“The Poisonwood Bible”
by Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver has with masterful skill brought forth an epic novel. “The Poisonwood Bible” is for me a moving tale of human kindness and cruelty. It speaks not only to the ravages of war but also to the ravages of a war fought within the heart.
I found a very personal place in this novel of great proportion. Even though the story is set in the African Congo of the fifties it mirrored in many ways my life in Mississippi in the sixties. I grew up during desegregation. I remember the “Whites Only” signs. I remember the hangings and turmoil. And I remember the battles in my own home. Ms Kingsolvers ability to capture the impact of the war (the larger war as well as the one being fought inside each of her characters) is amazing.
