repeat it to us that is). She has a poetic way of thinking and her favourite author is Emily Dickinson.

Ruth May is the youngest, she is just five years old when they reach the Congo and is lively, confident and playful. She's the one that connects best with the local people, especially the children. Before long she has them all lined up playing 'Mother May I'. She's also the glue that holds the family together during those first few months in the Congo.

Because of what amounts to a confession in Orleanna's opening chapter, you know something bad is coming. The book feels like it's building towards some great calamity (if it was a film the cello's would be working overtime). At several points you think that calamity has arrived but no, somehow it's resolved or averted until you finally get to the part where the tragedy takes place. I found this hard to take in, I thought it might be another red herring but sadly it wasn't. The fall out from this tragedy is just as interesting as the build up, the family end up scattered and each has to come to terms, or not, in their own way.

I loved listening to it, Barbara Kingsolver has brought all the sights, smells, culture, nature, flora and fauna of life in the Congo alive. I thought all the characters were well fleshed out even Nathan, who never speaks to us directly. Within a very short space of time I knew him well enough to know I hated him! I loved the fact that each of the girls and Orleanna narrated in turn, you got to know them inside out. The one thing I wasn't keen on was, what I thought was overuse of Rachel's malapropisms, at one point they were coming thick and fast with every sentence. But for the most part they did make me laugh .. she talks about Moses coming down from 'Mount Cyanide' for instance.

Nathan was too indifferent to learn the Kikongo language properly, he didn't allow for their words to have multiple meanings or for different pronunciations. His biggest disaster, during a sermon, was when instead of saying 'Jesus is precious' he actually said 'Jesus is poisonous' .. hence the book title. Adah points this out to us, her love of language makes her fairly fluent in Kikongo, though non verbally. She looks upon her fathers efforts with amusement and disdain.

As always with audiobooks part of the enjoyment is hearing a great story narrated brilliantly. How I would have got on with it had I tried to read it (which I almost did because it came home from the library with me once but I ran out of time) I don't know, I hope I would still have got as much enjoyment from it.