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).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-01-05 10:00 pm (UTC)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).