Poisons and Bibles

[commonpeople1]

Genesis - Bible
Originally uploaded by S.A.L.

I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible with verybadhorse . We read one section, stop and comment before moving on. I just finished "Genesis" and I'm now halfway through the second-part, "The Revelation". Some thoughts under the tag on...

The story takes place in the Congo in the 1960s. A family of American missionaries - dad, mom and four daughters - arrive to live with the heathens and spread the word of God. The structure of the novel plays on their religiosity by having each section chronologically follow the Bible. The language from the first page is rich and evocative like a tropical jungle - the Garden of Eden they've chosen to live in. The chapters are divided between the voices of the five women - one of the many ironies in the book since the Bible only has the voices of men. I like this set up because it makes it all the more obvious how impossible it is to understand the world they enter as well as the father of their family - their opinions and views on the world around them always diverge on one thing or another. Their own Tower of Babel.

I like the parrot Methusalah and his dirty talk (he learnt it from the previous missionary.) He's like the locals in their aping of the sermons and prayers without understanding what they are saying. The impossibility of getting the message of Jesus into their heart unless language (and more?) can be cracked. But then you see how Jesus' message is even missing from the family's core centre (the father) and how it's all a giant disaster in the making.

Some tragedy is hinted at by the mother - the foreshadowing is there in the way they don't seem to have a handle on reality and can't let go of their American reality. It's obvious things are going to turn shit for them very soon... but in what way? It's the suspense at the heart of the story, which I think works well. I want to find out how this family and the arrogance carried into the Congo by the father will result in disaster. The smug religious grin wiped off the face.

My question for you verybadhorse at this stage is which of the four daughters do you like the most, and which the least? :-)

Comments

[verybadhorse.livejournal.com]

ollie! i fear that i am woefully ignorant of the Actual Bible (bad english major, bad!) and so missed a lot of really fascinating things that you listed here in your brief summary. so i'm glad to be able to learn from what you know, but i am afraid my responses to the novel so far are basically, wow this is totally beautiful and i can't wait to figure out what happens to them. pretty shallow.

my answer to your question:
i am very attached to both twins, though i think adah appeals to me more because she is less naive and lives a vibrant mind-life complete with a mildly-bitter feminist ethic i can relate to. she's brilliant, isn't she? i was talking to my sister about the novel and read her a few pages of adah's and leah's sections in the car on the way home from atlanta over the holiday. she pointed out that for an author to write such brilliant characters, she herself must be brilliant. i know that seems sort of obvious, but it really struck me at that moment how vast kingsolver's intellect is, because i so admire adah's.

rachel and ruth mae tie for my least favorite of the daughters. rachel because i find her predictable and unrelatable and ruth mae because she is a child and so her narrative, so far, is almost too simple to enjoy.

what about you?

and my question for you: what do you think, so far, of the girls' mother?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I haven't read most of the Bible either! Just a few chapters in the New and Old Testament (for my first year in uni.)

I also quite like Adah, I guess because she's the most critical of them all at this stage - the one that has sussed her father for what he is. I like her play with words, her resourcefulness eventhough she's nearly mute and disabled. While the other girls struggle and suffer with boredom she disappears into her intellectual interior life. She's the one who'll grow up to be a writer (if she gets out of there alive!) ;-)

Leah is interesting because she has that father-worship, Electra complex which is bound to come crashing down soon. She's the most naive and hopeful perhaps (not just plain dumb like Rachel or immature like Ruth Mae).

I think the mother is just desperate and completely run off her feet because she has four daughters and a house in a foreign, fairly hostile land to run. It's a miracle actually that she made it out alive (considering those early passages set in the future, back in Georgia). I think she is a victim of domestic violence on the hands of the father.

The impression I'm getting of Kingsolver, both here and in "The Lacuna" (which I loved) is that she's an amazing researcher. It took her 8 years for "The Lacuna" so she must have spent just as many years, if not more, on this novel. I've created a playlist online of Congo music to listen to while I read. The music is beautiful! It's so hopeful and happy... I guess that's what you must strive for in your art when your circumstances are so tough (Nigeria is another place recently voted the one with the most hopeful population on the planet).

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Another thing that struck me at the beginning of this section as interesting was how people with deficiencies in Congo are perceived to be just the same - just as capable of working and going about their business. So we have those surreal scenes where the family see members of the village with no legs going down to the river and returning (crawling?) with large bundles on their heads. I wonder if it ties somehow to the villagers notions of ghosts and gods, that this world is not that separate from the other (the loss of the material, i.e. legs, isn't that big of a deal - but what's important is doing one's duty and staying on the good side of the gods).

[doraphilia.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I really look forward to your thoughts once you are further.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Cool. Please join in on the discussion if you feel like it. x

[doraphilia.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm not sure if you've gotten to the parts I find most comment-worthy, and I don't want to ruin anything for you. So I will hold back for now.

It's been a LONG time since I've read it, and I don't remember a lot. I think the twin who is disabled is my favorite of the girls. maybe.

[msanthropist.livejournal.com]

Ollie, I own and have been meaning to read this book for awhile now. Is it too late to join in, or is this a private book club?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Absolutely join in! We just started and are reading up to the end of the section "The Revelation". I'll put my thoughts behind a Lj-cut in case you are behind the reading, so you can always drop by later and leave your thoughts.