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Book Review of The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible
taaza avatar reviewed on + 56 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This was quite the epic...following a missionary family and their trials and tribulations as they experience wild Africa in the 1960's and beyond. It took about 150 pages or so to really start to get into the guts of the book. However, it is rewarding: the story definitely gets better and richer as it progresses. Reading about each of the family's members lives "after" (I don't want to give too much away...) was equally as fascinating if not more.

I can see how this novel might not be for everyone, Kingsolver has a very thorough and descriptive, almost flowery style of writing, some might find that this drags down the story at times, but I felt this added to the rich complexity of the country and the story. I also enjoyed hearing experiences told from different family viewpoints, though I can see how some might find this distracting - I thought this style of narrative helped the reader really delve inside each character.